Green Fair 2007 Report

For many more, larger photos from the event, please see our Gallery
Also, watch a 3 minute movie of the fair.

For the second year running, a glorious sunny day helped to make the annual Redditch Green Fair a fantastic success. A total of 23 stalls offered a wide variety of eco-friendly products alongside masses of `green` information. The event was endorsed by the United Nations and promoted on their World Environment Day website!

The event started with the arrival of the newly appointed Mayor of Redditch, Councillor David Hunt, and his wife. The Mayor was due to open the fair at 10.30am, but he got a little sidetracked walking round all the stalls! After chatting to the stallholders about eco-friendly issues for over an hour, the fair was in full swing, so no longer needed to be officially opened!! The photo opposite shows the Mayor and his wife meeting our childrens entertainer, Kristoff the Clown!

The stalls, many under gazebos, filled the church green aswell as St Stephens Church Hall. With a much bigger area available than at our 2006 fair, it allowed for a far greater variety of stalls. Products exhibited included electric assisted bicycles(see photo), wind up radios, Fair Trade goods, organic produce, eco-friendly cleaning products, water powered clocks, ethical stationery and lots more...

Information and campaign stalls covered an equally diverse range of issues - everything from waste reduction solutions like Freecycle, composting advice and Mooncup, the eco-friendly sanitary protection for women, to cycle training/maintenance info, a climate action stall and masses of free vegan food samples!! Click here for a full list of companies, organisations and campaign groups that held stalls.

All fair visitors were entered into a Free Prize Draw, offering them the chance to win nearly £200 worth of eco-friendly prizes which had been donated by many of the companies exhibiting, and others that couldn`t be there. Click here to see a full list of the companies that donated.

Kristoff the Clown performed an hour long magic show as a crowd of youngsters and their parents looked on. When the show came to an end, he walked round the fair, performing tricks, singing and generally entertaining the fair visitors and stallholders. Later in the afternoon, a local busker, Little Dave Manning, entertained the fair-goers.

Members of the Redditch Vegetarian and Vegan Society served organic, vegan, fairtrade refreshments throughout the event, a very important task on such a hot, sunny day!

Dozens of fair visitors filled in short questionnaires/comment slips, which has given us essential feedback. We now have lots of ideas as to how next year`s fair can be improved!

An estimated 600 people attended the fair, and many thousands more became aware of the issues raised thanks to some great publicity on local radio, teletext, internet and newspapers. For full details of all the media coverage, please Click here

It was without doubt, an event like no other ever seen in Redditch! Many thanks to the dozens of volunteers that made it all possible.

Stallholders

Flights Orchard Organics - An organic box scheme company providing locally grown, organically certified produce to over 2000 satisfied customers throughout the West Midlands.

Redditch Freecycle - An internet based recycling system for useful but unwanted items, which saves them going to landfill.

Eco Flow UK - Redditch based company that sells electric cycles and BIO Magic, an eco-friendly solution for waste systems.

Composting Clinic - Local `master composters` advised on how to make the perfect compost, therefore saving food and garden waste from going to landfill, and providing the perfect resource for a healthy garden.

Tango Group - Alternative Energy product distributor, offers wind up radios, wind up torches, solar powered chargers, water powered clocks etc.

Redditch Friends of the Earth - A small campaign group that take action locally on environmental and social justice issues.

Earth Star Shop - A West Midlands based company whose aim is to offer a wide range of products for ritual and meditation purposes as well as great gift ideas.

Redditch Trade Justice Network - Campaigns to promote Trade Justice and Fair Trade, and is currently working to achieve Fair Trade Town status for Redditch.

Local Traidcraft and Tearcraft trader - Traidcraft is the UK's leading fair trade organisation, fighting poverty through trade. Tearcraft is the fair trade catalogue of Tearfund, selling beautifully handcrafted home, gift and jewellery products from around the world.

Redditch Vegetarian and Vegan Society - Socialising, support and promoting healthy, compassionate, eco-friendly living in Redditch.

Sarah Laughed Ethical Stationery - Redditch based not-for-profit organisation that designs, produces and sells hand crafted stationery that is beautiful, unique and environmentally friendly.

Green Finder - Based in Leamington Spa, Greenfinder is a new online directory for all things green, clean and ethical.

WorkPlayBike Cycle Training - A National Standard Cycle Trainer based in Redditch, offering on road training, maintenance courses etc. In the process of forming a local cycle social group.

Cleen Green - A Nuneaton based family business that sells the Bio D range of cleaning products, as well as recycled toilet paper and low energy light bulbs.

Redditch Green Party - The local branch of the Green Party.

Viva! Midlands - The local contact for the Vegetarians International Voice For Animals(Viva!).

Nuke Watch - NukeWatch monitors and tracks the movement of Britain's nuclear weapons around the UK.

Boomerang - A Redditch shop that collects your unwanted goods free of charge, then sells them at bargain prices, to save them ending up in landfill.

Enjo - Produce a wide range of household cleaning materials that don`t require any chemicals, yet result in cleaner surfaces.

Vegan Society - They have recently relocated to their new national headquarters in Birmingham. The stall showed how a plant based diet can massively reduce your ecological footprint!

West Midlands branch of the Camp for Climate Action 2007 - Recruited volunteers to take part in this year`s climate camp and generally raised awareness of the need to take urgent action.

Donations for the Free Prize Draw

Carry A Bag                                 Enviro Products Ltd
Flights Orchard Organics               Enjo
Earth Star Shop                             Eco Flow UK
Tearcraft                                       Ideal Trading
Beanies Health Foods                   Eco Experience
Cleen Green                                   Red Kite Health Foods
Co-Op (Studley)                           Tony`s Handyman (Redditch)

Media Coverage

The following list may well not be complete. If you know of more press/radio coverage, please let us know.

Advance Publicity

Groups set for green fair - Redditch Advertiser, 2nd May (mostly about the Ragley Green Fair, but also mentions the Redditch Green Fair.

Redditch Green Fair 2007 - Birmingham Indymedia.

Town to host green fair - Redditch Advertiser, 23rd May.

Redditch Green Fair - BBC Herefordshire & Worcestershire entertainment guide.

Eco-fair has UN stamp of approval - Redditch Standard, 1st June.

During the days leading up to the fair, it was announced on several local radio stations, including BBC Radio WM, BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester, Smooth Radio and quite possibly others...

After the Event

Second `green fair` comes to town - BBC Internet/Teletext News, 2nd June.

Eco-fair success - Redditch Standard, 6th June.