Just back from Bank Holiday weekend in Hastings where the annual Jack-of-the-Green festivities were taking place. The town was full of Morris dancing sides, both of the genteel, hanky-waving variety and the far more entertaining (to my mind) punky, anarchic types, like Leicester-based 'Border Morris' side Bakanalia. Here's a video of I shot of them on Sunday outside a pub in George Street, performing a routine to the theme tune of Captain Pugwash. And yes, those are toy foam cutlasses that a couple of them are sporting. Now that's my kind of Morris dancing!

By the way, when I arrived for a weekend break with the family in Hastings, I knew there was some sort of Mayday festival taking place, but had no idea of the vast size and scope of the Jack-of-the-Green event. I've since learnt it has grown to be one of Europe's largest Mayday festivals since its revival in 1983 by local Morris men who based it on a traditional chimney sweep's event of the nineteenth century (although some clearly believe such festivals have far more ancient, Pagan, roots).