Visitors were treated to a wide range of live cartooning events, many of which were completely free of charge. Caricaturists drew the queueing masses, gag cartoonists created large pictures on the spot and exhibited them around the town, and aspiring cartoonists were welcomed to workshops and advice sessions. Political cartoonist and writer Martin Rowson gave a hilarious talk entitled 'Giving Offence, the Greatest Gift', with tickets priced at a modest fiver. While the aim of the festival is to raise the profile of cartooning and get the public involved, there were also oppotunities for the professionals to make a little money by selling their originals as part of a themed exhibition.
The event was a lot of fun for all involved, with some of the pros looking exhausted by the end of it. The celebratory dinner on Saturday night probably didn't help the energy levels, with a lot of booze flowing until the early hours of Sunday morning.
One of the focal points of the festival was the creation of a series of 'Big Boards' in the town square, with each cartoonist filling a 6'x8' surface with a gag based around this year's theme. Here are a few of them:
Well-known greeting card cartoonist Bestie works on his Big Board
Wilbur's completed board
Australian cartoonist Jason Chatfield defied the ash cloud and made it to Shrewsbury, taking a pop at the situation in this cartoon
Steve Way's coven
Veteran gagster Martin Honeysett's contribution
Sun cartoonist Andy Davey's board nears completion
Then there were the 'Humurals': large-scale cartoons on the myth and magic theme, hand-drawn on the spot and exhibited around town. Here are some of the results, hanging in the Darwin Shopping Centre (the Harry Potter gag is a personal favourite, simply because it's in such bad taste):