Earley Green Fair – A good time had by all

Last Saturday’s warm, sunny weather brought lots of visitors to Earley Town Council’s Green Fair, an annual event held at Maiden Erlegh Nature Reserve. This year Earley Town Council is celebrating its 50-year anniversary and so was determined to make the Green Fair 2024 a little bit special.

Amongst nearly 60 stalls, this year the fair welcomed many new stallholders offering a range of wonderful goods to buy such as handmade pottery, delicious cakes and treats and beautiful plants for the garden. Local groups and charities were well represented, offering traditional tombolas and spin the wheel activities, the charity Guide Dogs for the Blind even brought along Chester and Brody, two impressive guide dogs for people to meet and speak with their owners. Conservation charities were well represented and local groups such as the Earley Environmental Group and the Culver Lane Allotment Association engaged with the public, explaining the work they do and encouraging people to join them. Visitors enjoyed music provided by Aloha Earley Ukes, a local ukelele group, and played giant garden games handmade by town council staff from waste such as discarded pallets and broken broom handles.

First Class Falconry made a welcome return to the Fair. Kookie the kookaburra is always a star attraction and this year he was joined by baby Elmo, a 12-week-old great grey owl and a host of other owls, falcons and birds of prey. Alan Greenhalgh, their handler, was only too pleased to answer questions about his birds and some lucky visitors even got to wear the gauntlet and hold them.

The town council is in the process of setting up a brand new Earley Repair Café, due to open in the autumn, so were pleased to host Billie Bachra and volunteers from the Lambs Lane, Repair Café in Shinfield, who were helping visitors build wooden bird boxes and squirrel picnic tables and chatting about the ethos of Repair Cafes and how to get involved. Thanks also go to Maiden Erlegh Rotary Club who provided refreshments whilst visitors could also enjoy a cooling ice cream or a delicious wood fired pizza from the pizza truck.

The stall run by Earley Town Council officers offered a free children’s activity trail around the nature reserve with lots of prizes on offer and hosted its ‘How Bad is a Banana?’ game, a thought-provoking fun way to learn more about carbon footprints, with successful contestants winning a banana!  Staff also ran a mini-Helpshop giving general advice to residents, handing out food recycling caddies and making sure everyone had a safe and enjoyable day.  Earley Town Councillors ran a colouring competition with three lucky children winning a bee hotel.

The Town Council would like to thank all the stall holders and all those who attended and made the day such an enjoyable event.  Earley Town Council’s Green Fair is on held the first Saturday in August every year and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.