‘Trad’ boat festival holding onto July dates

The organisers of the Thames Traditional Boat Festival hope it can go ahead as planned despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The annual exhibition of vintage boats and cars is scheduled to take place at Fawley Meadows from July 17 to 19.

Despite a swathe of other events, including Henley Royal Regatta and the Henley Festival, being cancelled or postponed, the “Trad” is still scheduled to take place, according to the Henley Standard.

“Unlike the regatta, we need only five days to set up the Trad — five days of incredibly hard work from all involved,” says Lady McAlpine, co-chairman of the event.

“If the Government allows it, we will hold the 42nd Thames Traditional Boat Festival this year, which is why we are keeping fingers crossed.

“When lockdown came, we had our valuable sponsorship from the Shanly Foundation, most of our boat entries in and most of our trade bookings, so all we have said to everyone is ‘hold on and pray’.

“If we still have to cancel, we hope we can just roll all the bookings over to next year.”

About 15,000 people attended last year’s festival, lining the banks of the Thames to watch around 150 boats on display, including some of the most iconic steamers, according to the Henley Standard.

The row barge, Gloriana, which was privately commissioned to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee in 2012, performed several row pasts over the three days.

This year, the Dunkirk Little Ships, which are also a regular at the boat festival, will be marking the 80th anniversary of the evacuation.

Around 850 boats sailed from England to northern France as part of Operation Dynamo and helped to rescue more than 336,000 British, French and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches in May and June 1940 during the Second World War.

Lady McAlpine added: “This is the largest gathering of traditional river craft in the world, from coracles to Edwardian steam launches, to Sixties film stars’ toys.

“Around 30 Dunkirk Little Ships tend to treat the Trad as their annual get-together and as they are probably going to be thwarted of their big trip to France in May to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Dunkirk, for their sake alone we are hoping that the Trad will be on.

“We also attract dozens of amphibious vehicles which have a tendency to steal the show.

“There are usually one or two special interest boats, such as the amazingly restored First World War radio-controlled torpedo boat. This was literally controlled from the air by radio.

“This year we hope that visitors will be able to watch this boat travel up the Thames as a controlling bi-plane flies overhead.”