Overview

We have had another successful year, and the Green Scythe Fair continues to grow. Once again there was a magical atmosphere, the sun shone all day long, and the public came pouring in. 
 

Publicity

We kept this to a minimum, not wanting to attract unmanageable amounts of people especially arriving by car.

 

Numbers

Numbers paying £5 at the gate were up at 2450, an increase of 541 on 2012. With an estimated 150 stall traders, 50 crew, and 100 Scythers the number of adults on site is up to 2750. For the first time we used the overflow car park. 150 cyclists exchanged their tickets for tea & cake at the Green info cafe.

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Licence and Toilets

SSDC made demands through the conditions of the license to purify our water pipes, which seemed to involve using heavy duty chemicals. We got around this by providing Spring water for drinking at every tap. Stuart added new Ladies Widdlers to add to our growing bank of composting toilets.

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Music

The Taunton Ukulele Strummers started the day with laughter & great applause, followed by an excellent speakers forum on the theme of ‘Our Energy Future?’ (Oliver Tickell. Paul Mobbs & our own Cara Naden). Music continued through out the day with a pause for the ever popular Scythe Competition prize giving, and resuming with a Ceilidh with ‘Riff’. The evening ended with the Devil’s Reject.

The music was once again managed by Simon Squire and his team of Yeovil College students doing a sterling job.

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Energy Trailer

The music was powered by our own solar energy generator but despite all the sunshine, a petrol generator was once again needed by the end of the evening. 

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Stalls and Catering

68 Stalls and 11 Catering outlets offered delicious food and an ever expanding range of information, plants, crafts, music & books, eco products and clothing. Mu and Becky did an excellent job in place of Jhoti running the Fivepenny Farm canteen.

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Bar

The bar was once again very busy, selling 23 barrels of Glastonbury Ales, and drinking the local area dry of cider, including our own ‘Scyther’s Delight’. We continue to make cider with the help of Transition Langport, picking the apples at Merricks Organic Farm and pressing at Tom Dunbar's.
 

Children’s Area

The Green Kidz area expanded into a new area with its own marquee for shows & stories, a variety of kids workshops and walk about characters. The area was enhanced by colorful trays of flowers from a local nursery. The ‘Hay for Play’ area worked well this year with the beautiful ‘Hay Lady’, created by Serena de la Hey out of willow and decorated with hay and flowers with the help of the public. This evolved over the day into free form activity, the highlight being the fantastic hay skipping ropes one family created.
 

Green Crafts

We opened up a new area now called the 'Willow Walk' allowing the Green Crafts to expand and creating a circular walk all around the site as well as extended Scythe Competition Viewing area. Highlights included the 'Caravan Obscura' and a house being built from timber milled onsite, thatched with wheat straw, and bread made from the wheat grain.

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9th West Country Scythe Competition

The scything was as popular with the public as ever, with an ever growing interest in Scything from the local community. The Scythe Competition overall champion was George Montague, (toppling reigning champion- Simon Damant) the Women’s Cup was won by Andi Ricard. 
 

Music Benefits

Two successful music gigs were organised throughout the year with Dave Hatfield in the Ridgway Hall, Langport. One in December 2012, one in April 2013. The Green Scythe Fair run the bar and David Hatfield organises the music. A forthcoming Gig is planned for Dec 7th 2013

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Thanks

I would like to thank all the committee for their dedication and hard work and all the volunteers, stewards, marshalls, stall holders, performers, musicians & local organisations who helped put this show on the road. I hope you will stay with us for another year. Once again a special thank-you to our landowner Richard England for providing such a beautiful site. A special thanks should go to our dedicated Site Crew who put all the infrastructure in place, and then taking it all down again and working long after most of us have gone home.


Hannah Aitken
Chair & Children Area organiser
November 2013