An amateur film by Betty Cook from the Cleveland Cine Club of the Cleveland Youth Association first Riverside Carnival taking place on and around the river Tees at Stockton-on-Tees on the 1st July 1978. The film opens on an advertising poster featuring an image of sailing ships on a river. Writing in the poster reads ‘River Carnival. Stockton Riverside. July 1st 1978'. The film cuts to the Castlegate Marine Club along the River Tees at Stockton and general views of activities taking...

An amateur film by Betty Cook from the Cleveland Cine Club of the Cleveland Youth Association first Riverside Carnival taking place on and around the river Tees at Stockton-on-Tees on the 1st July 1978. The film opens on an advertising poster featuring an image of sailing ships on a river. Writing in the poster reads ‘River Carnival. Stockton Riverside. July 1st 1978'. The film cuts to the Castlegate Marine Club along the River Tees at Stockton and general views of activities taking place along the riverside and on the water. There is a view of the ship, the ‘Bonadventure’ moored along the river and a number of home-made boats on display along the riverbank. In the water, a man wearing a wetsuit puts on a pair of water skis before being pulled along the river by speedboat. Women in hula-skirts and other costumes walk along the riverbank intercut with other people water-skiing on the water. On a table are a number of models. A banner along the edge of the table reads ‘Community Service’. On the water a Viking long ship cuts to show what appears to be windsurf boards on wheels. From a slipway, a number of home-made rafts are launched into the Tees, their crews paddle across the water. One is in the design of a tube of toothpaste. A motorboat pulls one boat that is in the shape of the cartoon character Snoopy’s kennel as a police motor launch passes. A man points at the lettering on his friends t-shirt that read ‘To All You Virgins… Thanks for Nothing!’ Members of the St John Ambulance stand next to the caravan then the film cuts to a raised platform on which a man, believed to be Alastair Pirrie of BBC Radio Cleveland, wearing a dinner-jacket and bow-tie speaks with another man. A small group comes down from the platform, one of them holding aloft a small trophy. The film cuts to show a group of women in hula-skirts coming down off the platform and posing with their trophy at the bottom of the steps.   Back on the platform general views follow of a small group and a man holding a walkie-talkie radio. On the water a blue motor boat passes followed by the Viking longboat. Writing on the stern of the longboat reads ‘Davy kings burning and pillaging at reasonable rapes’. The film cuts to general views of people water skiing along the Tees filmed from the speedboat intercut with views of people along the riverside and a couple standing on the raised platform. One man performs a number of tricks on the water. Back on the platform, a microphone is held to the mouth of a man who presents another with a trophy. ‘Radio Tees River Carnival Challenge Cup’ is etched onto the front of the trophy. On the river, a flotilla of small boats travels past. A dog watches proceedings from the deck of a ship. A Sealink helicopter flies overhead. The film ends with the Viking long boats being pushed along the road and other boats being dismantled and taken away at the end of the day. Title: Finish