Runaway Fair

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Abingdon Runaway Fair
This much smaller fair causes less disruption than the big Michaelmas fair. There is a small diversion as High Street is closed. and so large buses round the tight corners of East and West St Helen Street from early Sunday to late Monday. The rides are primarily for children, and by about 7:30 pm you hear the stall holders deciding whether to pack up or not.

I believe the runaway fair gave people a second chance if they had to runaway from their first post – back in the days when the Michaelmas and Runaway Fair were hiring fairs.

Choose Abingdon Partnership One Year On

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Choose Abingdon Partnership
This evening the Choose Abingdon Partnership gave a presentation on what they have been doing since their creation almost a year ago. Choose Abingdon is a partnership along the lines of Didcot First and Bicester Vision – whose aim is to promote the town. So far Choose Abingdon has …

1. Set up the community shop. The current premises is about to be let, and so Scottish Widows who own the shop have offered Choose Abingdon an alternative premises.

2. Set up the Choose Abingdon Local Food and Craft Market with the help of Carbon Cutters. The first one will be on Saturday 23rd October.

3. Set up the Choose Abingdon Loyalty Card with sponsorship by Miele. The launch will be this coming Saturday.

4. Promoted Abingdon through the Whats On in Abingdon leaflet which has come out quarterly.

5. Designed new tourist maps for the town – which will soon appear instead of the current faded specimens.

We were shown a two minute video as a sampler of the 6 hours of Abingdon life that that has been professionally recorded. This and a growing photo library will be aimed at promoting Abingdon up to the Olympics.

Cargo going back to Witney and Somerfield to become the Co-op

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Top end precinct changes
Cargo are likely to be out of Abingdon by the end of October – they have a Closing Down Sale. This may tie in with the recent re-opening of Cargo in Witney with a larger premises. Cargo came to Abingdon when the Cargo in Witney closed during the redevelopment of the Witney Woolgate shopping centre.
Top end precinct changes
Somerfield is about to be re-branded as a co-operative food which will mean we will soon have two Co-ops in Abingdon Town Centre.

Eco Fair – Through the zones

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Eco Fair
The Eco Fair at the Guildhall, organised by Abingdon Carbon Cutters, was very impressive and well attended by visitors and exhibition stalls alike. The Mayor opened the event with a speech underlying his own commitments to all things Ecological and Sustainable. Then the choir of Dunmore School did us proud with some very nice Eco songs. There was not a dry eye in the house.
Eco Fair
This wheel barrow laden with vegetables from the ‘Grow your own vegetables group’ has been in the window of the community shop for the last two weeks. The grow your own group gives people a small allotment near Peachcroft Farm and gets them to grow their own on a small scale.
Eco Fair
Inside there was a food zone. Buns to go with the soup were being prepared and cooked on the premises by members of The Country Market (the trade name of the W.I.).
Eco Fair
Other zones included: Biodiversity Zone, Travel Zone, Waste Not Want Zone, and Energy Zone. One exhibitor in the Energy Zone was a community company set up to look at harnessing water power at Abingdon weir using an archimedes skew generator. It would provide enough electricity for a hundred homes. They may be looking for local investors fairly soon: first to get planning permission, then build the device to feed Kilowatts into the national grid.
Eco Fair
A variety of musicians played during the day including the John Mason Folk group What’s up Folk, shown above, performing some top tapping music!