Fairtrade at the Festival

 Hay Festival is back with in-person events this year, and today Fairtrade Hay is in the Buttermarket with the usual interesting mix of Fairtrade stalls.  It's a bit of a drizzly day, so the hot drinks will be welcome, but quite a lot of people are about in the centre of town.

Community Fair

Fairtrade Hay is one of seven local groups squeezed into the Buttermarket today. In fact, they're a sort of 3-in-1 group, with silver jewellery from Timbuktu on one end, manned by Chris Armstrong, Fairtrade information in the middle, looked after by Jo Eliot, and Palestinian goods on the far end from Zaytoun.

I stocked up on their excellent olive oil. The lady there also had quite a bit of traditional Palestinian cross stitch work on display, made into pouches, cushion covers and so on. They seem quite expensive at first glance, until you appreciate how much work and time has gone into making them - and they last for years! I have a very hard wearing purse I bought from the same lady some years ago at one of the Clifford Craft Fairs. They also have olive oil soap.

Watering Down the Fairtrade Label?

So Sainsbury's doesn't seem to like the Fairtrade label, and wants to set up its own scheme instead. The Fairtrade logo is well known now, and well understood, and this would only muddy the waters. It also seems to have problems in the making of decisions on community investments, an important part of the Fairtrade system. Under the Sainsbury's scheme it seems that the decisions on what the community premium is spent on will be made in London, rather than by the communities themselves. There is a petition at change.org objecting to the Sainsbury's scheme.

Meanwhile, Fairtrade Hay will be in the Buttermarket in Hay at the community event on Saturday 19th August. The Fairtrade stall will have lots of information about Fairtrade, plus Zaytoun products from Palestine, including their wonderful olive oil.

Saturday in the Buttermarket

Some of the goods on display at the Buttermarket on Saturday, 15th August. Fairtrade Hay were there along with other community groups including the Timbuktu twinning people and the Hay History Group.

Planning More Events

There won't be a Fairtrade Picnic this year, but the Open Garden was a success again, and raised enough money (see below) for the group to invest another £250 with Shared Interest. Shared Interest are trying to reach a target of thirty three million pounds invested to celebrate their twenty fifth anniversary.
Next year the Tourism Group are planning a fashion show, and it might be possible to get involved with that - if so, another £250 of Fairtrade funds would go towards the organisation of the event. If the money is not needed for that, the money will go to Fairtrade Foundation funds. The WI are also planning a recycled fashion event, so it might be possible to join forces with them as well.
Fairtrade Hay has been offered a stand on the Buttermarket for the 31st August, so look out for us there! We are hoping that the stand can be set up beside the Jump4Timbuktu stall, so people who are involved in both organisations can look after both stalls (a good way of multi-tasking!).
We're also hoping to persuade Lisa Marie to let us have a regular Fairtrade column in WyeLocal, to talk about all the different shops that sell Fairtrade goods in Hay.

There's going to be a lot going on in the middle of Hay over the Jubilee weekend. As well as the Fairtrade Fayre in the Buttermarket, the Fair on the Square is back with a Jubilee theme, and there will be a procession on the Tuesday, which is the extra Bank Holiday. Meanwhile at the Parish Hall on the Saturday, the Africa Fair is back this year, and there will be a Fairtrade presence there too. This is also over the first weekend of the Hay Festival, and the Globe's Where the Light Gets In, so Hay will have a real carnival atmosphere. And no sooner will we have recovered from all that, there's the Community Picnic up at Hayfield Gardens in July!

Summer Fair

Hay Festival is coming up soon, and there's going to be a lot happening around Hay. There's also the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, of course, and it is on that day that the Buttermarket in the middle of Hay has been booked for a Fairtrade Fair. (It'll make a nice change to have a fair at a warm time of year!). On Tuesday 5th June, some of our regular stall holders will be coming along - like LoveZimbabwe, Bagage and Tools for Self Reliance, as well as a few new faces. Out in the square, there will be children's activities for the Jubilee, a parade of school children, and a picnic. Across the square, there will be food stalls in the Castle Gardens from the Abergavenny Food Fair. On the other side of the Castle there will be a sound stage for Hay Festival, and the shuttle buses will be bringing people to and from the Festival site on the edge of town. Meanwhile, on Sunday 3rd June, the African Fair will be happening in the Parish Hall again, and there will be a Fairtrade information table there, too. And some time in July (trying to avoid clashing with the school fete) there will be another Community Picnic at the Hayfield Gardens, hopefully in conjunction with other groups in town. It's going to be a busy summer!