As the pictures show, it has gone as quickly as it arrived. There’s an eerie sadness hanging over the Forest Recreation Ground as the remaining traces of four days of jollity are packed up and driven away. As the tram pulled up at the forest stop one was put in mind of the morning after the Christmas decorations have come down, a sign that we’ve had our fun and now life must return to normal.

From what I have read so far it has been another success which goes to prove that there is still money around to spend on a good time, remembering that what the public amount says won’t be the full total, only what has been declared. There’s not really an excuse to not have your money ready considering it happens at the same time every year, one pound a week saved is fifty quid to spend on the fair which is plenty. Now that the fair is two days longer than the traditional Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it never seems especially busy as people are able to stagger their visits as most people only seem to go once rather than every day. What works in their favour is the value for money once again with most rides priced below a fiver, with every one of them accepting 50p discount vouchers from the local paper. These vouchers are nothing more than a nice but empty gesture as the fair don’t redeem them (as they could spend 50p on a paper and get thirty pounds back), they just add 50p to the price and that immediately comes off. We all know what the score is, so when a ride says three pounds we know it is two pound fifty really. Although we’re in on this, we all play along.

The (the) mushy pea stall is still an area that still needs work. Mushy peas are available from several food outlets but are not to the standard of the (the) stall. This echoes what I have written about seaside fish and chips; holidaymakers will buy any old shit but the residents want quality and know where to go. This is the case in Nottingham; we know to buy our Goose Fair mushy peas from this particular stall and let those who don’t know any better get the tinned peas and bottled mint sauce. More needs to be done to encourage youngsters to eat this city’s delicacy so that the tradition can live on, perhaps the people who own the (the) mushy pea stall could go around schools teaching how mushy peas came to be Nottingham’s favourite snack and to educate on how this is real fast food, after all there is nothing quicker than ordering “two please” and immediately being given two cups of peas.

I still can’t get my head around the fact that there are Nottingham residents who were born here that don’t go to the fair. More needs to be done to incite people along, perhaps my idea of making the Thursday a Bank Holiday should be extended to the duration of the fair. Not a Bank Holiday as such, but something similar to the old style ‘factory fortnight’ where industry used to close down for everybody to go on holiday. On the Saturday after Goose Fair weekend I start saving two pounds a week in a jar for the following year, which is an amount you don’t miss on a week by week basis but gives you one hundred pounds (effectively free money) to spend over the five days. The council could consider deducting two pounds a week off everybody in some way, adding it to council tax or taking it from wages, nobody would notice until the Tuesday before the fair when every household receives special Goose Fair vouchers in the post which act as cash accepted by everyone on the fair whether it’s food, rides, or hook-a-duck you want to spend it on. The fair then send all the vouchers in and are given the value in pounds and pence. The only downside I can see is that this will have to be declared for tax and if fewer people use cash then the stallholders might have to only keep one set of accounts in future.

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