Gypsy Fair at Stow on the Wolde
Nov 23rd, 2013, 06:14 PM
#3
I'd give it a pass myself. I think the town essentially shuts up during the fair to avoid possible <i>troubles</i>.
hopefully flanner will see you post and have more detailed info. My only experience w/ Gypsy horse fairs are from the late 70's and things are much different now.
hopefully flanner will see you post and have more detailed info. My only experience w/ Gypsy horse fairs are from the late 70's and things are much different now.
Nov 23rd, 2013, 11:10 PM
#4
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I've not been, but as of now janisj's comments are about a decade or two out of date.
For much of the 70s through 90s, the fair was controversial in the town (which is dramatically overstating the level of local support), generally because of heightened levels of what now looks like low-level vandalism.
Since then, the area's got inundated with short-term festivals and the temporary arrival of thousands of potential ne'er do wells (my own microtown gets about three a year, the biggest dragging five times more people than Stow Fair to live in bizarrely overpampered canvas for four days). Technology means the arrivals are watched on CCTV throughout, social change means most of the population now spends much of the year patronising other people's short-term festivals (our age distribution is now identical to that of the Glastonbury Festival, and our microtown half empties that weekend)- and the proliferation of such festivals makes Stow's increasingly look more like an annual garden society show, but with horses rather than delphiniums.
So the town's stopped closing up for fear of worries, and now merchandises itself to attract the gypsy pound as enthusiastically as it chases the Japanese coach party pound.
Last month's fair was un-noteworthy.(http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/n...ee_of_trouble/) This May's really wasn't that exotic (http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk.../pictures.html)
I certainly wouldn't go out of my way just to see the fair, but till now I'd certainly have gone and had a look if I'd been near Stow at the time.
Not quite so sure about this coming May.
Gypsies have been attracting more and more attention over the past month: there's been a substantial increase in gypsy immigration from countries like Slovakia (where there's real persecution), and they've not been popular in parts of Britain where they've settled (hundreds of miles away, and these migrants have no horse culture, which is what the Stow Fair is centred on). This minor spat coincides, though, with:
- a dunderheaded politically correct fad of calling gypsies Roma, and
- the nationally controversial removing of UK migration controls on 1/1/2014 to all Romanians, few of whom are gypsies, but you can see how tabloid headlines, trying to avoid getting attacked for alleged racism, can be highly confusing on this. Predictably, there's now a common view we're about to be swamped with foreign gypsies.
The May Stow fair will be pretty much the first gypsy gathering after Romanians get free movement. Who knows how many ethnic British gypsies it'll attract who've just got a bit over-sensitive to perceived slights (they, of course are almost as pissed off everyone thinks they're Romanians as the Romanians are that everyone thinks they're gypsies). Or whether any anti-immigration nutters will turn up - ironically misled by daft politically correct neologisms into thinking gypsies whose ancestors have been here for centuries are all part of the Romanian horde.
I'd do a bit of googling a week or so before going to Stow this May to see how this one pans out. The fair's been running twice a year for the past six centuries, causing little more than the odd punchup every few decades after the pubs close (and far fewer arrests than the cannabis-sodden summer festivals get). But nothing's predictable.
For much of the 70s through 90s, the fair was controversial in the town (which is dramatically overstating the level of local support), generally because of heightened levels of what now looks like low-level vandalism.
Since then, the area's got inundated with short-term festivals and the temporary arrival of thousands of potential ne'er do wells (my own microtown gets about three a year, the biggest dragging five times more people than Stow Fair to live in bizarrely overpampered canvas for four days). Technology means the arrivals are watched on CCTV throughout, social change means most of the population now spends much of the year patronising other people's short-term festivals (our age distribution is now identical to that of the Glastonbury Festival, and our microtown half empties that weekend)- and the proliferation of such festivals makes Stow's increasingly look more like an annual garden society show, but with horses rather than delphiniums.
So the town's stopped closing up for fear of worries, and now merchandises itself to attract the gypsy pound as enthusiastically as it chases the Japanese coach party pound.
Last month's fair was un-noteworthy.(http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/n...ee_of_trouble/) This May's really wasn't that exotic (http://www.gloucestershireecho.co.uk.../pictures.html)
I certainly wouldn't go out of my way just to see the fair, but till now I'd certainly have gone and had a look if I'd been near Stow at the time.
Not quite so sure about this coming May.
Gypsies have been attracting more and more attention over the past month: there's been a substantial increase in gypsy immigration from countries like Slovakia (where there's real persecution), and they've not been popular in parts of Britain where they've settled (hundreds of miles away, and these migrants have no horse culture, which is what the Stow Fair is centred on). This minor spat coincides, though, with:
- a dunderheaded politically correct fad of calling gypsies Roma, and
- the nationally controversial removing of UK migration controls on 1/1/2014 to all Romanians, few of whom are gypsies, but you can see how tabloid headlines, trying to avoid getting attacked for alleged racism, can be highly confusing on this. Predictably, there's now a common view we're about to be swamped with foreign gypsies.
The May Stow fair will be pretty much the first gypsy gathering after Romanians get free movement. Who knows how many ethnic British gypsies it'll attract who've just got a bit over-sensitive to perceived slights (they, of course are almost as pissed off everyone thinks they're Romanians as the Romanians are that everyone thinks they're gypsies). Or whether any anti-immigration nutters will turn up - ironically misled by daft politically correct neologisms into thinking gypsies whose ancestors have been here for centuries are all part of the Romanian horde.
I'd do a bit of googling a week or so before going to Stow this May to see how this one pans out. The fair's been running twice a year for the past six centuries, causing little more than the odd punchup every few decades after the pubs close (and far fewer arrests than the cannabis-sodden summer festivals get). But nothing's predictable.
Nov 24th, 2013, 09:46 AM
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Thanks for all that flanneruk. We were at Stow this past Spring and would have stopped at the Fair but for the massive parking problem and the long walk. We'll be in Broadway for a week and if we can hear from someone who has taken in previous Fairs and reports positively, we may go. I'd like to know if it holds interest for tourists like us.
Your response was interesting.
Your response was interesting.
