St Ives is gearing up for its annual Feast Day, celebrating the town’s patron saint, Eia, which will take place this year on Monday, 10th February.
St Ives mayor Johnnie Wells on the Guildhall balcony last year.
Photograph: St Ives Town Council
The civic party will leave from the Guildhall between 9.15 and 9.30am, along with musicians and schoolchildren, making their way to St Ia Well, Porthmeor. There, the parish priest will bless a silver ball, which is then processed to St Ia Church.
At 10.30am the ball is hurled into a gathering of the young people of the parish, who tussle around town to gain possession of it for an hour and a half, before returning it to the mayor, at the Guildhall, at noon. Whoever has the ball then receives a reward.
For many years Bagas Porthia have provided a wonderful musical accompaniment for various civic parades and events in St Ives. This year it was announced that group leaders Dee and Dave Brotherton would be entrusting this important role to a newly-formed processional band.
This new group will accompany Monday’s parade to Venton Ia (also known as St Ia’s Well) for the traditional Blessing of the Silver Ball. Then, they will move on to St Ia Church where mayor Johnnie Wells will hurl the ball to the waiting crowd.
In addition to the familiar tune of Bodmin Riding, the group will also be playing Up’long and Down’long, written by co-director Gavin Nicol. The group aims to involve previous musicians as well as encouraging new talent from across the community.
In an addition to the usual programme, pupils from St Ives Infants will be joining children from St Uny to dance in the parade. Both schools are excited to be expanding the reach of the event.
“It’s really important for the children to take part in the local tradition and support the St Ives community,” St St Ives Infants headteacher Richard Wigham.
Following a successful first year in 2024, the Scalybacks of Hakeybay will be returning to the streets of St Ives on the evening of Feast, continuing the ancient tradition of guising.
During the Middle Ages, ‘Guise’ or ‘Geese’ dancing was a common activity in the southwest of Cornwall. Guising was particularly popular in St Ives in the 1800s, but declined towards the end of the century.
Cyril Noall makes references to the early days of guise dancing in The Book of St Ives (1977). He wrote: “Young people would dress up in all manner of fancy costumes, and, with their faces covered, visit their friends – sometimes their enemies – in companies, and dance, and exchange pleasantries in a high falsetto voice, in order to escape recognition. They were usually entertained with a drink and some seasonal fare before proceeding to the next house, where the performance was repeated. The streets wore a carnival aspect. The custom died out between the wars, but was revived in the late ’70s as part of Feast Monday celebrations.”
In 2023, The Scaleybacks of Hakeybay Guise Guild was formed by a group of St Ives friends, first attending Penzance Montol, then, in 2024, Feast in St Ives. They are made up of St Ives residents: those from the workforce, artists and musicians to town charities, and those involved in community-based projects. Some of the current members even have ancestors who guised in the town in years gone by.
The group will be assembling at 7pm at the Golden Lion, to parade through the streets, singing and making music, to chase out winter and awaken the spring. More details can be found on their Facebook page.
Other fixtures in the Feast week celebration are two church services, one at St Uny Church, Lelant, on Sunday, 2nd February, and another a week later at St Ia Parish Church, in St Ives.
There is also a rugby club scheduled for 7pm on Feast Day, hosted at St Ives RFC, though this has yet to be confirmed.
