Boot, Craft and Produce Fair August 2020
The Sunday morning dawned with a warm blue sky accompanied by the occasional white cloud and a gentle breeze, ideal weather for the return of the Seaford Rotary Boot, Craft and Produce Fair after a long absence.
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The Sunday morning dawned with a warm blue sky accompanied by the occasional white cloud and a gentle breeze, ideal weather for the return of the Seaford Rotary Boot, Craft and Produce Fair after a long absence.
Government Regulations for the Covid 19 pandemic had resulted in four fairs earlier this year being cancelled. Therefore, there was a degree of anticipation for this first fair of the year. Discussions had taken place with Seaford Town Council and to manage the risk due to the contagion, a series of new conditions had been agreed.
Although the last two fairs of 2019 had seen over 100 stalls on the Martello Field, to maintain social distancing, a reduced number of stalls was permitted with no more than two persons manning each stall. Well before the gates were due to open at 07:30 a queue had developed on the approaches to the entrance to Martello Fields, and so to avoid traffic jams, the gates were opened early for the stall holders. After the rush, 44 stallholders set up in the marked areas.
There were stalls offering plants, homemade conserves, cards, clothes, jigsaws and other children’s toys, tools, jewellery and other collectables. The Seaford Rotary stall had a large variety of goods on offer, and in particular a large number of tennis balls, ideal for our canine friends to chase.
Martello Rotary set up opposite the Seaford Rotary stall and had their 2021 Seaford Community calendar for sale.
Items for sale on other stalls included a junior drum set, guitar, and amplifier – one household would be quieter, and others noisier when sold. Other unusual items included a collection of bowls woods, a brass statue of an Indian goddess about 600 mm tall, a portable air conditioning unit – extremely useful in the current warm spell. There was even the opportunity to sign up for welding lesson!
Entry to the Martello West field by members of the public keen to investigate the wares on offer was from the south-west access point to the Field (adjacent to Martello Tower), and they were required to follow the “one-way” system of arrows marked on the field to guide them around the stalls before exiting by the pedestrian gate at the north-west of the Martello Field.
The normal entry/exit point for pedestrians on the east side of the Field was closed. In reality, not all the public wished to leave by the designated exit particularly as the car park was in the East Field, and several were seen scrambling up the bank to the promenade to leave the fair.
A limit of no more than 150 members of the public were permitted on the Field at any one time, and thus at times there was a queue of hopeful bargain hunters waiting at the designated entrance to the field.
Hand sanitising units were positioned around the site with signage encouraging their use by the public.
Many thanks to the public for attending and helping raise a total of £835.35 including the highest ever amount in the Donation Buckets.
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