Because of The Runaway fair, the High Street was closed for a day, and traffic diverted down East St. Helen Street and up West St. Helen Street. Larger lorries had to make an even bigger diversion. Security people and town council staff manned the barriers.
It rained and it rained, and the Runaway Fair was a much quieter event than the larger Michaelmas Fair last week. Traditionally they are a week apart.
But all the lights were on and the stall holders made it look as jolly as possible. Quite a few children braved the rain to enjoy this lower key event.
Its real shame that this fair isnt held on the Sunday as most kids are in school when this is on. I know its tradition for it to be the Monday, but it seems a bit odd given this is no longer a hiring fair of old.
Regardless of the day, it also seems excessive to allow the whole of Sunday for set up – why not just set up on Monday morning from 9am after the rush-hour? Unlike the main fair, none of these rides take very long to set up.
Moreover there is no reason they couldn’t set it up in Bath St, and/or the new (much wider) Bury St and avoid blocking up the town. It seemed to be in particular this year this is getting to the stage of just siting things in the high street for the sake of it, not due to there being insufficient space in the square/bury st.
We need to balance tradition with the needs to shopkeepers and townsfolk, some small adjustments could make this a lot better for EVERYONE, the town, the kids and the stall holders. Shame no-one in the council has the guts to change things.