Un nuovo parcheggio con 40 posti nella zona dei campi da tennis a Barga per alleggerire dalla sosta delle auto Via del Giardino e Largo Roma. Ma anche per tutto il centro di Barga.

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La gara per l’aggiudicazione dei lavori è stata vinta dalla Ditta Panza per un importo complessivo di circa 100mila euro.

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What a difference a week can make.  After eight days in Barga, I have finally begun to settle down.  I was unaware of how fast I was moving when I first arrived last week and only now can I see the change in myself.  At first, the days seemed to fly by with only enough time to quickly glance at all of the sites surrounding me and mere moments spent lightly conversing with people I was meeting.  During this time, however, something happened.  I guess I fell into the proverbial black hole because I feel like I belong here now.  I return to my little apartment every evening to a plethora of e-mails from friends back in Toronto and begin the arduous task of writing back as they anxiously await news from my day…I think they all need to come to Barga as so many of them seem to be living vicariously through me right now.

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As this task is completed, I then begin to plan and scheme how I can possibly work my way back, at least for an extended stay, possibly to live here someday.  Barga is such an interesting blend of the past and the present, with a cast of characters who regularly find themselves at the local establishments for a glass of vino rosso.  Although I use the word cast, there is certainly no script that is followed.  The spontaneity of events that take place here in this charming place is fascinating.  I have been fortunate enough to partake of many of the afore mentioned evenings and find myself falling more and more in love with Barga and the people who live here.  Each person I have met and come to know (such interesting individuals) is only a part of the whole picture, but if just one of these people was not here, I think the dynamic would change dramatically.

I found for the first few days here I forced myself to paint, but soon decided that all I really wanted to do was wander around, meet people and try to let my eyes take in as much of this beauty as they possibly could.  So I put my paints and bushes aside for more important things, like just hanging out.  During this time, I have heard many stories, old and new, walked so many miles, yet still feel like I have seen so little, and sung and danced with my new friends to my absolute enjoyment.  Back where I live, you could no sooner wander into the local establishment (which by the way is always a Tim Horton’s donut shop) and just sit down to speak to a stranger as you would, at the very least, be considered intrusive.  We Canadians have the reputation of being so very nice and polite…and for the most part we are, but we can’t seem to cross that line that allows us to simply interact with others, unless we are already acquainted.  Such a shame and I can’t quite figure out how to single-handedly change that, just another thing for me to work on.

I woke up this morning with so many paintings in my head, I just couldn’t wait to gather up my sketch book and watercolours and head out to quickly chronicle as much information on paper and canvas as my fast little hands would allow.  I will try to capture the flavour of each place I sketch and upon my return home, transfer the feeling to larger pieces.  The problem is that everywhere I look, I see another painting.  There will not be enough time, of that I am sure.

Although the list is becoming longer with every moment spent here, I think the thing I find most endearing in Barga is the genuine kindness and generosity of the people.  I will not forget my new friends, nor will I ever forget Barga.  The spell has been cast.

The second article from the artist doris pontieri – the first article can be found here

This week work started on building the scaffolding around the piazza – the project is off and running. Hopefully the work will be completed in double quick time as the visitors to Barga have already started to arrive with  Piazza Angelio the premier location for live entertainment during the summer with live music concerts from Barga Jazz and others.

As we also wrote in that article, there were one or two doubts about the project as two residents of Palazzo Angelio, and who would in theory be paying part of the costs of the exercise along with the other residents inside the palazzo professed little knowledge of the project or design being offered. Below we offer an artists impression of just how the finished piazza might look .

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This piazza, once known as Piazza Aiaccia, owes its present name to two buildings built by the Angeli family, who were reknown for producing poets, writers, prelates and soldiers. The most famous of these, Pietro Angeli (1512-1573), also known by his knickname “Bargeo”, was a poet, a soldier and a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Pisa.

One of the Angeli buildings on this piazza was formerly the home of the journalist, writer and typographer Pietro Groppi (1831 – 1908), who wrote a biography of Pietro Angelio and founded the weekly newspaper “The Serchio Echo” and which now houses the barganews and barga jazz offices and the barganews book exchange.

