Have some Madeira m'dear - Madeira Day 2010

As a result of the atrocious weather on Sunday, the entire Madeira Festival event was impressively shifted by one day. As predicted, it was a fantastic festa, and here are a few shots that captured the mood of the day (click  on any of them to enlarge, and email me if you appear and would like me to blur your face or take the photo down) :

Setting the scene:

Vegetarians, look away now:

Quite early, at about 1pm, everybody is enjoying themselves with beer, Tapas, and the odd custard tart:

Living in London, wearing Madeira:

Somebody, somewhere, with a flair for flower arrangements must have been up all night.  I often wonder who the nameless ones are, that put their energy into making beautiful things:

The Brass band.  I swear that at one point, they were playing the White Cliffs of Dover, but I could be mistaken.  An impressive troop:

The jester.  I've no idea who this chap was (or even what he was saying), but he appeared to be having a marvellous time, making an ass of himself: