Review: CROSSWALK

Due respect must be given to Crosswalk and its Don’t Walk organisers, for throwing a novel day-drinking event at Kinkell to compete with the FS-run Starfields. The event was intended to be in the style of a ‘New York Carnival’, with pole jousting, fairground games, candy floss, face painting and pumping tunes going all afternoon.

Hoards of day-drinking enthusiasts boarded the worryingly-familiar buses in the early afternoon to be carted off to Kinkell, with its surrounding fields offering inflatable assault courses, fairground games and rides not to mention the rolling mist. I think I speak for myself as well as the vast majority of Crosswalk attendants when I say that the free rides, candy floss and popcorn made up for the lacklustre weather.

The Don’t Walk team also held a raffle, that was unfortunately not well enough advertised, but resulted in a lucky few Crosswalk attendees bagging a trip to Amsterdam, a night at the Old Course, two £300 NARS makeup prizes and a magnum of champagne. An extra personal favourite of mine was the luxury chocolate shop stand, which provided free samples throughout the event, and by the end of the day I had ‘sampled’ every truffle on offer, several times.

Kinkell was decorated with New York themed street signs , with DJs performing impressive sets of tunes over the darkly-lit dance floor. Face-painting and photo booths occupied those who couldn’t hack the chill outside and engaged the enthusiastic party-goers who were prematurely removed from the outside fairground area due to it being closed early by security.

What did not work in the favour of Crosswalk was the typical grey and hazy Scottish weather, a bit of a downer as the best parts of the event were outdoors. Something that was fully out of DW’s hands, but the event could also have done with a stronger turnout, as Kinkell Byre is so enormous that it overwhelms anything less than a huge crowd.

Overall, a great effort from Don’t Walk and a fun time had by all, hopefully to be improved on next year by better weather and a stronger turnout.