Hagrid and Flitwick enjoyed the ancient custom of cheese rolling in a grand photo op in Stilton, UK yesterday. Warwick Davis, star of STAR WARS, HARRY POTTER, WILLOW and several other films, is a local, and was there to bless the festival with Ewok homilies. He was soon joined by Robbie Coltrane, who plays the giant Hagrid in the Potter pictures. The duo was united to participate in Stilton’s annual cheese trundling fest. You’d not be advised to slice up the prize cheese for a bit of Welsh rarebit, however : it’s actually a piece of wood.
Made out of a telegraph pole, the “cheese” is trundled along the High Street by teams of bizarrely-dressed competitors who brave tussles and tumbles to cross the finish line first.
This year, participants donning traffic cones, scarecrow outfits and electric pink bubble perms made up one of the most eccentric line-ups the race had ever seen.
Local celebrity Mr Davis, who has starred in films such as Harry Potter and Star Wars, kickstarted the action with a rousing speech.
Speaking beforehand, he said the magic of the festival lay in its novelty value.
“This is the fourth year I’ve opened the festival. You don’t see this every day and can’t see it anywhere else,” he said.
While we’re sad that in this day and age you can’t use actual cheese to roll down the streets, we’re glad there is an Internet.
Being half British and half American (and I am an American citizen) I must wonder if there’s any part of me that isn’t all crazy. CRAZY FUN!!! I’m sure that there are those who would peg this as a foolish waist of time, endorsed only by baboons and airheads, but “Life is much too important to be taken seriously.” – Oscar Wilde God bless them, and I hope they all have a really good time at it.
Run, Warwick! Robbie is going to eat you!!
I was there! (Although I had no idea that Robbie was there – I must have been in the pub at the time). My time made the quarter finals and would have made the semis if not for a minor rule that we’d overlooked!
And just to please you Heidi, in the final you *do* get to roll a real stilton down the highstreet!