Street Market Project
Dear All,
We are acutely aware that the world is in recession and in particular Tourism is in rapid decline within the Channel Islands and the days when many hundreds of thousands of visitors flocked to the Channel Islands, and Sark are long gone. However we do know there are 60,000 people in Guernsey, 100,000 people in Jersey and however many millions in France that could be (and are) attracted to Sark when events are staged.
We know that the Sheep racing event is very well supported and also the Festival of the Sea so perhaps with a few more events we could attract a lot more people especially at weekends, that certainly would boost our Tourist industry and general economy.
So here is the idea: We stage a street market in The Avenue with a bit of a party atmosphere, probably on a Saturday to showcase all that Sark has to offer, a bit like the Viaer Marche in Guernsey and the Saturday town market.
We could try it as a once off, and if it was successful, we could stage it several times a year, perhaps even monthly. It would be on a Saturday, closing the Avenue to tractors and carriages (maybe even bicycles) from say 11am until 6pm, from the Post office to La Collinette.
The idea
Is to bring everything out onto the street with tables, chairs and stalls
especially showcasing local produce, arts and crafts, foods, vegetables,
seafood, children’s stalls, RNLI, Carnival committee stalls, wine tasting,
face painting, bric-a-brac, books, in fact anything. As well as produce
stalls we would try to encourage all restaurants/cafes to bring something
into The Avenue with alfresco cooking and dining. Also it would be nice to
encourage some fishermen to have stalls cooking and selling local seafood
produce.
We would like to have a little bit of music during the day along the lines of folk type music, rather than rock n roll, playing for say 15 minutes every hour, perhaps even the odd busker, a street entertainer for the children walking up and down the length of the Avenue, perhaps a bouncy castle on the green for children. Maybe even a town crier, someone like Fred Teers (any volunteers?) ringing a bell every so often saying o yea, o yea you are all very welcome to Sark, have a great day, letting them know all about the lovely things on offer and that there was so and so band playing at 1pm etc etc.
We don’t envisage the event would cost a huge amount to stage and would hope that all traders could chip in say £10-£20 each and perhaps people taking stalls could chip in £5 per head that could help cover any costs, with any surplus saying going into the Christmas lights, Professor Saint fund or Charity of choice
Here is where we are up to so far:
The concept has been brought before the Chamber of Commerce who think it is a cracking idea, as do most of the Avenue Traders, Publicans, Restaurateurs, Hoteliers, Fishermen, Carnival Committee, Children etc.
We have already sought in principle permission from the Constables and Seneschal and have also obtained in principle backing and support from many of the groups already mentioned with offers of seafood stalls, fishermen stalls, carnival stalls, hotel and restaurant stalls, wine tasting stalls, musicians, to mention but a few. Also we already have offers of help with the event promotion including printing, poster making and even possible radio and television promotion.
The issue has already been discussed with Sark shipping and whilst they are unable to offer any special fares over and above their existing offers, it may be possible to schedule extra boats should there be sufficient demand.
We have not set a date yet but it could be early to mid June, subject to not clashing with any other events, and hopefully on a day when the Jersey boat is running (13th, 20th (mid summers day), 27th June).
Nothing is set in stone however this does seem like a good idea that has been well received and the purpose of this letter is to gauge support and invite any suggestions/help from anyone. The success or otherwise of this type of event would be totally reliant on everybody really getting behind, supporting and embracing the event. Remember, united we stand divided we fall!
P.S. Finally we thought it might be nice for all participants that we could have a celebratory barbeque afterwards, it would be something to look forward to.
Any comments or suggestion please to
Simon Couldridge
e-mail:
saca@cwgsy.net
tel: 832414 or 832260
mobile: 07781 132260
