Goose Green Fair - this Sunday (8 May)

[Michael Palaeologus]

........ you wouldnt know it though. No posters up and nothing substantial on this Forum.

A bit of an effort would be useful!! It has always been good fun.

[Atticus]

Sue has been sticking to the 'rules' and doing her bit in the What's On section. Agreed though, little on the forum generally.

[Dorothy]

No one looks in the What's On section.

[Atticus]

Apart from little sad ole Atticus!

[citizenED]

Well if no one looks in the What's On section I'm going to let you all know that the Artit's Open House Event starts tomorrow. If you have some spare time pop along to have a nose in an Artist's house - all this weekend, 11 - 6 and next weekent too. Dulwich Festival Open House

[Mark]

Dorothy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> No one looks in the What's On section.

Yes they do, I think if they had written "Goose Green Fair - this Sunday (8 May)" instead of "Festival Fair us back!" they'd get more interest.

[Michael Palaeologus]

There is a great big poster on the Goose Green fence promoting the ..... "Nunhead Cemetry Open Day"; nothing about the Goose Green Fair.

What communication I have seen has been strangely oblique with invitations to follow links to the Dulwich Festival.

Otherwise some people with stalls at the Fair have been gamely posting threads but little (that is obvious) from the organisers.

Why not promote the Goose Green Fair openly and clearly? It seems odd - we do want it to be a success, dont we?

[thomastillingthe3rd]

A cemetry open open day? talk about waking the dead !!

[Debi]

East Dulwich Writers' Group have a stall at the fair tomorrow. Hope lots of people will come along and say hello. And ... um ... buy books.

[pablogrande]

Don't know if it's just me but I always find the different fairs on goose green pretty disappointing. Just seems the same old stalls selling same old stuff and I have never been that desperate to find to buy a Peruvian cardigan. Maybe I'm a grumpy old man now but when I was a kid these kind of things were more about activities than shopping and wagon wheels were bigger then.

The nunhead cemetery open day though is the opposite, bird of prey, live music (primarily dead audience) and a few craft style things thumbs up from me

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Had great fun this afternoon. Sue - it's entirely your fault that I'm somewhat inebriated.

Davide, if you are reading this, you rock! Bushel - light - under - hide or what?

[Michael Palaeologus]

The Fair was good fun, loads of stalls, kids having a ball and great music courtesy of Sue and "The Goose is Out".

Well done one and all; but, next time - a bit more promotion beforehand please?

[maxxi]

Very busy fair - not sure if a bit more promotion would've made a difference.

I am a little in Pablo's camp though, and probably deserve the GOM title as much, but next time could we PLEASE have a little something for the fellahs? It was all fairy cakes and jewellery, cushions and faked victoriana, alternative therapies and esoteric tea... where were the men-who-make-things-in-sheds? the beer brewers, cheesemakers, collectors and vendors of special interest literature?

Look out next year for my stall selling "things made with a hammer"... and Bacon sandwiches.

[PeckhamRose]

Nice post maxxi and I agree your point even tho I am a girl.

I was at the Grand Designs thingy last week and in the food area heard a woman say, "What the bloody hell IS it about poncy fairy cakes!"

Having said that though, it was very very busy today and I liked the general vibe.

[ratty]

Gutted. Due to the fact that we did not know this was on, we went away this weekend! Poor Show in not advertising this as it is a great day!!

[StraferJack]

I'll bet a few stallholders woke up yesterday morning and cursed the weather - but it brightened up considerably and it was a lovely day

like maxxxi and PeckhamRose, some variety on the stall front would have have been nice I think.

On the plus side I thought the food offerenings were much improved

These guys in particular

showed the mexican on LL what CAN be done with mexican food

[BlackwaterCourtMarke]

I just thought I would step in with a few facts about the Festival Fair as I organised it. Is called the Festival Fair as it is part of the wider Dulwich Festival. So that is the name I have used to promote it for the last six years. I did a post in the What's On section following the EDF guidelines. It is included in the Dulwich Festival programme of which there are 30,000 copies printed and distributed. It was also widely covered in all SE Magazines which meant a further 20,000 households knew about the event.

I think anyone who attended yesterday could see that the event was indeed publicised well as it was so busy.

