One of our favourite events of the year is just round the corner, Polperro Festival!
The nine-day event is choc-full of music, drama and art. There are also fantastic traditions that are celebrated as part of midsummer, which are very much like those in other parts of Cornwall, like Penzance’s Golowan Festival and the Old Cornwall Society midsummer bonfires.
The Polperro Festival celebrates with a midsummer bonfire on the date of the Solstice, often 21st June. Summer Solstice is the time of year when the sun spends longest in the sky and marks the start of the beginning of the return of darkness. At one time, Solstice bonfires were lit all across Europe!
During Polperro Festival, the organisers also secretly choose a “Mock Mayor”. This person then leads the festival, making a speech in the centre of the village, accompanied by his “Merry Men”: his supporters dressed in fisherman’s smocks. The Mock Mayor is comically dressed in clothes, pokinh fun of real mayors or other leaders. After the speech, the Mock Mayor tours the local pubs, handing out fake money and eventually being thrown into the sea at around 4pm!
source: cornwallforever