Belles and Broomsticks Morris in Guernsey danced out on May Day, not having to adhere to any local restrictions, and sent us this message to teams in the UK:

“It’s good to see that so many sides have been able to do something to celebrate May Day.  It must be so frustrating for you all not being able to get together.  Here we continue to be Covid-free so no social-distancing, just carrying on as ‘old’ normal.

“We’ve had a busy weekend.  Friday, we had our local ITV News team filming us for our dress rehearsal for May Day celebrations.  We selected one of our favourite locations (Liberation Monument) where we were able to also entertain workers going to and from our main town car park.

“Saturday, we were up at dawn to greet the sun as it rose.  Our venue was one of our piers at the harbour, which is on the eastern side of the island.  Well away from anyone having a Saturday lie-in and of course no visiting yachtsmen this year.  We had a small appreciative audience and got through nine dances.  Unfortunately, there was a little cloud over the islands of Herm and Sark that obscured us witnessing a clear sunrise. But hey ho, you can’t have everything.

“Today was the summer opening of one of our castles, and we were invited to join in the opening celebrations.  There was a good size audience for us and the historical re-enactors.

“Tomorrow, although a Bank Holiday, we will be having our usual weekly practice as next weekend is our Liberation Day when we will be celebrating 76 years of freedom.  Sadly, this year, neither the Jersey Lilies nor Helier Morris Men, nor for that matter any sides from the UK will be able to join us to mark the occasion.  Roll on next year and hopefully better times.

“Here is a photo of the team from Saturday.  We were five short of our full complement, so a good turn-out.

“We look forward to a better year for all and being able to mix and dance freely with other teams.

Are Belles and Broomsticks Morris in Guernsey the first morris side to dance out this season without having to social distance or follow any other restrictions?

They gave us this report, the full details of which will be in the next ‘Isolation Edition’ of the FedExtra magazine.

“Unlucky for some, but taking advantage of the fine weather, we decided that Monday 13^th July 2020 would be our first dance-out of this year’s season.

We decided to dance two ‘sets’ at two venues.

The first one at the Driftwood Hotel at Perelle, who now has the distinction of being the first place this season in the UK to host unrestricted Morris dancing. We had a small but appreciative audience and danced a set of five dances. One of which, appropriately, was Le Catioroc, a ‘round’ dance referencing the legend of the Witches dancing around Le Trepied dolmen on the Catioroc headland south side of Perelle. This is a dance of our own devising in the Ducklington tradition which we have renamed the ‘Canard-lington’ tradition.

Our second venue was at the Hotel Fleur du Jardin.  Here again, we entertained the outside diners with six stick or hanky dances of various traditions.  The Fleur now has the distinction of being the first place to host us performing our own Liberation Day lock-down jig ‘To Town on a Pushang’ (*) in the Canard-lington tradition:

A ‘Pushang’ is our local name for a bicycle. Liberation Day on 9th May celebrates the end of five years of Nazi occupation of the islands. Everyone went to town to greet the British liberating forces.”