Fairtrade Fair - and the Festival

Up bright and early this morning to help set up the Fairtrade Fair at the Buttermarket. I was just doing the information stall, but I was between Adele from Nepal Bazaar and Julia from Fair Connections bags and toys, and we spent a lot of the morning gossiping and minding each other's stalls.
As I went up there, Eric Pugh came out of his shop and called me over. "Do you think this will offend anyone?" he asked, pointing at a new sign on his shop door. 'Sorry, Only 2 MPs allowed in this shop at any time.'. I giggled.
One big disappointment was the lack of the Touareg silversmith who had hoped to be coming - he was supposed to be bringing more stocks of jewellery to sell with him as well. When he got his passport back from Senegal, having been assured it would all be fine (it's impossible to get a visa for Britain in Mali - they have to go over the border) there was no visa with it - and he'd already paid for his plane ticket.
However, we had Love Zimbabwe again, with their marvellous pottery and jewellery and metal statues made out of scrap, and BagAge, and Zimele beaded products from Zululand; Athene was there with scarfs from Burma and felt slippers from Finland (not sure how they're Fairtrade, but they were wonderful). She came by briefly during the day: "I'm nowhere and everywhere," she said, with her shop open, and a stall on the Festival site and the stall in the Buttermarket. We had Tearfund, too, and Peruvian knitwear. I don't think it was quite as good as the Christmas fair, but there were plenty of people coming through.

The town square was full of people too - there's a marquee with bands playing - and morris dancers - and something from Red Kite. Arts Alive from Crickhowell were raffling a magnificent quilt.
In the Castle Gardens there are food stalls on one side as you go in, and stalls selling jewellery and rather wonderful Tshirts and tops (they come every year) and more stalls on the terraces as you go up to the Castle.
Round the back, earlier in the day, Richard was doing his thing - the march against Rupert Murdoch had transmuted itself into a Socialist Labour Party march (now that Richard is going for MEP for them), and after the march they had speakers - Neil Clark of the Campaign for Public Ownership and Arthur Scargill, and a couple of poets, with singing from the Cardiff Red Choir. They would have been worth listening to - they came to the Castle last year and were very good.

I didn't see any of this, being otherwise occupied at the Buttermarket, nor did I see Jackie leading members of Red Kite with masks, doing miming. I didn't see the two ladies with old fashioned prams, selling sandwiches and drinks as they walked up and down the town, either.
I did see a lady pushing what looked like an old chest of drawers on wheels (it looked heavy, too). She was from the Secret Seed Society, and was selling copies of a new book (hopefully soon to be in a garden centre near you!). It's for kids, with a membership card to the Secret Society and a packet of seeds to grow - have a look at www.secretseedsociety.com
I also got a chance to go down to the Open Door, where they're having an exhibition of work from the Hay Camera Club. Abstract photography is the theme, and some of the pictures are amazing!
And in the afternoon, down the Pavement, a little boy and girl were playing the violin to raise money for the WWF, with mum hovering in the background. I turned the corner, thinking "Someone's playing the fiddle really badly", and then I saw the size of the child, and thought "Actually, she's playing really well."
Huw Parsons was wandering round town, too, with a copy of his book under his arm. It's also for sale at Booth's, Addyman's, Backfold Books, Golesworthys and the Globe, and at Brecon Museum.

When I got home in the afternoon, the front of our houses were in full sun, and Pam next door had put tables and a clothes rail outside and was selling her surplus clothes and stuff. I sat out and joined her with a glass of wine. It was a lovely evening. And a London double decker bus keeps going past, the Globe's contribution to the shuttle bus service.