We consider many factors using the government’s COVID guidance and associated risk templates.  As a large, outdoor, un-ticketed, free-to-enter event for us the key ones include:

• Being an un-ticketed event means we can’t record stall holders/visitor details and so don’t know who is attending (eg for track and trace or to confirm vaccination status)
• Being an event with multiple entry points means we can’t control visitor numbers (eg to help ensure social distancing)
• Being a free event limits our ability to raise funds to provide the additional COVID precautions
• Being free means a last minute cancellation incurs all the costs with no on-the-day income eg car parks, which would hit us hard financially
• We feature live entertainment at several venues, where it would be difficult to setup the required 2m bubbles.
• There are also many other organisations who run their own events eg pubs, schools, churches etc
• Our stall layout is constrained by the size of the greens which could increase crowding and hinder stall holders/visitor compliance to social distancing/mask wearing
• The fair is held in the middle of a village and having 20k visitors would significantly increase the risk of bringing COVID to a low incidence area.
• The timing of the fair early in 2022 means there is little time, following the winter, for the pandemic to reduce.

Over the remainder of 2021 we will continue to monitor the regulations, guidance and advice for organisers of large outdoor events.  We follow the guidance from the UK government, plus any specific for England.

We also receive updates from Wiltshire Council, and their Event Safety Advisory Group (ESAG), and importantly from the events industry body – The Events Industry Forum and The Purple Guide.

We understand that it is not easy to secure a stall at the Cuckoo Fair, which is why we would like to offer all stallholders who had carried over their booking fee from 2020 the chance to roll their booking over again to secure  a stall in 2022.

As stated in our Terms and Conditions, we wouldn’t normally offer a refund if the Fair is cancelled, but given such likely difficult times ahead we would like to offer a refund to those who would prefer it, minus a £10 admin fee which will contribute to covering the costs we have incurred already this year.

To request a refund please follow the instructions in the email you have received.

This option will remain available until the end of April 2021

We aim to process refunds within a week of receiving them.  Typically refunds are delayed if your bank details are incorrect so please check them especially the name of the account.  These checks are being introduced by UK banks to help reduce online payment frauds.  There is a phased introduction throughout 2020 – for details see this article from the UK Finance and this article from Which?

The payments have a reference DCF xxx RFND with xxx being your stall holder reference (not location of the your pitch) as printed on the letter from us.

Having cancelled the 2020 fair we unfortunately also had to cancel the 2021 fair.  In terms of our funding situation the 2020 financial year incurred costs of £7,400 and the 2021 financial year will incur (fixed) costs of around £3,000.  Taken together these have a large impact on the reserves we hold – reserves we need to pay our suppliers in the event of a last minute or emergency cancellation (eg Southampton Boat Show).

The £10 admin fee for each stall holder booking refund is noted in our terms and conditions and will help to cover some of the annual costs like insurance, rental and legal fees, that we have to pay regardless of whether the fair happens.

Our current understanding of government guidance is that unlike other businesses we have no employees (we are entirely volunteer supported), pay no rates, trade only once a year and so don’t qualify for any of the existing support schemes under COVID-19.  Like other business who provide outdoor events we are working with trade organisations, eg the Events Industry Forum, to redress that but at the moment it appears we don’t qualify for any grants.

This admin fee money will therefore go towards ensuring that the Fair can happen in 2022 and we thank you for your understanding.