A week ago a cat managed to find a small hole into the shaft and dropped down unhurt to the bottom. It stayed there in the dark until towards the end of the week its plaintive mewing was heard in the council chambers and offices. A search of the building came up empty handed but finally as the crying became more pitiful its source was located inside the lift shaft.  Part of the wall was broken down and an energetic member of the Palazzo Pancrazi staff crawled inside to find in the beam of his torch, the female cat at the bottom of the shaft.

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After some discussions involving the staff from the  Council Technical Dept and members of the maintenance crew it was determined that the choice was to send somebody down on a rope to collect the cat or cut a hole through the wall at the lower level closest to the desperate cat.

Measurements and calculations were taken and it was decided that the second solution would be the easiest as climbing back up the rope with a scared and possibly injured cat was to be avoided if at all possible.

A task force, now expanded to include members of the Polizia Municipale- the Comune Police was sent into the offices directly next to the base of the lift shaft and a hole was cut into the wall.

An hour later after some hesitation on the part of the cat, she finally emerged blinking into the light, a good deal thinner than when she entered the shaft but never the less seemingly unhurt.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ESGoKXczoE

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As it turns out he was not the only person who attempted this process. Italo knows of another local person who was moved by the threatened demise of the tree into attempting the same procedure. Although this time he used a slightly different process – he kept the young buds inside potatoes to keep them damp, cool and alive.

As Mark Twain once remarked in the press in the United States after his obituary had been mistakenly published.”The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated”

It is still too early to say if any of these graftings have been successful but maybe, just maybe there is still good chance that the old apple tree will live on.

Fingers crossed.

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The Scacciaguai website is here

Check out the images below as the beard came off.

April fool’s day was 9 days ago so it it far too late for any of that kind of monkey business BUT, does it look to you like that beard was actually a fake beard ?

It looks as though it was stuck on with glue or something …. does it not ?

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The continuing story of the twinning of Barga with Gallivare in Sweden took one more step further this week with the arrival in the city of a delegation of businessman and women from the Gallivare area. They included the CEO’s of Trade and Industry companies, Boliden mining, banks, promotion and marketing companies, trading and industry development agencies and members of the University of Lulea. At a meeting in Palazzo Pancrazi speeches were made and gifts exchanged between the Swedish delegation and the Barga administration before they moved on to a tour of the area.

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Anders Ahl, the head of information and marketing for the Municipality of Gallivare and spokesman for the group  who is now on his 5th visit to Barga, expressed his belief in friendship between the two cities which should blossom into business and extended contacts on a cultural level.

There are many jazz musicians in Gallivare eager to participate in the Barga Jazz Festival held each year in Barga. Maybe there are one or two jazz musicians here in the city who would like to see how jazz is played in Sweden ?

The twinning ceremony last year can be seen here

A short interview (in English) with Anders Ahl can be heard by clicking on the link below

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Barga si apre alla Svezia grazie al gemellaggio sottoscritto lo scorso anno con Gallivare. Fra le iniziative di scambio fra i due paesi anche l’arrivo sabato scorso di un gruppo di dodici imprenditori svedesi interessati a conoscere meglio la nostra zona. In visita, e ricevuti ufficialmente dal sindaco del Comune di Barga, Umberto Sereni, nella sala consiliare, il gruppo accompagnato da Anders Ahl, ormai ospite fisso a Barga, e dall’avvocato Leonardo Mordini.

Al centro della visita, nuove possibilità di collaborazione, in particolare per possibili scambi, soprattutto turistici, fra Barga e questa nazione europea un pò tutta da scoprire per il nostro turismo come del resto è da scoprire la nostra bella zona per gli svedesi. Questo è stato lo spirito dell’incontro nella sede comunale che si è concluso con la promessa di sviluppare ulteriormente i contatti. L’occasione alla base di questo interesse della Svezia, che ha portato al gemellaggio, è nata dopo che l’avvocato Leonardo Mordini e l’imprenditore Andrea Marcucci hanno acquistato il castello di Fjallnas, trasformato in Resort, nel nord della Svezia, in Gallivare; l’idea è quella di portare i nostri turisti in Svezia per stupende settimane bianche alla scoperta di questa terra.

L’interesse però è reciproco visto che la nostra Valle e la Lucchesia sono ben diverse dalla terra svedese e quindi possono attrarre visitatori da questo paese.

