Valley to rally for fun of the fair

After being blown away by the popularity of their first attempt Wairau Valley Fair, organizers are going bigger and better to accommodate what they expect to be a bumper crowd.

The Wairau Valley Fair, set for Sunday, November 23 at the Wairau Valley Golf Club with a gold coin entry, has hopes to become a statement day on the township’s calendar.

Organising committee members Ellie Brooke, Gill Odell, Jenny Somerville, Angela Book and Richard Peterson were thrilled by the eagerness shown last year.

“With how popular it was last year, we’re scaling everything up with more food trucks, more variety of activities alongside some favourites returning from last year”, said Ellie.

“Last year we had over 1000 people, with cars parked along the road to the State Highway and almost down to the Tavern, and the 300 flyers we printed for family groups were gone about two hours into the fare,” recalled Gill.

“We had such a lot of people that everyone was running out of food, the day’s popularity was unexpected.

“It’s such a nice spot as well”, followed Ellie, “the weather was beautiful - in fact, it was almost too hot and sunny and too busy with people selling out of everything, so we’ve got the school doing a tearoom in the Golf club as a nice bit of shade and having far more food, entertainment and activities”.

With over 50 stalls full of food, crafts and fun activities for the whole family, Ellie says the extra efforts – and gold coin entry - is with bigger and better ideas for the Valley community in mind.

“We have our community market, but if we can make this a yearly thing we’d love to so we are doing a gold coin entry this year as we figured that if we want to build up local events next year, we can do it sustainably.

“This year has been pretty smooth sailing as a lot of the planning work has already and Marlborough District Council have been have given us all the funding that we need thanks to them knowing Jenny and Gill and their efforts last year”.

The fair will also include music and dance nonstop from 11 till 3.30 and a range of music and dance displays to enhance the Valley day out.

“Last year, the mayor said to me “This is exactly how we wanted our funding to be spent, ticking all the boxes for our community and the wider region”, said Jenny.

“We want a family day out where you do something they haven’t done before like throw axes and have some competitive things, with favourites from last year and new stalls eager to come”, says Jenny.

“The winner of the darts competition was a local kid Shelby, fantastic from the pub here as well as the Fire Service community caravan as well, with Richard involved organising of the activities bringing some different things for kids to get involved in

“Come on up and have a lovely day up the valley, and bring cash!”.