Mayday Boot, Craft and Produce Fair

When the early shift of Rotarians had completed preparations, a stream of vehicles laden with goods for sale rushed through the gate for the drivers to set up their stalls.  In all 97 stalls, the greatest number for a May Fair (previous best was 84 in 2018) were set up in addition to the Rotary and Inner Wheel of Seaford stalls.  Regretfully the field was completely filled by the 97, and another late arriving five drivers had to be refused entry.  The consequence was that the money raised, which will be used to support both local charitable and international Rotary projects, was the greatest on record for a May Fair.

It is understood that two other Boot Fairs in the surrounding districts were cancelled as the grounds were waterlogged, and thus many stallholders came to the Seaford Rotary Fair as an alternative.  This would explain the significant number of enquiries made on social media in the days leading up to the Fair asking ‘Is the Fair still taking place?’

Once in the Martello Field, the vehicles were set up in two wide rows with additional vehicles at the western end forming the lower part of an ‘O’ with those on the outer edge of the two rows, and a few completing the circle adjacent to the burger and ice cream vans.

All stallholders appeared to be doing a good trade, with some apparently selling their wares such that they had to ask a Rotarian to escort them out before the publicised time of 12:30 for vehicles to be permitted to leave unescorted as most of their goods were sold.

 As well as the items for sale normally expected to be available such as books, clothes, jigsaws, crockery and collectibles etc., there were some less expected items.  These included a sloth of Care Bears, a Unicycle without any pedals (for use downhill only?), a display of a swarm of flies for fishing with an associated framed display of floats, a 50 year old crocheted model house, a cement mixer complete with water in the drum (need a large bag for life to carry it home as the wheels were missing!), several unused picnic baskets complete with cups, plates and utensils, a toy quad bike (sold for £25) a peloton of balance bikes, a nest of children’s scooters, a pair extendable stilts and an army of Lego characters.