Folklore and Festivals
You don't need a passport to get into North Cornwall, but at times you'll think you're in a foreign country. Things are strangely different.
For
example, Padstow folk celebrate the coming of summer by decking out the town
with greenery and chasing the 'Obby 'Oss through the streets. At the Poughill
Revel, children grab money from behind another Hobby Horse's ears, while in
the village of Marhamchurch on the day of the Revel, there's a fine hullabaloo
as Old Father Time crowns the Revel Queen. And there are more Pretty Maids
at St Peters Fayre, just across the Tamar in Holsworthy.
You'll enjoy the blast and whistle
of St Issey traction engine rally, just one of the many village fairs and
carnivals which crop up everywhere, all with a special Cornish flavour. On
the menu you'll find Cornish brass bands, Cornish dancing and wrestling -
keeping alive a rich tradition with its roots deep in Celtic history. 
That heritage is commemorated too at Tintagel, at the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Camlann, where you can travel back in time to AD 539, when the Cornish were slaughtered by Egbert, King of Wessex.
Bodmin's Riding and Heritage day is not only a colourful medieval pageant featuring a mock hanging of the Mayor, it's also the culmination of the Cornwall Theatre Festival - a week of drama, dance and music. Indeed, from the twice-yearly St Endellion Music Festival to the scores of village pantomimes and carnivals you'll see that there's plenty in North Cornwall to make a song and dance about.
North Cornwall 2002 - Atlantic Heritage Coast