Summer Fairtrade Fair

 The weather was not summery.  In fact, it rained rather a lot.  I was so cold I went over to the Hay, Brecon and Talgarth Refugees stall which was selling jumble as well as tea, coffee and cakes, and bought a jumper that I put on straight away!  Their lemon drizzle cake and coffee was also very good.  Their stall made £491.45, which they are going to use for phone top-ups, hardship needs and their welcome day in mid-August.

At the other end of the Buttermarket were Tools For Self Reliance, who seemed to be doing a good trade in refurbished tools, and tools made by blacksmiths in Tanzania.  Then there was Fair and Fabulous, selling bags and toys and re-usable containers.  Zaytoun were selling olive oil and other produce from Palestine, and Jump4Timbuktu had silver and leather goods from Tuareg craftsmen in Timbuktu, including a leather chest that looked as if it should be full of treasure!

Then there were local crafts - some beautiful grey pottery, baby clothes from Utopia Designs, and me as the representative of the local Stitch and Bitch group, selling embroideries and paper art.

I was very grateful to the young couple on the Utopia Designs stall, who let me use the chair they'd brought with them - I can't stand all day like I used to be able to!

Buttermarket - Fairtrade Fair

The date of the next Fairtrade Fair is Saturday, 19th August, at the Buttermarket. Zaytoun will be there, and there will be jewellery and plants for sale. Fairtrade Hay will have an information stall, and Fairtrade members will be there to discuss the issues of Fairtrade and Brexit (yes, Brexit will have an impact on Fairtrade issues), and the recent decision by Sainsbury's to set up their own fairly traded label in competition with the Fairtrade logo. Or, of course, any other subjects members of the public want to talk about.

Meanwhile, Jo Eliot is planning to move to Portugal in the near future, which will leave the Fairtrade committee without a Chair and a Treasurer. So new members are being keenly sought! Jo has done huge amounts for the Fairtrade group, and will be sorely missed!

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!