Catering calamity

4:42pm Friday 27th July 2007

I very much enjoyed Fly to the Past at Blenheim Palace on Sunday.

It was a new experience for me, as I cannot claim to be an authority or fan of aircraft of any description.

But the variety of the programme was such that I was persuaded my knowledge could do with a little expansion.

I am grateful to the friends who encouraged me to go.

There is, however, one note of criticism.

Although visitors were free to take picnics and dine beneath their portable gazebos, it should have been realised that not everyone wanted to pack sandwiches flasks and the like. I do not.

With the café at Blenheim Palace unaccountably closed for business, the enormous catering task was left in the public area to two trailers, a snack counter, a couple of ice cream vans and a mobile double decker bus masquerading as a bar and drinks stall, the coffee machine of which broke down before the clock stood at 12 o'clock high, as the airmen say in the best war films.

The result was queues reminiscent of those war years, recalled at the festival in music, song and historic aircraft.

Vera Lynn is one thing - queuing for bread rolls is another.

I hope this added realism was unintentional.

Somehow asking me to pay £40 for a ticket and expecting me to take part in a re-enactment of a less romantic version of the Dunkirk spirit in 2007 was a bit much. VIC PETERSON, Buckingham Road, Bicester