Insomma, un ottimo veicolo di promozione turistica per Barga che il primo cittadino ancora una volta non si è fatto scappare. A chiusura dell’incontro, dopo il consueto scambio di doni, il sindaco Sereni ha accompagnato i visitatori sulla panoramica terrazza di Palazzo Pancrazi, da dove si domina tutta la Valle, per le foto ricordo della visita barghigiana. – article by  Flavio Guidi

In one of the rooms of the public library in Barga Vecchia there is a permanent collection of the works of the artisan and artist Vincenzo Gonnella (1901 – 1988), who was an expert in metal relief which he used to fashion vases, plates, vessels, trays and coins. There is even a plaque on the wall over his workshop commemorating the man and his work but there was also another artisan working in Barga up until the late 90′s who does not have any form of commemoration or any of his work displayed in a public collection but he is still remembered by many of the older inhabitants of the city and indeed in many houses around the city they still cherish examples of his work. His name was Luigi Da Prato but he was known right through the area as “Gigi Scaldino”. In his prime he was one of the finest artisans working in copper and other metals.

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Actually, all things considered – he was the last as one by one the workshops shut their doors for the final time.  Repoussé and chasing copper work and decoration has died out in this area as the artisans have passed on but have not passed on their knowledge to the following generation.

The workshop that Lo Scaldino made famous actually does have its doors open at the moment for the first time in many, many years.

It sits in the cellars of a building which has recently been sold and is now gradually being renovated and restored. A quick peek inside reveals very little traces of former times but maybe you might just notice along with one of the small furnaces rusting in the corner- a single horses stirrup hanging on a nail and a small sketch of some wrought iron work pinned to the wall. An echo of former times.

Included in the images to this article is a photo through the open door of the workshop taken probably some time in the late 60′s or early 70′s, with Gigi standing proudly between two of his large creations before they were passed on to their buyers. They can be found in the foyer of a large local hotel, the passage of time dimming those bright colours of the copper to a now almost uniform drab brown.

There are also a couple of images of Gigi working on the last plate that he ever produced (this time in the workshop below his house on the Fornacetta)

He was photographed by Mario Riccardi and the award winning barganews O’Connor who documented the complete process from the very start of the work – the original drawings for the design, transferring the design onto the copper sheet, through to the melting and pouring of lead to make the base to support the plate while he slowly hammered out the final shape.

Repoussé is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is ornamented or shaped by hammering from the reverse side. There are few techniques that offer such diversity of expression while still being relatively economical. Chasing is the opposite technique to repoussé, and the two are used in conjunction to create a finished piece. It is also known as embossing.

While repoussé is used to work on the reverse of the metal to form a raised design on the front, chasing is used to refine the design on the front of the work by sinking the metal. The term chasing is derived from the noun “chase”, which refers to a groove, furrow, channel or indentation. The adjectival form is “chased work”.

The techniques of repoussé and chasing utilise the plasticity of metal, forming shapes by degrees. There is no loss of metal in the process, as it is stretched locally and the surface remains continuous. The process is relatively slow, but a maximum of form is achieved, with one continuous surface of sheet metal of essentially the same thickness. Direct contact of the tools used is usually visible in the result, a condition not always apparent in other techniques, where all evidence of the working method is eliminated.  – source  Wikipedia

Probably the finest example of Florentine renaissance architecture  in Barga, the Palazzo Angelio in Barga Vecchia could (maybe) be finally getting some renovations to its world weary and damaged façade which for many years had be reduced to a kind of “peek a boo, now you see me, now you don’t” game with parts of its delicate decorations desperately trying to show through from underneath the terrible grey pebble dash finish that was slapped all over it some time in the recent past.
Maybe just maybe, it will finally get to take its rightful place as probably the finest building in Barga Vecchia.

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This afternoon Luciano Zanella, painter and specialist decorator and  well known in Barga Vecchia for his work on some of the other large palazzo’s* and Geometra Nesi were trying out a colour test on the outside of the building. According to the pair, if the project is passed and goes into the next stage where the plaster work on the front of the building to replaced, they could be repainting the façade some time this summer.

Tiny doubts surfaced when two residents of Palazzo Angelio, and who would in theory be paying part of the costs of the exercise along with the other residents inside the palazzo professed no knowledge of the project or design being offered up to the wall of the building. Hopefully all will become clearer at the next residents meeting which could well be an interesting one for all concerned. A swift decision will be needed if work can be started and brought to a conclusion before the fast approaching summer  season as Piazza Angelio is the premier location for live entertainment during the summer with live music concerts from Barga Jazz and others.

