IWA National Festival
The IWA National Festival & Boat Show run by the Inland Waterways Association is one of the key annual events on the United Kingdom's inland waterways. Generally referred to as the "National" it serves several functions:
- As a publicity vehicle for the IWA and inland waterways in general
- To raise funds for the IWA
- As a social gathering for boaters from around the country
- As a campaigning event
The four functions of the event are to some extent conflicting and in recent years the campaigning aspect has been somewhat separated by the creation of an annual "Campaign Cruise".
Arguably it is as a gathering of like minded people that the National has been most influential. The festival brings together people from all over the country who do not meet in numbers except on the festival site. The original decisions to form both the Waterway Recovery Group and the National Association of Boat Owners both arose out of informal discussions held at the National.
Read more about IWA National Festival: Development, IWA National Festival Sites, Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or festival:
“We want, and must have, a national policy, as to slavery, which deals with it as being wrong.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)