Of course the day started with the children participating in their competition. My two oldest (Gabriel, aged 7, and Justine, aged 5) also participated. My youngest, Lucie (aged 3) will have the chance to take part next year :) The "mini-poussins" category had a brief training session with some of the instructors of the club, followed by kumite. Justine certainly seemed to enjoy herself, and she proudly showed us her participation medal at the end.
Gabriel was in the "poussins" group (next age group up) and equally enjoyed himself, even though he was eliminated in the first round 7 points to 5. No matter, it's not the winning or losing that counts, it's the participation in the first place!
After the children's competition, the adults involved performed demonstrations of various other aspects of karate and other arts, starting with a demonstration of two kata in the Shukokai style, as well as bunkai.
Next up was myself doing a demonstration of Iaido with a selection of kata from the Muso Shinden Ryu, Omori Ryu, Shoden series. 
(Though it was the first time I had performed any iaido kata on a spongy kumite mat... which had some rather interesting effects on balance during the kata "Ryuto" !) The children seemed almost spell-bound with this demonstration, they were completely silent during the demonstration. Then again, perhaps their parents had told them something along the lines of "we will call this guy over if you're naughty" -- who knows :)
Next was two young ladies from the Kobudo classes performing a bo kata and application, followed by Said Slimani with a kobudo kata using the Sansetsukon (3-sectioned staff) and finally a kumite (sparring/combat) demonstration.
After the demonstrations, the kids all received their participation medals, and the first, second, and third place winners in their categories received their trophies. The kids enjoyed it, but I think the adults enjoyed it even more :)
