Prismatic Reflection

Prismatic Reflection
Something strange happened just the other day, well it was last Saturday morning as it happens, and it happened in mid morning. I was working on a newsletter which I produce The Tally Ho, when there was Portmeirion on the television, on BBC NEWS 24 to be perfectly exact. A news reporter was reporting from that music festival held at Portmeirion, Festival No.6 as it was called. Anyway up we jumped my wife and I to see, to see Portmeirion…..
    You see we haven’t been to Portmeirion since 2003. Well it’s changed, that happened after Health and Safety moved in after an accident there in which a woman was injured falling backwards over the balustrade by the lawn of the hotel. That was back in the late 1990’s. They had to put up hand railings, and safety railings everywhere. Portmeirion has changed, plus it’s all gone very commercialised, anyway the desire to go back to the Italianate Village dissipated, plus the fact that it’s very expensive to stay there now. We used to stay in a self-catering cottage for two, either Upper or Lower Trinity. But everywhere, save for the larger self-catering cottages have been turned over to expensive serviced rooms. Even though my wife and I have no real desire to return to Portmeirion, the old feelings about the Italianate Village remain. What I mean is, we used to be so interested in what happened at Portmeirion, collecting newspaper and magazine articles, recording television programmes in which Portmeirion appeared. But we haven’t done that in years, but the old feelings appear still to remain, lying dormant until woken. But I digress, I have got away from my original train of thought.
    It appeared to me, judging by the BBC NEWS 24 report, that the Festival No.6, was not a so run-of-the-mill music festival. People just out to enjoy themselves, the music, and Portmeirion. Also there were no muddy fields, although that might have changed on the Sunday, as it had been raining in Portmeirion by the time I snooped in on the festival via the webcams. Not that the webcams reveal too much, because they don’t. You would think that a place like the Village would have decent surveillance equipment wouldn’t you?!
     In the piece I watched on the Saturday morning about Festival No.6, much was being of ‘the Prisoner,’ in fact people were excited about the fact that they were there at a music festival, in the Village of ‘the Prisoner.‘ One chap wearing a piped blazer was interviewed, an obvious fan, but his wife or girl friend wasn’t. The fan had briefed the woman on ‘the Prisoner,’ but I don’t think she fell for it, and didn’t seem very impressed by ‘the Prisoner’ at all.
    I had heard that a couple of re-enactments from ‘the Prisoner’ were to be performed over the weekend. The human chess match from ‘Checkmate,’ and the election parade from ‘Free for All..’ I have no idea why the organisers of Festival No.6 should want this, after all the weekend was dedicated to music. Anyway I’ve no idea whether or not the two re-enactments were performed or not. I think the organising of such re-enactments were dependent on some members of Six of One: the Prisoner Appreciation Society attending the festival.
     When it comes to keeping a close surveillance eye on Portmeirion, my wife made the comment, as we snooped in on the Festival No.6 on the Saturday, that Portmeriion looked like how it was in the old days of Prisoner Conventions. And I had to agree with her. Well that’s how it appeared to be. When the Prisoner Convention was being held in Portmeirion at the end of March beginning of April, it was as though the entire Village had gone on the annual democratic outing. There being hardly anyone about the Village.
     You see I like to keep myself informed, my finger on the pulse of the situation you understand. Indeed my wife and I are looking forward to attending a performance of Paul Goslings one act play Magic Number Six, and to meeting Paul Gosling himself. And you may depend that I shall be writing about the experience in a piece of blog for both your enjoyment and information.

I’ll be seeing you