All in all, I think the event was a great success and anyone who has ideas for other stalls holders, please do pass on their details. There was over 130 stalls including extra food stalls this year. I provide a free bouncy castle, free face painting and badge making for the children. I know not everyone wants to buy a cupcake, but lots of people want to sell them!

I hope everyone who attended enjoyed themselves.

Thanks

Angela Burgess

[Michael Palaeologus]

Thanks Angela. I hope that our feedback was taken in the constructive spirit that it was given in.

Specifically:

"Festival Fair" doesnt mean alot if you dont know about/arent that interested in the Dulwich Festival - "Goose Green Fair" has more resonance to the people of East Dulwich, and "Goose Green Fair" is what it is known as by the local people who you want to visit the Fair

It does seem odd that there was no physical promotion of the Fair around ED or even Goose Green ie.a few posters and a banner in the same manner that the Nunhead Cemetary Open Day has been promoted

The mix of stalls might be broadened out

The Fair was a great success, thats not to say that taking on board the views of the local residents wouldnt make it even better next year.

[mockney piers]

Isn't Festival Fair somewhat tautologous?

Like a Party Shindig?

[Huguenot]

For some peculiar reason Festival Fair makes me think it's on the Southbank. If I'd have seen promotion for it I would have assumed that - so I totally agree with Rastapopoulos.

Having said that I'm glad it's Fair, not Fayre - which makes me want to kill people slowly.

Perhaps there's a way of trading shop window space for publicity for the stores on LL?

You did sound like a person who responds aggressively to constructive advice there Angela ;-)

[BlackwaterCourtMarke]

I must admit I didn't see my response as agressive, more a statement of fact, but apologies if that is how it has been taken. I take all the comments on board. The fair was called the Festival Fair as it was the team behind the Festival who asked me to do the event and to tie it in with the theme. There is already a Goose Green Fair held in the summer by a local school, so I was keen not to use the same name, so not to cause confusion. I think most local people know of the event (judging by how many turned up!), so I don't really think the name is a problem.

I have done banners before but they got removed by the Council! I can certainly look in to that next year. I have also put posters up before but to be honest it is a lot of work for one person to do and I do it as a volunteer, so there is a limit to how much time I can spend. The promotion has never been raised as a problem before, and the attendance is always great and more related to the weather than anything else.

The mix of stalls is very much based on who applies to come along. Lots of other stallholders would have loved to come along but have other regular Sunday events. I am always keen to hear of new people who might want to get involved.

If anyone fancies helping next year to put posters up, let me know, as it would be much appreciated.

Otherwise thanks for the comments, I hope that I anyone who can do something to help next year, lets me know.

[maxxi]

Just to reiterate my first point - it's hard to see how more promotion could've helped. As Peckham Rose says it was very busy, in fact the green was jointed the whole time i was there and it's hard to believe you could cram any more people in comfortably.

I would love to have got to the mexican food eulogised by jack but the queue was so long i settled for bangers.

Otherwise good job - i shall be in contact re next year when i have had some hammer time. (and bacon sandwiches)

[mockney piers]

I suppose if the mexican food is eaten then it is, in some figurative fashion or other, dead.

[maxxi]

(see definiftion #2)

eulogy

n pl , -gies

1 a formal speech or piece of writing praising a person or thing, esp. a person who has recently died

2 high praise or commendation, (Also called (archaic)) eulogium

(C16: from Late Latin eulogia, from Greek: praise, from eu- + -logy; influenced by Latin elogium short saying, inscription)

Avoid confusion with elegy

English Collins Dictionary - English Definition & Thesaurus [suggest a new translation / definition.]

[Sue]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Had great fun this afternoon. Sue - it's entirely

> your fault that I'm somewhat inebriated.

>

> Davide, if you are reading this, you rock! Bushel

> - light - under - hide or what?

xxxxxxxx

We were so, er, overtired after the fair that after a quick stop for a kebab on the way home as we hadn't eaten all day, Nyge and I went for a little lie-down and managed to miss the first half of our own singaround at the CPT :))

We were also totally oblivious to one of the punters phoning us, then actually coming and ringing the door bell - never heard a thing. Luckily eventually they all got fed up with waiting and started without us :-$

We rocked up thinking it was quarter past seven, to find the singaround in full swing and that it was actually quarter past eight :-$

I will pass your comments on to Davide - he'll probably be playing bass again with John McClean at the Crystal Palace Road street party, so put 5 June into your diary now!