CANCELLED: No Buxton Spring Fair for 2018

For five years the fair has brought people together and connected the town centre on the Spring Bank Holiday in May but will not be going ahead due to volunteer shortages.

Roddie MacLean, Chairman of the Town Team, said: “We like to think it will just be a year off, but that will depend on the availability of people prepared to give time to organising it.”

The event was originally conceived to be a kind of street party as one element of Buxton’s ‘Portas Pilot’ funding application in 2012, initiated by Vision Buxton.

Though Buxton did not win, the team involved decided to set up Buxton Town Team CIC, to harness the momentum and unprecedented cooperation between groups that the Portas process brought about.

Last year, like every year, thousands of people came into the town for the Spring Fair where 140 stalls lined the street and crowds were entertained with donkey rides, a climbing wall, as well as folk music, morris dancing and cask ales. There was also street food both locally sourced and from around the world.

The aim of the Spring Fair was to demonstrate what could be done if the town worked as one, celebrating the idea of Buxton as having a continuous ‘Main Street’ - from the Ashwood end of Spring Gardens, through Turner’s Memorial, The Crescent, Hall Bank and the Slopes, the Market Place and High Street.

The plan was to get as many local people as possible moving through all of the town and appreciating all that it has to offer, in terms of its fixed assets – its shops, cafes and architecture – but also showcasing its cultural life, its artisans and its community groups.

For many years the Spring Fair has given charities more recognition and helped boost their funds too.

Roddie said: “We were blessed with exceptional weather in the first year and the success of the event led to immediate calls for it to be repeated.

“The Town Team is made up entirely of volunteers and is really proud of what has been achieved, including the five Spring Fairs, but the membership continues to develop new projects to try to benefit the town in different ways - and we just can’t do everything we would like to do.”

The Town Team has a long list of completed projects including some which go on to develop a life of their own like the Buxton Markets Community Interest Company.

Current projects include the enhanced Christmas decorations improvements in Ashwood Park, continuing care of The Slopes, and working on parking, transport and access in the town and improving the gateway to the town in Fairfield.

• Anybody wishing to get involved in any Town Team project can contact Roddie and the Team at [email protected]