The long awaited debut of Hatfield’s £27,000 portable stage finally took place on Saturday. Having spent the past two months in storage, preparations for its journey began at 7 am when Council operatives arrived at their Hilltop yard to tow the trailer down to the town centre. They were met at 8 am by four building contractors who were hired to assemble the stage in White Lion Square. By 11 am the stage was up and a sound engineer was preparing the sound system for the Folk Stock musical event starting at midday. Fortunately the rain and winds held off throughout, and by 1.30pm a crowd of around 60 people had gathered to see the various acts perform. Among the crowd were local councillors, Town Team members and other artists awaiting their turn. Several market stalls had also been placed around the square but only the local Youth Connexions organisation and a balloon stall appeared to be using one. The event finished around 3pm when the whole stage had to be dismantled and returned to storage once again. It is estimated that the free event cost local taxpayers about £600 to host.