Age-old straw bear festival returns to Cambridgeshire

The Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival, which dates to at least the mid-19th century, returned this year, drawing thousands of people to the Cambridgeshire town. The traditional event included a man dressed as a straw animal who is then paraded through the town. A procession led by the bear marched through the town, near Peterborough, on Saturday (11/01) alongside roughly 250 dancers and musicians. The effigy of the straw bear will be burned at Decoy Lakes today to mark the end of the celebration. Festival president Brian Kell told the BBC he was “feeling positive” (a missed opportunity to say “pawsitive”) about the weekend and that the more people who attended “the merrier”.

Ice skaters take to frozen Fens

Ice skaters have been making the most of the sub-zero temperatures by heading to the Fens, which have flooded and subsequently frozen over. On Saturday, a group of skating enthusiasts headed to Upware, with 58-year-old skater Paul Jansen telling Cambridgeshire Live: “If you manage to get a little bit of speed on the ice, it’s glorious.” However, Jansen noted that the “ice is a little bit on the thin side,” warning people not to be “too ambitious”. Another skater, Ugo Sassi, said that Fen skating is about “freedom,” adding that “all the people are very friendly”.

Revision rave returns!

Although a spokesperson for the University of Cambridge previously told Varsity that the pomodoro rave was a “one-off event,” it is set to return to West Hub next month starting with a “Retro 80s/Taylor Swift & Country” rave night. The event hosted at West Hub markets itself as helping you to “transform your study game” as well as enabling you to “revitalize your creativity, elevate your wellbeing and maximise your output”. It will once again include three 25-minute study sessions with silent disco breaks, with sessions taking place 16:30-18:30 and 18:30-20:30 on Wednesday, 19 February.

Police weed out more than 1,000 marijuana plants from Cambridgeshire homes

Cambridgeshire Constabulary announced on Thursday that four men had been charged following the discovery of more than 1,000 marijuana plants worth more than £1 million in two Cambridgeshire houses. Police visited the properties after members of the public raised concerns. The plants were found across 18 different rooms in two five-bedroom houses located on Mill Road, Fen Drayton. Neighbourhood Inspector Colin Norden said: “On the outside these two properties look like lovely family homes in a quiet village. The insides tell a completely different story, once two designer homes destroyed with windows boarded, holes in walls, doors removed and cabling everywhere to create a sophisticated cannabis production.”