Downton Cuckoo Fair
Information
Cuckoo Fair Cancelled for 2024 – see below.
In 2022 the Fair returned after a 3 year break. In 2019 was our fortieth anniversary with a cavalcade of Downton minis and opening by the mayor of Salisbury. In 2018 we welcomed an over 20,000 visitors to our fair, with more than 250 craft, gift, homeware and food and drink stalls on the greens and in marquees along The Borough. The Downton Cuckoo Fair offers fun for all the family including rural craft demonstrations, Punch and Judy, clowns, fairground attractions (no inflatables) in the Memorial Gardens and a produce market in the car park behind the Co-op. The perfect day out in Wiltshire!
We have a wide range of entertainment during the fair including Maypole, Morris & traditional dancers, street entertainers, Downton Brass Band, and a host of live music being performed at key venues throughout the Fair. Click for more information
There is also a wide selection of food and refreshments, along with facilities for the disabled – see our On Site Facilities
Some other events are held over the weekend – see the Weekend Programme NB most of these are held by other organisations so please direct all questions and queries directly to them
There are ample car parks available, run by voluntary organisations and charities, with mini-buses running a Park and Ride service from the Barford Lane car park. To make the most of the your visit to the fair see the ‘Visiting Us’ menu options above.
If you want to add our event to your Listing/What’s On website then please see the ‘‘Fair Use’ Policy by Third Parties eg Listing Websites’ on https://cuckoofair.co.uk/web-site-usage
DOWNTON CUCKOO FAIR CANCELLED FOR 2024
2024 Fair Cancelled
It is with great sadness and disappointment that the Cuckoo Fair Board of Directors announces that the Downton Cuckoo Fair 2024 will not be held.
Whilst we appreciate that this may come as a surprise to many, given the success of the 2023 Fair, having undertaken a review of this year’s Fair, a number of issues have become clear.
The size and increasing popularity of the Fair means that it cannot continue to operate in the same way or with the same small team of existing volunteers. We work tirelessly to make it happen but are a group, like many other volunteer groups, who are getting older. We are sincerely grateful to all those individuals who have stepped forward to help as a result of our recent recruitment drive. However, subsequently things have changed with the departure of some key experienced members of the core team, including our health and safety lead, for reasons of health, work or family commitments.
Similarly, the popular Dorset Knob Throwing festival, which was also a huge event run entirely by volunteers, was cancelled in January 2022 https://www.facebook.com/DorsetKnobThrowing
To put this in context, we work with a lead in time of at least 7 months, so would be starting to plan now for 2024. To understand what is involved behind the scenes, the Team have to produce and update a 70+ page Event Management Plan and a 150+ page Build Plan which is a huge undertaking to plan and then implement. We also have significant and complex logistics and contract work required across a large community of stall holders and various entertainment groups. All of these processes and documents are necessary for us to demonstrate how we meet the increasing regulatory and statutory requirements with the safety of our visitors of paramount concern.
The draft company accounts from the 2022/23 financial year show that we are around the break-even point. As it is un-ticketed event our income does not increase with growing visitor numbers who also have rising expectations. It looks like the ongoing difficult economic situation, the rise in inflation and the cost of living crisis may only get worse for 2024 onwards. With the known significant additional costs for 2024 and additional requests and requirements from those we needed to work with to hold the Fair this year, the Board has concluded that all of these factors combine to make it untenable for 2024.
We are not the only event in this financial situation and you may be aware that the Great Dorset Steam Fair have also been forced to cancel their event for 2024 https://www.gdsf.co.uk/great-dorset-steam-fair-2024-update/
As organisers of what has become a large-scale major event, we are also acutely aware of the increasing risks, including terrorist threats nationally and the potential impact of those on such an un-ticketed event where we cannot easily control the number of visitors.
We have considered a variety of options to run the Fair next year but sadly the reality is that it would be financially and organisationally challenging for us to run the event in 2024 and cancellation is our only viable option.
This has been an extremely difficult decision to make and we recognise that it will no doubt come as a big blow to those local organisations, groups and societies for whom the Fair is the single biggest fundraising opportunity of the year and would like to send our sincere apologies to them. We are also mindful that there will inevitably be financial implications for the Fair’s contractors, traders, local landowners and our village community. We therefore wanted to give the wider community sufficient notice so that they could plan for their 2024 season without the uncertainty that a later decision would entail.
Going forward we really need more positive support from all parts of the community, including a willingness to engage with or be a part of the event team as well as active involvement in running the Fair or contributions from some of those larger village-based businesses operating within the bounds of the Fair, who benefit financially from a well-organised and well-attended Cuckoo Fair. We are grateful for the financial contributions and donations we received in 2023 from St Laurence church, Downton Motor Club, Downton Primary School, Millenium Green, Trafalgar School and Downton Football Club.
We have run the Fair for and with the village for over 40 years and will be taking some time to look at how we can continue to run it as a high-quality, sustainable Fair with strong and positive village involvement for the next 40 years. As a part of this, we will be creating opportunities for people to have their say on the future of the Fair. Downton wouldn’t be Downton without the Cuckoo Fair!
Frequently Asked Questions
General
If you are a fair visitor you can still contact your favourite exhibitors and help them with their custom during this difficult time by having a look at the stall holder A-Z directory https://cuckoofair.co.uk/details-of-stallholders-produce-market
General Stall Holder Queries
There is NO wi-fi provided at the Fair. If you are bringing card readers then you’ll need to use your mobile phone to connect to a data network.
As a reminder although the Cuckoo Fair is large it is an un-ticketed event and hence is FREE for visitors at the point of entry. As such we cannot afford to provide wifi for all stalls across the Fair. If we could it be a chargeable extra.
Stall Holder Refunds
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
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.
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.
