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International Pillow Fight Day, London

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  • BRITAIN
Apr 10 2014

Hundreds of people descended on Trafalgar Square last Saturday for a massive pillow fight. Taking place each year on April 5th in cities right across the world, it’s become an international event, a flash mob of sorts. While Trafalgar Square itself, coincidentally, happened to be closed off to the public for ‘maintenance’, the fluffy battle took place on the North terrace, in front of The National Gallery (which proved to be a good vantage point until all access was closed off there too). No matter, all the buskers and ‘human statues’ that line the terrace for the tourists attention packed […]

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Combat De Reines

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  • ABROAD
May 14 2012

These are not just cows, these are Hérens cows, and 199 of them battled it out to be crowned the ‘Queen of Cows’ (french: Combat De Reines) to a crowd of about 12,000 to 13,000 on the 5th and 6th May in Aproz, in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. They’re named after the alpine Val d’Hérens region of Switzerland. The black, brown or dark red coloured cattle are very muscular and have short and broad heads sporting strong horns. The breed is unique to the alpine regions. Cow fighting is said to have originated when the villages of the […]

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World Gravy Wrestling Championships

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  • BRITAIN
Sep 02 2009

Gravy –  2,000 litres of the stuff (all out-of-date) was supplied by Bisto on the weekend to help competitors battle it out in front of a judging panel to become the world’s best gravy wrestler. Held at the Rose ‘n’ Bowl pub in Stacksteads, Lancashire, all the action took place on their bowling green in a 16ft wide paddling pool, with plenty of extra padding around to soften the fall. Each round is 2 minutes long, and points are awarded on fighting performance and entertainment value. Joel Hicks, fighting name ‘Stone Cold Steve Bisto’ took the men’s title from last […]

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About this blog

The vast majority of posts in this blog are about quirky & eccentric competitions & festivals. I started it in 2006 in France with a competition I’ll never forget. Where contestants battle it out to become the World Champion Pig Squeeler, or ‘Cri du Cochon’. I had little knowledge back then of quite how far my pursuit of these kind of events would lead me. I’ve travelled all over Britain (and occasionally further afield) to capture our curiosities and quirks. There’s nothing uniquely eccentric about the British, you’ll find people all over the world up to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities, but we do have a remarkable capacity to embrace the madness. ‘A Brit Different’ is the book that was born from it, my labour of love! So what next? There’s always something interesting going on, so watch this space, only time will tell!

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Recent Posts

  • Classic Blue Pantone Colour of the Year 2020
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