Pasty Day Festival
The Pasty Day Festival takes place on the first Tuesday of August, every year, without fail, come rain or come shine. The festival was established by local farmer Zip Roberts who sold pasties and tea from inside Morvah Parish Church to raise money for church funds. The idea was developed and expanded upon when other residents joined in and based the festival on the Morvah Fair that took place in days gone by where people gathered to sell their wares and celebrate together in an event that was eventually stopped due to excessive drunkenness and bawdy behaviour! A church document of 1850 refers to the 'disorderly persons of every description' who assembled 'for idle and profane amusement' A Morvah farmer of the period is quoted as saying 'A quarter of an acre would not hold the horses ridden to the fair, - the hedges being covered by the visitors, who drink and carouse as in former times' (1881). By all accounts, Morvah Fair was a very popular date in the calendar, with many people travelling to it from the surrounding parishes, giving rise to the local saying 'three on a horse, like going to Morvah Fair' Pasty day is indeed a lot of fun, but not in the same league as the fair!
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The village acquired an old army marquee, and from that moment on, the size of the festival quadrupled, a community event alongside the original church event, raising much needed funds for both our Parish church and the Schoolhouse. Mind you, step one is putting the marquee up. Don't ask how it happens but somehow, with lots of pulling on ropes and hoisting poles and getting tangled up in canvas, the tent finally stands upright. | |
| Mind you, some people take it more seriously than others. | |
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| One year we spent an evening making several hundred metres of bunting only to see the cows attempting to eat it from the telegraph poles where it hung! | ||
The festival sometimes includes a Film Night on the Monday before Pasty Day. We usually squeeze over one hundred people into the tent to watch movies, all produced in Cornwall, and enjoy a get together.
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On Pasty Day itself, musicians from all over the county gather to strike up a tune using an old farm trailer as a stage. Once they get going, there's no stopping them and live music echoes across the cliffs all day and night. Meanwhile, a queue of hungry festival goers wait patiently outside the church for pasties, cream teas and liquid refreshments. Talk about the feeding of the five thousand...... |
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There are loads of stalls, selling bric-a-brac, plants, cakes, crafts and lots of games including the infamous pasty shy where visitors throw pasties at tin cans in the hope of winning a much coveted prize - like a pencil!
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On Pasty Day Night, we have a party in the marquee. Everyone brings a plate of food to share and we're entertained by local and visiting singers and some years, the Cornish male voice choir, the Longship Singers, and anyone else brave enough to get up and sing.
Pasty Day Scenes
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| Mary Gribble took her turn in the stocks.... | ...and Len did his impression of a mad professor! | ||
| Pasty Day last year was dry and well-attended.It featured music in some way and, as did the day itself, benefited greatly from a good PA system! |  |
Greg Hichens looks like he made a special effort with this tractor! |  |
