Nameless Festival 2010

Another year in the Pilbara and another Nameless Festival has come and gone. Last year we sighed as we snuggled up in bed on Parade Day, knowing we didn't have to get out in the cold. But a new year has come and our second child is in kindy and so it was time to get him dressed and ready for his big day out.

The Nameless Festival is really just a small-town fair, when the carnival comes to town and our kids get to decorate trucks in the style of the theme of the festival (this year's being Around the World) and walk or be carried in the back of the truck from Lions Park to the fair grounds at the footy oval. It's not a long parade and most of the spectators are parents whose children are parading. So the children at our school were asked to dress in another country's national costume. Fortunately, we have lots of Maasai cloth we brought back from Tanzania and so we dressed our boy in some of that. You'll note from the picture that there is a little gender confusion as he has the women's necklace on and is holding a beaded Maasai club. We just thought it looked good, and so we apologise if we've made any cultural faux pas.

The Festival is also an indicator that the end of the year is near and the weather is about to warm up. Winter is the best time here as we have the most beautiful warm days of around 25 degrees and then we can cool down in the evenings to a "chilly" (for us) temperature of sometimes 2 or 3 degrees. It rarely rains in winter - although after a dry summer, some of us wished it had this year. So Nameless Festival is the time that the weather is starting to change and we can look forward to another hot, hot, hot summer.

The kids also have a lovely time on the fair amusements as well as eating lots of very bad food (other than the very good devonshire teas provided by the combined church group). Since we had only just got back from holidays, we decided the kids could forego a show bag this year. We also missed the fireworks on Friday night as we'd had a long week, having travelled from New Zealand to Perth all day Sunday and then travelling 16 hours in the car on Tuesday from Perth to Tom Price, and our kids couldn't stay awake for them. So thus comes to an end winter and the Nameless Festival weekend 2010. Time to look forward to the weather warming up and the pool being used again.