St Leger Roman Weekend

The weekend of the 6th and 7th September saw us back in sunny Doncaster - or should that be Danum! Actually the Saturday wasn’t so sunny, in fact there was talk of us all joining the Roman navy at one point! We seriously thought our luck with the weather this year had finally run out, because it poured!

We spent Saturday in our Tunisian costumes trying to convince our audience, and ourselves, that it really wasn’t as cold and wet as it felt. I have to say we were very grateful that we were able to share the shelter of the command tent with the Deva Victrix women.

Meroe and Phoenece take shelter

But thankfully, just after lunchtime, the rain stopped and not only were we able do a bit of dancing, we even got some of the Romans up to join us.

Meroe teaching one of the Romans to dance

Of course the only problem with a cold wet day, where dancing is difficult, is that often there is nothing else to do but eat cake! We surprised ourselves on the Saturday by managing to get not one, not two, but three helpings of cake in before 4 o’clock!

Phoenece and Tameri tuck in

But despite the weather, the good folk of Doncaster turned out in force to see us and what dancing we were able to do was to a reasonably sized and very appreciative audience.

One of the nice things about our events in Doncaster is that we get to stay in town on the Saturday night and therefore have a chance to let our hair down. This year was a bit of a busman’s holiday because we ended up in a Turkish Restaurant - Turkuaz. We had a great meal and got to dance with the resident dancer.

Kebi and the dancer

We then went on to a pub in town to dance the night away - well we had missed out on dancing during the day, so what could we do? Now before you ask, there is photograph and even video evidence of what we got up to. However, it’s probably best you are spared that. Let’s just say that what happened in Doncaster is best left in Doncaster!

So on to day two - a brilliant, bright, sunny Sunday - what a contrast. We were able to get our little home from home set up and even managed some mini-me dress up and some henna. Sunday in Doncaster is always a very gentle day, but once the troops were back from marching round town we greeted the following crowds with our first dance set and even managed to get some of them up and dancing.

Performing the Nubian set

From that point on, it was all systems go. The Romans followed our set with a military display, then we followed them with our second dance set. That led straight into the kids’ army and before we knew it, it was 2:30 in the afternoon and .... you guessed, it time for tea and cake. Well come on! We had missed lunch!

This afternoon we took our tea in the amazing Doncaster Minster which is currently raising funds for some much needed restoration - if you’ve not been inside the minster you should go - the windows are beautiful. Although it has to be said that on Sunday I’m not quite sure that the ladies serving the tea had had quite so many Roman goddesses in the minster in one go!

Tea in the minster - Naima, Meroe, Phoenece, Temari and Kebi

Having been suitably revived by tea and cake we came to the main event of the weekend - the Gladiator Show - and for the first time in the history of Ya Raqs’ involvement with the St Leger Festival, it wasn’t blowing a hooley so we were able to dance with the veils without them getting wrapped round our heads!

We had a great time working with Deva Victrix and the VIII Augusta.

Group photo at the end of the day

Our thanks to Colin Joy and his team from Doncaster Tourism, to the staff at the Premier Inn and the St Leger Festival – we had a great time and hope to do it all again next year.