Sparkle 2009

I didn't go for the whole long weekend this year, I had other commitments (seeing my son) and couldn't afford the hotel costs nor the seemingly never-ending stream of alcohol. So instead I opted to just pop down on Saturday afternoon and see who I could bump into.

I think I got down there around 3pm in time to hear some of the music on the stage in Sackville Gardens - caught "Mustang Sally" which I love! After watching that, wandered along and quickly bumped into practically everyone I wanted to see in the space of 20mins! Had a quick drink and chat and then went off to meet Kim in Albert Square at the festival pavilion. Just as an aside I really should keep up with current events, the Manchester International Festival had been going on since 2nd July (finishes 19th) and I had no idea about it!

Had a good chat and people watch there for a few hours and then wandered back to Canal Street with Kim to grab some food from McTucky's - not exactly the healthiest option available to us but cheap and cheery and definitely filled a hole. Sackville Gardens provided a much more varied and colourful location for people watching than the centre of Manchester for fairly obvious reasons.
I think everyone was lucky with the weather through the day but it couldn't hold of forever and the skies opened later in the evening and it poured it down until the point where I left (at about 2am). It was a bit of a shame as it stopped people wandering around and meeting up, instead we were all a bit confined to only a few places, not wanting to get soaked by moving to a different location. Was a bit loud, cramped and warm in most places with everyone squashed in but people still seemed to be having a good time.

I obviously had good reasons not to be there for the entire weekend but in some ways I wished I could have done both nights and got to see more people and really make more of the time. Definitely need to have another night out on Canal Street at some point very soon to make up for it!

[Update: all the pics I took on the day/night are here. Was really impressed with the results from the SLR camera with built-in flash, might think about taking that again - even though it is a pain to carry around ]