It’s a week now since our medieval Christmas Eve ‘vigil’ in St Andrew’s, and I know that both Trevor and I have been thinking a lot about the experience. Being in an empty, darkened church at what would have been midnight on Christmas Eve for all those Wood Dalling residents who are commemorated in the brass inscriptions – well, it’s not something that I would ever have imagined before the start of the Festial project! I think that one thing that’s stayed with us both is the sheer level of noise in the pitch-black church. It was a stormy evening, which I suppose accounts for most of the banging and flapping(!) and also it was the dark phase of the moon so things could hardly have been blacker. Yet, it really wasn’t scary.
How much of the information gathered during that day and night will really come together into something I feel is interesting enough to share is another matter entirely. But today is when I start to find out, as it’s time to begin working with the text and images for Kalender 8. Quite often before I’ve felt as I do right now: that the ideas in my head are too vague; that I’ll never create a coherent publication; that I’m just not passionate enough about the possibilities inherent in the images collected for this particular festival and that this is bound to be reflected in the magazine itself.
But, so far at least (and thanks in no small measure to Trevor’s technical and creative input), Kalender has always exceeded my initial expectations on all those counts. Fingers crossed!
