Chairperson's Report 2009

Thorney Lakes

Our event at Thorney Lakes this year saw the continuing partnership with the Scythe Festival, now under the simple name, the ‘Green Scythe Fair’. This was definitely our best year yet and the event finally feels like it is getting well known  & popular in the local area and beyond.

Together with stall holders, site crew etc.  we hosted 2000 people on site throughout the day. We had a strong committee of dedicated people working well together to organise, set up and manage the event, not forgetting the taking down & clearing up afterwards. We had 62 Stalls, Caterers & Green Craft demonstrations this year providing a wide range of interesting and environmentally friendly goods for sale, display, demonstration or consumption. Our Green Info Café used rocket stoves to boil water for teas, and the bar was so busy it ran out of beer!
 
The Scythe Course and Competition was a great success with 57 competitors entering and fastest 5x5m2 UK record achieved: 1m 10secs

More can be found out about this on the Scythe website. The Kids Area was busy all day with families watching great shows from Rattle Box Theatre and Professor Paradox, as well as taking part in felt making, stone carving, weaving, badgemaking and clay landscapes. We had the welcome addition of a Willow Sculpture workshop, a large Healing Yurt, a drumming workshop, Applachian dancers , wandering musicians, Walkabout  Characters & Puppets. Our Speakers Forum was the best yet with expert speakers and a lively debate on the Future of Small farming.

Once again the team from Yeovil College organised and managed the music with a great line up throughout the day and evening, finishing with the Fallen Apples, blue grass band, who blew the fuse on our Green Energy Trailer,  revealing the need for a larger Inverter. Our horse drawn area continues to grow with an outdoor music stage, acoustic musicians, decorative wagons and horse drawn carriage rides down to the Lakes and back. We now have a set of site signs to complement our beautiful flags, robust road signs and as ever, a well managed car parking system. We also had an additional  Scythe marquee, freeing up the original one for speakers and music.
 
I would like to thank all the people who took part, whether as a stall holder, speaker, musician or steward. I would especially like to thank all those who put in such a lot of hard work to make this event happen- you know who you are!  Also Thanks to Ann & Richard England for providing the beautiful site and being such friendly land owners. As we grow in success we need to take care not to grow too big and become unmanageable. We need to remain a small friendly event, consolidate our resources, improve our infrastructure, and truly become a gathering that promotes local sustainable resources and celebrates the wealth they, and we all, represent.

Hannah Aitken
Chair & Children Area organiser
November 2009