Goose Fair: Entrance fee row threatens historic event's return

The fair has been running since medieval times and, prior to the pandemic, was previously only cancelled for world wars and the plague

Funfair owners have threatened to pull the plug on a 700-year-old event in a row over a potential entrance fee.

Nottingham's Goose Fair, which attracts more than 420,000 visitors over five days, was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The city council has now put forward ideas to safeguard the fair, including a perimeter fence and entrance fee.

But organiser William Percival said: "We will have it the way it's always been, or we won't have it at all."

The Showmen's Guild said the fair had always been "for the people"

The Goose Fair, held every autumn, is one of the largest of its kind in the UK.

Before the pandemic, an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1646 and the two world wars were the only times the fair had been cancelled previously.

The council has put forward a series of proposals designed, it said, to deal with various pandemic scenarios.

But Mr Percival, chair of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain for Derby and Notts, said: "The feedback I am getting is that of five ideas, three are not happening.

"We're not having a fence, we are not having an entrance charge and we are not handing over the advertising budget.

"If they charge £1 to get in, that's the best part of £450,000, they won't give that up next year, the charge will be here to stay.

"That's not what the Goose Fair is about. It's for the people."

The council said an unknown factor was whether Covid passports would be needed

He said the other proposals - sharing more of the rent with the council and looking into the fair's environmental impact - would be discussed at a special guild meeting on 2 August.

The guild has also put forward its own suggestions for managing Covid risk, including extending the event's running time to spread out crowds.

Eunice Campbell-Clark, the council's portfolio holder for leisure and culture, said: "No firm decisions have been taken yet about this year's Goose Fair but in our planning for the event we are currently considering some options.

"We are looking at the feasibility of how Goose Fair could be staged if the government was to introduce Covid passports as a requirement for entry to large events of over 20,000 people.

"Any decision would be taken jointly with the Showmen's Guild, but would of course be subject to any government legislation on Covid passports in the first instance.

"In addition, following a request from the Showmen's Guild to consider the possibility of extending a future Goose Fair to a 10-day event, we are scoping out the feasibility of this.

"We expect to have reached a decision on both these considerations by the end of August."