Our annual Spring Fair took place on Saturday 18th May. Generous sponsorship from Pegasus Life meant that we were able to afford once again not to charge an entrance fee and to take the Fair out beyond the confines of our church railings on to the pavement with a ‘pop up’ café and barbeque attracting passers-by, together with a well-stocked second hand book stall and games for the children.
With no Royal Wedding to celebrate this year the planning team decided on the theme of ‘celebrating our church, our community and our cultures’ and the bunting with lots of different flags on it looked very colourful. Abdul Williams on his steel pans set the upbeat tone from the outset, followed by the great Secret Life Sax Quartet.
Members of the congregation very kindly contributed lunch dishes, offering us delicious flavours of the world, which were very popular, and a new addition this year was the ‘MagnifiCrepe’ crepe stall which did a roaring trade, complete with Breton sweaters and berets. Inside the church we built up a great picture of where in the world our members and visitors came from, highlighting our cultural diversity.
We also used some of the sponsorship money to buy some new equipment and attractions for the Fair which can be used in future years to generate more income. The accounts are published below showing that the final amount raised an excellent £7,643.
A challenge with fundraising is thinking of new ideas and I understand that the new buzz phrase in retail now is ‘user delight’ rather than ‘customer satisfaction’. The feedback we have had from our ‘users’ was very positive so I think many of our users were indeed ‘delighted’ which is great, but the accounts also show that in a few areas income was down on previous years so we can’t get too complacent. If you have an idea that you think might work well at the next fair please let us know. Please also think about how you may help next year if you didn’t this; the more helpers we have the better we can make it.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this such a fun and successful day.
SPRING FAIR 2019
Income Statement
STALLS £ DONATIONS 102 BBQ / TUCK SHOP 624 BOOKS 276 BRIC-A-BRAC 295 CAKES & PRESERVES 535 COFFEE & TEA STALL 129 CREPES 266 GIFTS 234 GOLF PUTTING GAME 117 ICE CREAMS / WINE 175 LUNCHES 590 NEARLY NEW CLOTHES 1,736 PAINTINGS 588 PLANTS 361 RAFFLE 1,543 TOMBOLA 299 7,867 CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES CUSTARD CREAM TOWERS 58 FACE PAINTING 119 GAMES CORNER 26 LIMBO 32 LOLLIPOPS IN THE SAND 121 PING PONG GAME 63 SPLAT THE RAT 47 STRONGMAN HAMMER 152 TEACAKE LAUNCHER 49 TOTAL CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES 668 TOTAL STALL & RAFFLE INCOME 8,535 SPONSORSHIP – PEGASUS LIFE 1,015 9,550 EXPENSES (1,906) NET INCOME RAISED £7,643 |