THEY promised something for everyone and organisers of the 1998 Bury Streets Ahead Festival delivered.

The performers and the public of the borough also made it a huge success for the area.

In fact, the only things which didn't deliver were the dark clouds which hung ominously all morning.

Fears of a washout like the one last year were swept away at 1.30pm when a maroon went off, broke a window in the Met Arts Centre, and signalled the start of Streets Ahead 1998.

Where else could you learn to juggle, listen to a band who don't mind being a load of rubbish, be dragged into a mime act to pose for a photograph with a game senior citizen and see a topless woman outside Bury Parish Church?

Nowhere I've ever been before.

The nature of Streets Ahead makes it a moving feast, you wander round from turn to turn, stopping every now and then, enjoying an act then moving on to another one.

They ranged from the bizarre to the very bizarre: a one man band busking up and down the street you can just about cope with - even if he is on stilts - but a 20ft-plus long inflatable leech wearing a gas mask and a series of bowler hatted helpers? That's taking things a little further.

And the sheer variety helps, enjoyed by hundreds, probably thousands, of visitors, young and old and in between.

The 20-plus acts were spread between six main sites around the town centre.

Youngsters could be entertained by Ramsbottom's very own Bippo, the nation's youngest working clown, or try out a few circus skills of their own at the Environmental Village. The festival is mainly about street theatre, however, and there was plenty to enjoy.

The musical choices all splendid, with Weapons of Sound providing some recycled tunes using instruments made from bits of old rubbish in Kay Gardens and Inner Sense and Bury's own Zambura laying down fat Samba rhythms in the Market Place.

As with all arts events, there had to be something controversial, and French theatre group Cacahuete were there to provide it with The Wedding.

A piece of absurdist slapstick, it featured two men in evening dress pelting a wedding couple with a variety of increasingly bizarre things, until one of them sets fire to the bride's dress, leaving her as nature intended - but for briefs, stockings and suspenders.

Streets Ahead was Bury's contribution to the Greater Manchester Festival, which runs through this month in centres around the county.

Alan Oatey, director of the Met, said: "It was very much a team effort this year, and I would like to thank everybody involved in the organisation.

"The weather helped, it was certainly a relief not to be rained off like last year.

"Our first impressions were that it was every bit as successful as two years ago, when crowd estimates were in the region of 12,000 people.

"The festival had financial support from local businesses, plus the added attraction of many shops and the Mill gate centre being open on the day.

"We are now looking at what went on this year, and learning lessons we need before getting down to organising next year's festival," said Mr Oatey.

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