* Luciano Zanella, painter and specialist decorator and well known in Barga Vecchia for his work on some of the other large palazzo’s – articles can be seen here:

Palazzo Balduini here | Palazzo 2 here | Palazzo Salvi here | Palazzo 3 here | Palazzo Pancrazi here

This piazza, once known as Piazza Aiaccia, owes its present name to two buildings built by the Angeli family, who were reknown for producing poets, writers, prelates and soldiers. The most famous of these, Pietro Angeli (1512-1573), also known by his knickname “Bargeo”, was a poet, a soldier and a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Pisa.

One of the Angeli buildings on this piazza was formerly the home of the journalist, writer and typographer Pietro Groppi (1831 – 1908), who wrote a biography of Pietro Angelio and founded the weekly newspaper “The Serchio Echo” and which now houses the barganews and barga jazz offices and the barganews book exchange.

Click on the link below to hear a short interview with  Luciano Zanella and  Geometra Nesi  (in Italiano)

luciano_zanella_piazza_angelio_18march2009

An interesting blog appeared on the net this week from Craig Murray in Scotland . Craig Murray is a Scottish dissident, human rights activist, writer, and former British Ambassador. He is also the currently Rector of the University of Dundee and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law.
On his blog he published the above image and the following text: The lady on the right in the less elaborate hat is my grandmother, Valentina Coletti. The gentleman next to her is her brother Leonardo Coletti. They look pretty exotic for Edinburgh, as they were immigrants from Castelvecchio Pascoli in Italy.

I am Rector of Dundee University. At a recent meeting of Rectors I was speaking with Kevin Dunnion, the Rector of neighbouring St Andrews University. We were astonished to discover that his grandparents also came from Castelvecchio Pascoli.

Perhaps it explains our amazement if I tell you that Castelvecchio has a population of 509. For this tiny Tuscan hilltop village to produce Rectors of two of Scotland’s finest universities – at the same time – is pretty mind-boggling.

Castelvecchio is in the municipal district of Barga. There was a mass exodus from Barga to the central belt of Scotland around the start of the twentieth century. A recent study of Scots Italians was entitled Barga No More. I recall some years back an exhibition in Chambers Street Museum which suggested that some 20% of modern Scots are at least a quarter Italian – article here

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And whilst on the subject of Scotland and Barga:

From Barga, The Most Scottish Town in Italy, the congratulation for a prestigious win in Scottish League Cup final.

Anche da Barga, The Most Scottish Town in Italy, vi giungano le congratulazioni per la prestigiosa vittoria della Coppa di Scozia.
La vittoria è stata meritata. E’ stato un tripudio di colori bianco verdi che speriamo di rivedere per festeggiare la conquista del Campionato

Ad Majora

Umberto Sereni – Mayor of Barga

Back in September 2008 we published an article entitled “Triumphant Scottish Concert” – It can be seen here. It was the final concert here in Barga organised by the Hamish Moore, the Dunkeld pipemaker and piper who has been Barga’s musician-in-residence since the beginning of that year.

We said at the time that the concert would be talked about for a long time to come as probably the most definitive expression of Scottish culture ever seen in this area – and all without one piece of tartan in evidence, no sign of any kilts, no ubiquitous Jimmy hats and absolutely no military drumming or marching. It was the real thing and the audience sat glued to their seats enjoying every precious minute of the three-hour long concert.

As Hamish confided just before the event, he had no doubt as to the quality of the music on offer that evening as there were world-class musicians on the stage, but he was unsure as to the reaction of the Barga audience to this kind of event. How would unaccompanied singers in Gaelic, step dancers and bagpipe players fit in with the sound of the traditional Italian mandolin players and choir of L’edicola.

He needn’t have worried. They moulded in perfectly. One side complementing the other. Music is after all an international language.

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Well the music didn’t stop – it just kept on coming. This weekend was the presentation of the full length DVD of that Barga concert in the Prestongrange Gothenburg public house and art centre in Scotland.

Carlo and I went to the DVD launch at the Prestongrange Gothenburg public house and art center on Saturday the 14th March and had a great day.  Hamish was in good form.  A warm up session was held in the bar from 4 to 7.30pm, we then moved upstairs to the art centre where we started off with a musical medley from Fin, Fiona and Hamish Moore, Sarah Hoy and Ken Campbell to get everyone in the mood.

