There was a plant-based market with around 20 stalls arranged around the Market Place in Abingdon today. The event was organised by Kordia Events, which runs a travelling programme of vegan markets across the country, bringing together traders with plant-based foods, drinks and products. The market had previously visited Wallingford in February and is due to appear in Dorking tomorrow.
The stalls included several hot-food vendors (with queues at lunchtime), alongside drinks traders, cake stalls and deli-style stands offering food to take home.
One stall specialised in vegan cheezes.
Although the sky remained grey for most of the day, the weather stayed dry. It appeared to draw not only local residents but also visitors from outside Abingdon who had come specifically for the plant-based market.
Also to be seen on or near the Market Place were people flying a Palestinian flag, reflecting continuing concern about developments in the Middle East.
I found the market by chance. I did not see any prior advertising although I look at notice boards etc. frequently. We need better publicity for this sort of occasional event.
Beyond the physical notice boards I think for the modern age a virtual online version is needed and perhaps also an app that repeats that information and pushes updates out to users when they appear.
How to get effective publicity has been a conundrum for years. In the end it is the responsibly of the event organisers, but some are not aware of all the available routes and some do not have the resources to use them. Also, different people look for their information in different ways – and the over the years the options have changed.
Nowadays, for Abingdon, the main “hard-copy” routes are: the Town Council’s 6 noticeboards (but organisers need to provide the posters) ; other noticeboards in shops, cafes and other premises around the town (but this requires money for printing and people willing to go around distributing them); leaflets through doors (costly if paid for, or requires lots of volunteers – and uses lots of paper); Round and About magazine (small entries free for community groups).
So as Badger says the easier option for organisers is online: the most popular social media routes here are Facebook and Next Door, local groups reach many thousands of people. The plant-based market was widely advertised on Facebook- originally many months ago, but with frequent reminders in recent weeks. The Town Council website events section is readily available, but doesn’t seem to be widely known about either by organisers or the public. It is not pro-active, but once something is on there organisers can easily spread the word via other social media routes.
A lot of younger people don’t use Facebook (or even have an account), I myself got rid of it years ago….shame, would have gone had I known about it.
Thanks Hester. Appreciated 👍
Unfortunately I’m not on any of the various social media platforms, looking at the TC website I see no ‘Events’ tab which would be a useful addition… even if I search on the site using the term ‘events’ nothing relevant appears almost as if it’s a secret and no-one wants it found. If you dig and dig a ‘what’s on’ section can be found but that is just bigger events like the Science Festival.
Also… the upcoming Abbey ward election has spawned a mass of repeat mail shots from one particular party, less but still multiples from another, others have dropped just the one which is fine and all that is necessary. I see the multiples wasteful and completely unnecessary and as such it drives me away from voting for them.
…on further inspection, from the ‘What’s on’ page this page can be found https://www.abingdon.gov.uk/events
No mention in ‘events’ of yesterday’s event in the Market Place though.
It is down to event organisers to post their details so that they appear on the page.
As you can see, many do.
Neil – might it be an idea if the TC occasionally publicised the website events page – both to event organisers and the community more widely? Many people don’t seem to know about it. Maybe use next months Clubs and Societies Day for a first go?
I agree about the complete waste of resources used for leaflets from the various political parties. One per party is plenty, any more is offensive – did they think we were unable to read the first one?
Ones printed on newspaper type paper are better as they can be torn into pieces and composted. Glossy ones go straight into recycling.
It’s very telling also, I’d respect the canvassers more if they actually have the courage to knock and speak to people rather than just stuff 3 different flyers through the door all crumpled up. Only 1 party canvasser has actually knocked.
Had a flyer a few years ago with spelling mistakes, and spouting rubbish and untruths, and they are seriously looking for our votes?
I made the comment here recently that the new notice boards (at a stupid cost!) were pointless in a digital age. The town should absolutely do more to promote their whats on page and make it the “go to” destination. Please dont harp in about “oh but not everyone uses the internet” because not everyone walks past the notice boards – there are disadvantages with every medium but digital offers the widest and most inexpensive reach.
Sounds like I’ve started a useful discussion. Everyone has different needs. I don’t necessarily access all the Facebook pages unless notified. The TC website doesn’t notify – you have to call it up. The notice boards are looked at, especially the ones at bus stops which have a captive audience. I agree about the election – the more they bombard me with stuff the less I’m inclined to vote for them.
A couple of problems with using sites like Facebook –
– Often local events don’t appear on people’s news feeds until after the event has happened, because of the algorithm, which makes it useless. (It might only show it after some people have commented or liked)
– Not a huge amount of people look at Facebook anymore, and especially not people under 40
Noticeboards in town – again – it depends if you actually walk past that noticeboard regularly.
It would make more sense for there to be something like the DailyInfo website Oxford has/used to have. Or for the Whats On pages on the Abingdon.gov.uk site to actually be used by more people rather than Facebook to post events.
Local newspapers used to be the place people posted adverts about events, and that was really useful, everything is more fragmented these days and it’s harder to find out what’s happening locally.
I don’t use social media sites. I learn a great deal from this website and also find the signs put up on lamp posts to advertise the Farmers’ market and Local Excellence market invaluable. Then I always make sure that I visit the Market Square on those days.
If you can use this website to find out about events then you can in principle use the council whats-on page……if only they put some effort into promoting it or sharing highlights on a regular basis on other platforms to drive traffic back to it. I’m sure there is probably an over-paid advisor who’s role is marketing or IT and should be doing this