A Fayre But Not Fair Weather  

A Fayre But Not Fair Weather

 

High winds and rain showers caused quite some disruption to this year’s Aldridge Fayre. The Aldridge Fayre is the major community event for Aldridge and the surrounding areas and June 22nd saw the 19th annual event organised by the Aldridge & District Lions Club.

Aldridge Lions President and Fayre Co-ordinator, Harry Fry, said, “Despite some poor weather forecasts we still had an excellent turnout from the nearly 50 stall holders and arena displays. We have suffered some quite bad weather at previous events but the high wind gusts during today certainly caused some problems for some of those attending. Several tents and gazebos, including one of our own, were affected and at least 4 were completely destroyed and were thrown away. However, the stall holders persisted with their attendance and braved the rest of the show without cover.”  



 

Walsall Mayor, Councillor Mohammad Nazir, escorted by the Mayoress, Riaz Begum Nazir, formally opened the Fayre and spent over one hour touring all the stands on display and taking part in many of the activities on offer. In opening the Fayre, the Mayor said, “It was good to see the Lions helping so many individual charities by organising the Fayre.” Councillor Nazir was presented with a cheque for £150 for his Mayor’s Charity Appeal.  



 

The Aldridge Lions also presented a cheque for £1000 to Teenage Cancer Trust. This charity was chosen as the President’s project for this year.

Visitors to the Fayre were able to see dance displays from Dance Works from Cooper Jordan School and the Jo Leigh Dancers, a Zumba display from Zumba with Dawn, a music display from the Walsall Junior Coronets and singing from members of Stage Works from Cooper Jordan and 11 year old Joshua Ruddell from Aldridge Youth Club.  



 

Harry Fry said, “As we are not able to charge an admission fee we never obtain a large income from the Fayre, it is mainly organised to support the charity stalls that attend. I would expect this year’s income to be down on some previous years owing to the lower than expected attendance caused by the weather. However we still had an excellent day and the feedback from many of the stallholders is very positive. We are indebted to the many local businesses and companies who support our event in many ways including donations of prizes for our raffle.”