Mitch (I think that is his name, he is Fiona Moore’s partner and filmed the DVD) continued with an introduction explaining the DVD and it’s history and connection to Port Seaton, the DVD is called The Barga Connection.  The people assembled were mostly from the choir, people who had been on holiday and had met Hamish in Barga or who just know him through the music scene.

There would have been an audience of about 150 people. We then watched a short form of the video to set the scene and get the flavour of the place and the concert.  It looks great and really made me want to get on a plane and come over now!!

The DVD was received by rapturous applause and I think will sell very well.  After the viewing the Sangstream Choir also performed followed by a solo from Scott Gardiner and then The Bella McNab dance band accompanied by Fin Moore played for a while giving the assembled crowd the opportunity to show off their dance moves.

There was a memory board in place where you could put your pictures or thoughts of Barga.  Everyone we spoke to spoke very highly of the place and all insisted they would like to return some day – Isobel Zambonini

Per festeggiare il grande successo del concerto di musica scozzese tenuto settembre scorso presso il nostro Teatro dei Differenti, Hamish Moore e i suoi collaboratori presenteranno in anteprima il DVD dell’evento stesso il 14 marzo a Prestonpans/Port Seaton in Scozia.
Inoltre nella stessa località, nota per essere gemellata con Barga grazie a John Bellany, verrà fatta la replica di questo straordinario concerto il 3 Giugno presso Preston Lodge School dove parteciperanno tutti gli artisti che ci hanno fatto onore con la loro bellissima musica.

Additional reporting from Scotland by Isobel Zambonini – images by Carlo Zambonini

With the recent news that 130 jobs are at risk in the KME foundry at Fornaci di Barga, the political forces in the area started their campaign to safeguard these and other possible job losses in the future. The council in Barga held an outdoor council meeting in the main piazza in Fornaci to make their feelings known to the general public. Not just the council members from the Comune of Barga arrived for the meeting but also the Mayors of a dozen other Comunes in the area all of whom wished to show their solidarity with the workers in Fornaci. National and local union representatives spoke forcefully about their fears for the damage that job cuts of this scale would inflict on this community.

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They were joined on the steps of the Piazza by the President of the Province, Stefano Baccelli , Regional politicians and three members of the Italian Parliament, all of whom publicly voiced their support for the  foundry workers threaten with redundancy.

At the end of the meeting a short text from the Mayor of Barga, Umberto Sereni was read out to the crowd in which he stated quite plainly the position of his administration, maintaining complete solidarity with workers threatened by the job cuts and promising to do everything in their power to stop these cuts from happening.

The only strange note in the whole afternoons proceedings was the more or less total absence of workers from the KME plant in the piazza.

As part of the traditional monthly market in Barga Vecchia, an exhibition on the steps leading up the Teatro dei Differenti caused many people to stop and browse. A new artist to the Barga cultural scene, Rinaldo Mazzanti from nearby Gallicano was exhibiting his work for the first time in Barga. Small fragments of plasterwork salvaged from some of the many renovations taking place in this area and used as a base for views of Barga Vecchia and surrounding territory. The shape of the found plasterwork defining the image that Rinaldo painted. Long vertical fragments becoming views of the Fornacetta, horizontal ones becoming the Duomo. Rinaldo is well known in his native Gallicano for his fine draughtsmanship and drawings, now he has opened up new vistas as he explores colour and various brush techniques.

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It is somewhat ironic that the very same day we published a comment (article here) bemoaning the ever increasing encroachment of the car parks in Barga ( although with today’s news of the very strong possibility of 130 redundancies at the foundry in Fornaci – making tourism probably more important for the future of the city than ever before and therefore car parks in some form or another more and more necessary) yet another low blow to the ecosystem went almost unnoticed.

Construction work around the car park below Barga Vecchia stretching almost from the hospital through to Parco Kennedy has been ongoing for the last 12 months in an attempt to stop the land slipping into the valley.

This morning one of the trees on land next to the car park was chopped down.

If you stand on the spot and look today you can still still see thousands of trees stretching into the distance …. so one tree more or less would probably make very little difference.

Except that the chopping down of this tree today was almost painfully emblematic not just for the loss of a single tree but because it went practically unnoticed.

