Public Statement (October 26/27 2024):
Why This Is The Last Real Halloween In Norfolk For the Foreseeable Future
This is the last Real Halloween that Sarah Wise and Chris Rose are organising. To give it the best chance of happening again, become a Supporter at www.fairylandtrust.org
Fairyland Trust is a small charity which relies on Supporters to cover core costs, which the events do not. The true cost of our Workshops is at least twice what we charge as we want to keep them affordable to reach the maximum number of families with nature. Donations from Supporters are vital to help us cover that cost.
Sarah and Chris have been running Fairy Fairs and The Real Halloween for 24 years and need to retire from that, although the Fairyland Trust will continue its work.
Sarah will be running monthly children’s Workshops on the first Saturday of each month, at our our West Acre Unit, near Bradmoor Woods.
Our Wildflower Fortunes Caravan will be at more festivals next year – that’s aimed at adults. It has been very popular at Latitude, Glastonbury and other festivals.
We’re applying to take childrens workshops and the Caravan to festivals and events, including Norwich Lord Mayors Show and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival but we can go all over the country if someone hires us.
You can help by finding event organisers who want to do that.
Why Isn’t Someone Else Doing It?
We tried for three years to find younger people with an understanding of nature, performance and event organising to take on the Fairy Fair and The Real Halloween but while we have lots of people who want to help, very few are up for taking on the responsibility of organising. Last year we thought we’d found two people who could do that but when it fell through for 2024, Sarah and Chris had to step back in, and we decided these would be the last such events in Norfolk. Chris and Sarah live in Norfolk and that means it easily defaults to them if the new team hasn’t fully taken on responsibility for the event..
For the Fair or Halloween to return, they will need a core group of friends with the right skills, to share responsibility. While the Trust is small and without funding for staff, this is hard unless people work as freelancers, as for the Event Co-ordinator, it’s a very time consuming job for a few months before each event but not a secure job year-round.
We think this might be easier in a part of the country where there is a bigger audience and/or support from local funders (we had small grants from West Norfolk DC in the early days but no support from other regional funders), and more Supporters to cover the running costs of the Fairyland Trust. Of course if we had sufficient funding, the Trust could hire paid coordinator(s) to continue the events in Norfolk.
If you can help, have ideas, suggestions or questions do contact us at info@fairylandtrust.org
