Day Of Syn 2024

2024 was the 60th anniversary of Dymchurch's Day of Syn Festival held over the August Bank Holiday and there were a few changes this this, the key one being the change of day of the fate on the village green from the Monday to the Saturday with the procession to the field and various activities on the field.

I think all those organising must have been crossing fingers for good weather since the 50th anniversary was rained off... and this time the rain chucked it down.

Apparently the fireworks were successful on the Friday evening, but come Saturday morning the heavens just opened. The Village Hall did have some art on show and thankfully this year there were some excellent souvenirs. As well as the badges, postcard, souvenir brochure and poster, there were tshirts with an excellent design. The guy selling themed Lego models was back there also selling his book and some art.

The Morris Dancers performed in the rain and then at 11am, the high street was temporarily closed for the procession of characters, dancers and drummers to lead the way to the field for the fete. Despite the rain hundreds still turned out and the fete had it's usual number of stalls raising money for charity, but by midday when the heavens really opened some stallholdres were already dismantling and giving up and crowds were looking for somewhere drier, like a pub!

We came back to Folkestone after having had lunch at The Ocean, to dry off; but did venture back down to Dymchurch in the evening to see the poet Northern Nick perform in The Hidden Treasure, micro pub. And we ended a very enjoyable day in the very crowded British Legion watching a live band, and drinking cheap beer.

Further events on Sunday and Monday were thankfully not marred by the bad weather although we were off elsewhere.

Monday 26th August 2024