This occurs in the first weekend in May, it is a May Day Celebration and is a throwback to pagan traditions, but it coincides with the tradition of Chimney Sweeps welcoming the summer so that they could clean the dirty chimneys Dancers and Musicians converge on the street to provide a wonderfully colourful spectacle. (Such things are laid on in London, but are geared towards the tourist). Rochester is a completely different thing as the spirit of the May Day festival is certainly alive and dancing with no other motive other than to celebrate and enjoy  this ancient tradition.

Sweeps Festival
This celebration held on May Day weekend can only be described as “the only typical English Day�?of the year.

The annual Sweeps Festival brings an extravaganza of colour, music and atmosphere, attracting thousands of visitors to Rochester.  The festival owes its roots to age old traditions.  Sweeping chimneys was a dirty but necessary trade nearly 300 years ago.  It was hard work for the sweeps and even harder toil for the chimney boys.

The Sweeps annual holiday on May 1st represented a much welcomed break and they celebrated it with a procession through the streets accompanied by the Jack-in-the-Green.  This seven  foot character is traditionally woken at dawn on May Day from his slumber on Bluebell Hill and then travels to Rochester to start the festivities.

The celebrations were vividly described by Charles Dickens in his “Sketches by Boz�?

With the passing of the Climbing Boys Act in 1868 making it illegal to employ young boys to clean inside chimneys, the tradition gradually waned and finally died.  The celebrations in Rochester stopped in the early 1900’s.

It was revived in the 1980’s by historian, Gordon Newton, who, as well as being the Festival Director, plays melodeon for several Morris dancing teams.  His Morris team, the Motley Morris, are custodians of the Jack-in-the-Green.  Gordon researched the sweeps�?tradition and in 1981 organised a small parade, featuring a group of Morris dancers.

The Festival has now further grown in popularity and attracts many thousands of revellers, keen to either dress up and take part in the Sweeps Parade or to simply watch and take in the atmosphere.

Dance teams from throughout the UK perform a variety of styles of dance while bands and musical groups perform at various venues, playing music from folk to guitar to traditional singing styles. At the end of the day, the music continues late through the evening in many of Rochester’s public houses. 

 

Dickens Festival

Rochester comes alive with the celebration of Charles Dickens in the first week of June celebrating the works of the great novelist with the 'Dickens Festival.' Many visitors from all over the country and across the globe come to Rochester to see this extraordinary festival.

The Dickens Fellowship Society and many others join in the celebrations by dressing up in Victorian costume and parading the streets of Rochester and the Castle gardens. There is nowhere in the world you can see this festival of all Dickens characters, which include, good old Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, Magwitch, Pip, Miss Havisham, Bill Sykes with his faithful dog Bullseye and many more other characters that Dickens portrayed in his novels. 

Walk back in time along Rochester High Street and feel the atmosphere. Visit the Victorian shops and the craft stalls to find that unusual gift. 

Mr. Pickwick arrives by train to Rochester and heads the Saturday afternoon parade along Rochester High Street towards the Norman Castle. People line the High Street to cheer and wave as the parade passes.

In the evening, all the local drinking houses are full of entertainment or visit one of the restaurants for an evening meal.

Dickensian Christmas
Again Rochester comes alive with the Dickensian Christmas. Very much similar to the summer festival but with the emphasis on the Christmas novel “A Christmas Carol.�?Join in with the Dickens characters, street entertainers, the atmosphere is full of Christmas tunes.

It always snows in Rochester with the addition of an artificial snow machine, unless the real stuff turns up! The smell of roasting chestnuts fills the high street, skate on the ice rink in the castle gardens. The finale of the festival is the Dickensian candlelight Parade through the High Street culminating in Christmas carols outside the Cathedral.

http://www.historic-uk.com/DestinationsUK/Rochester.htm