Grassroots Festival in Birmingham, ''One big Party''!
In the meantime, Pelota has become Internationally known. Streetwisesoccer invited us to come and have a look at the English way of Panna. We were asked to give some demo's to the English public at one of the biggest football fair in Europe, The Grass Roots Football Festival.
And so we went off to Birmingham. On arrival we had a warm welcome by the organisation of Streetwisesoccer. From there we went straight to the fair, which was being held in a hall next to the airport. Here we could loosen up after our long sit on the flight over to Birmingham. The English and Dutch tricks and Panna's were shown to eachother. After dinner and the exchange of idea's between both Pelota and Streetwisesoccer it was off to bed, as the next morning it was an early rise for us.
On the arrival at the fair, it was one big football heaven! Straight away we saw that football is number one in England. Fathers and sons who stroll round the fair for three days, with a big smile on there face. The football mania was the same at our stand. In 3-a-side matches, we as Dutch dared all English spectators to a match. A Panna or Nutmeg was two points, a goal one point. We played untill three points and the winner took on the next opponent. The enthusiasm was tremendous!
Besides the 3-a-side matches, there was a challenge for all the children to try and give our streetsoccer player Matthew Gernaat a Panna in a head-to-head match. If they succeeded, a footbal could be won. If not, it was game over. Unfortunately, the 67 children and adults that had a try could not manage to give Matthew a nutmeg. For Matthew thought, it was a personal record to go so many matches unbeaten in a row! Thanks to the great succes and the bond that accured between both organisations during the three days, there will be another cooperation between the two organisations. So don't miss our next event! Which is the 16th of July, when Pelota will show artistic talent in the Wembley Stadium of London.
