I’ve just got one box to unpack and a couple of bits and pieces still knocking around the back of the land rover, but other than that, I’ve pretty much recovered from having a stall at the New Forest Fairy Festival….
Burley is a lovely village in The New Forest, with ponies roaming through and herds of deer wondering into the park. I wish I’d had more time to look around the village itself, but unfortunately I got completely lost on my way and arrived too late! It was an ideal setting for a fairy festival, particularly with the local witchcraft legends.
I took my two beautiful fairy daughters, Rain and Jude with me and they were invaluable help. We had about an hour before it got too dark to set up the gazebo the night before, and up at 7am on Saturday 24th August to get the stall ready. It’s a shame I haven’t yet found sturdy clothes rails that are nice and quick to put up. We were almost ready at 10am when the gates opened, but it was a bit of a rush hiding the empty cardboard boxes and displaying the jewellery. The stall looked a lot better on Sunday after tweaking it throughout the day before. Overall I was very pleased with the way it looked – I hope people wondering past felt compelled to come in and have a look.
The weather was fairly nice. I was annoyed, however, that we didn’t get a drop of rain the week before or the week after, but did have a couple of heavy showers at the weekend. The main problem was the wind – it blew the rain away, but very nearly blew the gazebo away as well!
Entrance was £5 for adults and £3 for kids with under 5s free. I felt there could have been
a bit more entertainment for the price, but one of the bands didn’t bother turning up on Sunday, which didn’t help. Hoola Moola gave displays and workshops, and I was very impressed by her hoola hooping. The Gypsy Pyksies entertained the kids with massive bubbles and a cool penny farthing – type bike which people could have a go on. There was story telling, a fancy dress competition, belly dancing displays and workshops and an evening zumba class. When the sun shone on Sunday afternoon and there was plenty of music – lovely folky songs from Mumas Gumbo – it was a wonderful atmosphere.
From a seller’s point of view, I thought it was really good. The stall was a reasonable price and people were getting into the spirit of things. If I was there on holiday, I’d definitely like to go, so have a look out for it next year! Hopefully I’ll be back again, spreading the fairy dust!
