River Festival 2011 Day

18.30: O'Connells won the Raft Race, Bardons won the Obstacle Course, and The Spout won the Tug O War.



16.39: The water section of the festival has been in full swing for some time now, with a fully-sponsored Duck Race gathering lots of attention from the banks and the bridge.

But it was the Inter-Pub Raft Race that really caught the imagination of the crowd, with some hilarious thrills and spills and inevitable wettings adding to the fun.

Winners? We'll leave those to a later results piece. The real winners are the crowd, who are having a great day in Kilcullen.



13.45: All in full swing now and the aroma of cooking food is irresistible. As is the convoy of army vehicles parked on the bridge to the youngesters all coming down to get their eyes behind the sights of a gun.



11.45: Well, the work has been done, with tremendous verve, good humour and even a bit of efficiency!



Now all that are needed are crowds. And with the sun making superb efforts against an indifferent forecast, it's all looking good.

Get on down there ... and smile for the Diary!




10.15: Now there's action everywhere with stalls being set up, stallholders arriving, all being directed by Festival Crew Geri and Tara, resplendent in pink crew t-shirts.



Just one overnight car remains to be removed at the moment, but if the owner doesn't get there quickly, it won't be moveable. KFM has arrived, so you can start listening to live broadcasting from Kilcullen soon.

Paul takes a look at the pig in roast ... it'll soon be ready for rolling down to the square.


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9am: Paul Carey is the first to arrive to set up his Good Food Gallery gazebo. "The pig has been turning on the spit since 6am," he says. "There's a lot to do with it, but we'll parade it down the street at 11am."





Meanwhile, there are a number of motorists who couldn't read the 'tow away' signs last night who are getting phone calls about now to get their cars out, pronto (or probably stronger words to that effect).



And there's some hint of blue sky, a hopeful sign that all the rain is on the other side of the Atlantic for today.