The tree in question was an apple tree, an old apple tree, a type of apple tree that once upon a time flourished in this area and was noted and cherished for the small sweet fragrant apples which grew on them.

Unfortunately with the rise of the supermarkets and later still, the hypermarkets with their strict quality controls and marketing of uniformly and visually pleasing fruit and vegetables, the smaller less well-known varieties, even if they actually tastier were gradually left out in the cold, so to speak, and people no longer viewed them as anything of any importance.

An apple had to be a sharp green colour or large shiny Disney red.

Those that did not fit what was viewed as “the perfect apple” became unsellable, unwanted and in time, almost invisible.

In fact this particular tree had not been harvested for some years and it’s unfashionably small and sometimes misshapen fruit was allowed to fall to the ground and over time rot back into the earth.

To my knowledge only one person diligently collected some of the windfall each year and carried it home to her family to enjoy the taste of a fruit that their grandparents would have enjoyed and an apple and which has more or less been erased from the local culture.

Each year they would marvel at the fact that this succulent, oh so tasty treat was just there for the asking – nobody else ever bothered to pick up the fruit and now that experience has disappeared along with so many others.

Nobody is going to mourn for an apple tree are they ?

A new carpark for 40 cars is having the finishing touches put to it this week in Barga Giardino.
Un nuovo parcheggio con 40 posti nella zona dei campi da tennis a Barga per alleggerire dalla sosta delle auto Via del Giardino e Largo Roma. Ma anche per tutto il centro di Barga.

La gara per l’aggiudicazione dei lavori è stata vinta dalla Ditta Panza per un importo complessivo di circa 100mila euro. A breve quindi, si stima ai primi di settembre, gli interventi partiranno. Così l’assessore ai Lavori Pubblici, Luigi Salvi, che ieri ha dato notizia dell’imminente avvio dei lavori del parcheggio visto che le procedure di gara si sono concluse in questi giorni.

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Il progetto è stato redatto dall’architetto Damiano Cecchetti e prevede oltre alla realizzazione di 40 posti auto, l’accesso da via del Giardino e la completa rimozione della grande struttura in tela e metallo una volta adibita a bocciodromo, in disuso da anni, che si trova accanto ai campi da tennis. Un intervento quindi che nelle intenzioni dell’Amministrazione Sereni vuole essere anche di riqualificazione di tutta l’area dei campi da tennis oltre ovviamente a rispondere a una delle priorità che vive la cittadina, quella della continua necessità di nuove aree di sosta per le auto dei cittadini e anche dei numerosi turisti. – article by Flavio Guidi

Maybe it’s a bit too soon as it is still only the first week in March, but there is a good chance that the worst of the winter is now over. There is a definite feeling in the air that the spring is on the way. We sent the barganews award-winning photographer O’Connor out and about in the streets of the city to see if he could capture any images portraying the however slight possibility of the seasons change.
He wandered around Parco Kennnedy looking for wild flowers and then went down to the Barga Giardino area and found almost on cue, new flowers being planted in the beds in front of the Post Office by the ever green fingered staff of the Terra Ambient Cooperative. If you look closely at his images you should spot the female blackbird that took full advantage of the new turned over earth.

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She showed very little fear of either the workers planting or O’Connor snapping close by, bravery not shown by most birds in this area probably due in no small part to the large hunter population.

The pentolaccia festa was in full swing in Barga Vecchia this afternoon, once again supremely organised by the Lake Angels. Music, games, balloons, streamers,  masks, costumes,  (the ubiquitous spray cans of foam) and of course – the Pentolacci.

This year there were 4 Pentolacci hanging from the rafters. Each one a carefully crafted papier maché work of art just waiting to be smashed to bits to get to the prizes and sweets inside. Contestants young and old took their turn with their eyes blindfolded and stick in hand as they flailed at the Pentolacci egged on by the shouting crowd,  eager to be in at the kill.

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If they connected properly and with enough force the Pentolacci would burst and the confetti and sweets would shower down to the waiting eager hands below. Each year somebody, somehow or other does not manage to get hit in the face by the downward strike of the broom handle. Each year it seems like a miracle as the excitement mounts and the danger is ignored by people rushing forward hoping to get to the prizes first.

All money raised form this event will go to the Rwanda irrigation project that the Lake Angels have been working on over the past 18 months  (article here)