Published at 15:44, Wednesday, 29 July 2009

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WOU can’t have a food festival without fine produce – and none can come finer than those under the Made in Cumbria umbrella.

For over 20 years, Made in Cumbria has helped in the development and sales of small businesses specialising in art, crafts and food production.

And another old friend of Whitehaven festivals is the Continental Market. Enjoty the finest sun-ripened olives, tomatoes and fruits from Spain and France, pass by the aromatic cheeses, taste the wonderful Italian wines, walk through the Dutch flower market, grace your kitchen with Mediterranean pottery and table cloths from Provence and spoil yourself with bob bons and Belgian chocolates!

It all smacks of a fine summer, but here’s a twist for the festival - an Ice Rink! Definitely “the coolest place in town” and great family fun.

Talking of which, David Taylor’s Fun Fair is back. This is one of the best-known travelling fairs in the UK – Taylor’s Fun Fairs have been thrilling the public for over six generations with their own brand of fairground entertainment. This year’s fair is bigger and better than ever before and is located over three sites.

No Whitehaven event can be complete without a stionking firework display – and 2009 is no exception. This year’s promises to be one of the most exciting ever seen in the county with eight minutes of rapid fire, high-octane entertainment will have the crowd screaming for more.

Highlight, the festival company’s pyrotechnic partners, have this year decided to do away with the artistic side of the display and go for what they carefully described as an uppercut of a display.

The best place to view this from is the Sugar Tongue but please remember this will be accessible only to wristband wearers. Other than that, the Millenium Promenade and the Hub offer good viewing positions.

The Old Quay will be closed to the public for the entire weekend for safety.

Yet more unusual fun is on offer with the Lakeland Segway Park. Lakeland Segway are enthusiastic “seggers” – an intriguing two-wheeled import from the USA. There’ll be taster sessions in The Beacon car park area.

The Bezerkaz Circus was set up in Cumbria as an integrative community juggling and circus project in 2001 and has grown into an international touring performance/educational company which adapts circus performances and activities to all manner of events and groups of people.

The Bread and Butter Theatre Company is celebrating 12 years in street theatre and entertainment. They started as a one–man, one-pair-of-underpants outfit and over the years they have had the pleasure of performing in such diverse venues as the Los Angeles Comedy Cabaret Club, the village halls of Shetland, the Millennium Dome and let’s not forget the Christmas switch-on celebrations for Whitehaven.

Events they have been involved in range from the sublime (Commonwealth Games) to the ridiculous (the world’s largest pantomime horse race!).

No strangers to Whitehaven, The Van Dunk Brothers are back, armed with a trunk full of trunks, swimming caps, goggles, armbands and verruca cream, the boys will delight crowds with their award-winning dry-land synchronized swimming display. Marvel as the boys perform the routine that won the Brothers the gold medal at the Olympic Games, World Championships and Burnley Baths Swimming Gala, using only a kitsch soundtrack, physical comedy and two bottles of still mineral water.

In 1996, the Kipperman – maritime historian and writer Mike Smylie – started ‘The Herring Exhibition’ at the International Festival of the Sea in Bristol. Every year since the exhibition – now called ‘Kipperland’ – visits shows up and down the country. The exhibition tells of the history of the once great herring fishery and highlights the incredible nutritional effects of eating this oil-rich fish. Kipperman also smokes fish in his little Kipperhouse, for which people come from many miles away to see.

Also back in town are the Fairly Famous Family, who have been touring outdoor performances for 22 years. Their comedy street shows are a mixture of unusual characters and circus skills that entertain, inspire and surprise in equal measure. They have appeared before The Queen, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew... and Jim Bowen!

And also performing on the harbour will be Salsa Studio & Salsa Flash Mob, the creation of Mat and Shameem Arnold in 2007 with the aim of providing fun and exciting Salsa classes, wedding dance choreography, team-building events and workshops for private functions across Cumbria and the North West. Salsa Studio are renowned for bringing fun, passion and their love of the dance to any of the projects they undertake.

Published by http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk