Naseby Rally & Clubfest May 2026

The rally began on Thursday this time, and we had 15 vans here. Roger & Elaine were our marshals and gave the whole weekend an Insects theme, starting with a butterfly quiz for our vans-we should have known what to expect. Two hours rehearsal followed by the customary wine and nibbles. It was a nice surprise to see Kath & Maurice who arrived for the evening practice only (& the wine I’ll bet!)🤪

Friday dawned and the sun was ‘cracking the flags’ as we would say in Yorkshire. What a scorcher! Men rehearsed first whilst the ladies worked on their tan, then it was our turn-a nice through breeze from the open doors and we did more work on Hey Jude. Two hour lunch break then back to it. 4pm saw us back to the sunshine and a little beverage! BBQs were out in force and had a lovely get together-friends, food and wine, What’s not to like? Social didn’t start until 8pm so everyone had time to enjoy the weather for a change. Once in the hall, there was a quiz on the tables but I then saw Rummikub being played on every table! Baz & Brian entertained us on guitar and ukulele until we finally packed up around 10ish.

Saturday and yet another scorcher! Rehearsals today are 10-12 & 2-4, because of course we’re doing ok with the music, which we sang in Scotland plus Hey Jude. We finished the session by listening to a few pieces of new music which Brian & Roger have prepared ready for us to learn-very exciting! How lovely it is to see everyone sitting outside their vans enjoying the weather ☀

Roger & Elaine excelled themselves tonight-instead of table numbers we had to find the picture of our insect, to see where we were sitting! Then insect glasses to wear and butterflies to scratch and colour! Same theme for the table quiz before we started the beetle drive, and moving round the tables. The raffle raised £80 from our small group, and after a music quiz and the rest of the beetle drive we managed to kick everyone out by about 10.15!

Sunday had Quiet Reflections followed by a normal rehearsal. I had to become a dog catcher during Hush a Bye, but managed! Quite a few of us had booked lunch at the Royal Oak, but the reviews weren’t as favourable as ours from Wednesday night. Back to the site to snooze in either the sun or shade, depending on your preference! We pushed the get together back to 8 clock again to take advantage of the lovely weather, and had another evening of games and quizzes-more insects!

Monday & Clubfest day is even hotter!🥵 The bus arrived 10.00 to collect 23 of us plus all our equipment, and only took around quarter of an hour to get there. After unloading we had an hour and a half to wander round the stalls and spend our money. Most of us ended up in the bar for a soft drink and a sit down before going along to set the marquee up. We had around 32 people join us during the session, which was really good considering how hot it was. Our performance went really well, though Brian cut it short by a couple of songs as it was becoming unbearably hot. We ended by leaving the stage and joining the audience to sing Hey Jude with them, and then Why we Sing. Wonderful, had lots of positive comments and also a few expressions of interest in joining 🤞 🤞 🤞.

Everyone was so hot when we got back, that we waited until 8pm then had round the flag outside, Rolling Home of course and then spent the rest of the evening chatting around Roger’s van.

Everyone left on Tuesday after a very good week together. The consensus of opinion was that it had gone very well, and we would all like to repeat it next year.