Thursford Backstage Tour

A 20 min drive from Holt is Thursford, home to the amazingly popular Christmas Spectacular, which, with a cast of 130, is the biggest Christmas show of its kind in Europe. I'd love to go, but can't find anyone else who is interested! I did, however, manage to persuade G to go to the Backstage Tour and Afternoon Tea, which we went to today and I loved it. We arrived at 11 and were welcomed with tea and biscuits and a talk by the owner about it's history - it was a farm, then turned into one of the world's most important steam and fairground museums, then the Christmas Spectacular was developed and coaches arrive from around the country and tickets sell out months in advance. One of the issues they now have is that the coach trips can't find enough local hotels due to immigrants being held there for processing. 

Then the owner led the backstage tour, taking us round the dressing rooms, clothes storage areas and so on, giving us lots of facts along the way. We saw staff already wrapping the xmas presents for the children who visit Santa. The white headdress in my extra collage cost £3k and for one 'scene' the costumes can cost between £30-£50k. Then we had the first of two half hour Wurlitzer shows by Robert Woolfe who has played the Wurlitzer at Thursford for the last 45 years. I was mesmerised watching him play, his hands darting across 3 keyboards and various stops, and his feet playing a separate keyboard - how on earth does his brain cope. I've added a Wurlitzer collage as an extra and you might be able to see in one photo that he has no music, just a play list. The Wurlitzer is the fourth largest in Europe and has 1,339 pipes! 

Then after a lovely afternoon tea, we had the second half hour Wurlitzer show. There was an opportunity then to go on one of two very old fairground rides. Both G and I were more interested in taking photos, so passed our tickets on to an older lady and I assume her granddaughter so they could ride on both. I've added an Extra of one of the rides. Then we had a chance to walk round the various shops and look at the steam engine collection, before leaving at 3. Just my sort of thing.