CANCELLED: Saddleworth Rushcart Festival 2021

Description

CANCELLED: Saddleworth Rushcart Festival 2021

Saturday 21st (10:00am) and Sunday 22nd August 2021 (10am)

The weekend begins with Saddleworth's performance of the Uppermill Rushcart Dance, before the 'cart is taken to Greenfield, and then onto Delph and Dobcross after a short break back in Uppermill. On the Sunday it is taken up Church Road, where dancing, fun and games can be seen outside the Church Inn and the Cross Keys, while the 'cart watches on from its final resting place for the year outside St Chad's Church. At Saddleworth, the local Morris side revived the moribund local tradition of gathering the rushes in a two-wheeled decorated cart and bringing them back to St Chad’s Church at Uppermill ; a single “jockey” sits atop the cart which is about 13 feet tall! On the Saturday the cart tours the local villages and on Sunday goes to the church, accompanied both days by around a hundred morris men from all over the country, and of course a band. Expect also to see gurning, wrestling and singing.

The origins of the Rushcart are similar to the traditions of rushbearing which survives in Cumbia, but which have evolved in a different way. Rushes were gathered for strewing on the church floor and a boundary-walking processional element was common.