Tuesday's Michaelmas Fayre

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The Lord Mayor’s Michaelmas Fayre at the Bull Ring Markets began on Tuesday with a fine procession to St Martins.
A re-enactment of the presentation of the charter for the markets in 1166 took place, the Lord mayor served fruit and vegetables from a market stall, distributed coins specially made in Birmingham for the occasion and presented a plaque to the markets in recognition of their services to the people of Birmingham.
Friday and Saturday see many more events between 11 and 4 including Birds of Prey, a Jester Musician, a walkabout by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress in costume, some medieval stocks, a wishing well and a talk by Carl Chinn on a thousand years of the markets in St Martins at 2-30. So do come along and stock up with great produce while you’re at it!

Michaelmas Fayre - Day 1

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The first day of the Lord Mayor’s Michaelmas Fayre takes place in and around the Bull Ring Markets and St Martin’s Church tomorrow, 29th September on the feast of St Michael and All Angels.
We are reviving this traditional fair and start with a procession from Manor House involving the Lord Mayor (in full robes), the Lady Mayoress (in medieval costume) and Bishop David to St Martin’s at 11-45.
There will be a short service, in an old-fashioned form. On leaving the church there will be a 20 minute peal of Bells (St Martins has some of the best in the country) and the procession will move to the stage where there will be a re-enactment of the presentation of the charter for the markets, followed by an extensive walkabout with the Town Crier.
There will be other traditional happenings too, up till around 3pm. The next events are on Friday and include a talk ‘1,000 years of the markets) by Prof. Carl Chinn at 2-30 in St Martins. There will be a stilt walker in Knight’s costume and other entertainments about which more in the next posting, all leading up to the grand events of Saturday. Do come along!

Dave Gauder Bus Pull

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This week I had the job of starting a bus - or rather getting a mighty man to start pulling the Bus near Birmingham's famous Bull Ring Markets. The occasion was the record 1,000th bus pull performed by Birmingham strongman Dave Gauder in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Dave, a former World’s Strongest Man, and currently the holder of over twenty world strength records, also does mighty deeds for charity - as well as a tremendous amount of work with schools, particularly in preventing bullying. So it was a privilege to be asked to signal the start of the pull.
All went well, for the record 1,000th time and the Lady Mayoress had a bus ride too as Dave had invited several passengers to go along inside the bus just to add some more to the weight! Dave is a terrific chap and a great Brummie. So (even) more power to your elbow mate!

Flying High!

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You may have read about the grand opening of the new £50m pier at Birmingham International Airport. The celebrations were complemented by the arrival of an Airbus A380 - and by a much smaller, older and lower tech aircraft - namely a De Havilland Rapide.
Having always wanted to go up in a passenger biplane, I was delighted to have the chance of a flight around Birmingham. It was the first time on a plane when I’ve had a window seat and an aisle seat at the same time! While I didn’t spot Hercules Poirot amongst the other seven passengers, there was definitely the feel of that period about the flight!
There was a superb ‘thrum’ to the six cylinder engines, the fuel levels for which were checked with a dipstick! We had superb views of the city - what a great place Birmingham looks - and a good chance to identify even small buildings at a cruising speed of just 100 knots. By the way that’s an effect of the propellers on the camera in the second photo rather than a mysterious black wing over the city!
My trip into history was over all too soon but as to the future, while we’ll have to wait for the runway extension for regular services with the superb A380, you can be assured of even more efficient service at the airport with the new pier and a great range of passenger facilities.

Michaelmas Fayre in Birmingham

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To Celebrate over eight centuries of the markets around St. Martins Church in the Bull Ring, Birmingham, the Lord and Lady Mayoress of Birmingham and the market traders are arranging a Medieval style Michaelmas Fayre that will take place at the end of September.
We are inviting visitors and families to join us in Birmingham for a traditional day out enjoying the fun, old fashioned entertainment, history talks and of course the outstandingly good value of Birmingham’s historic outdoor and indoor markets.
There will be a medieval theme at St Martins, the Town Crier and we are also including echoes of Birmingham’s historic Onion Fair - and what's more, you could even get your onions, fruit and veg. served by the Lord Mayor!
So do come along to the Lord Mayor's Michaelmas Fayre on Tuesday, 29th September, Friday 2nd October and Saturday 3rd October from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm at the Markets, Bull Ring, Birmingham, B5 4RB.

One Kick for Birmingham

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I recently had a chance to put into practice my skills at football, such as they are, by taking part in ‘One kick for Birmingham’.

This is a campaign to ensure that Birmingham is an attractive part of England’s bid for the World Cup in 2018.
It would be terrific to have the World cup in England again - and we’ve got so much to contribute in this city. Birmingham has great venues, great fans and there’s a great City to enjoy.
The one kick campaign will involve getting people to film themselves kicking a ball and then putting the video up on the internet.
Luckily, my own one kick for Birmingham seemed to be pretty fair - but I don’t think that it would have taken Gil Merrick in his prime to save it!
So have a go yourself and let’s hope that both national and local campaigns get the success that they so rightly deserve.

Combating Pancreatic Cancer

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The Lord Mayor of Birmingham is involved in a good deal of charity work in general and also selects particular charities for the year. There are four parts to the Lord Mayor’s own charities for 2009/10 and in the next couple of weeks I will be featuring all four of them in this blog.
The first is The Birmingham Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research. The objective here is to establish a new registered charity that will run on beyond my Mayoralty - and indeed continues until the dread affliction of cancer of the pancreas is mastered.
While there has been steady progress with several forms of cancer, for pancreatic cancer the five-year survival rate in the UK following diagnosis forty years ago stood at just 3%. Today that rate is - well, just 3% and for many sufferers the survival time from diagnosis is very short and complete remission is extremely rare.

Pancreatic cancer causes no symptoms early on and the median survival rate from diagnosis is 3 - 6 months. Affecting men more than women, pancreatic cancer has one of the highest fatality rates of all cancers.
Yet the disease can be treatable on those occasions where the cancer is detected early enough, and the primary focus of the fund will be on research, conducted in Birmingham, into improved diagnostic methods.
You can now contribute to the Lord Mayor’s charities on-line through Justgiving.com at:

http://www.justgiving.com/lordmayorbirmingham

Donations of any size, large or small are most welcome and will be put to the best possible use.