Today is the day that Goose Fair gets most of my attention during the day, as Mandi and I always meet up with my dad and my nana to have a look around the fair and of course enjoy some mushy peas. Mandi had volunteered to work overtime today (she’s not from Nottingham so doesn’t fully understand the significance of Goose Fair, besides it is time-and-a-half on Saturday) but had only chosen to work until half past twelve, as the fair only opens at noon she didn’t miss too much. What she did miss was the rain that threatened to seriously damage proceedings.

My dad and I agreed that this was traditional Goose Fair weather; I hoped that it wouldn’t keep people away and cause a big financial hole in the fair on its busiest day, but despite a slow start it soon picked up later in the afternoon. When I was a child I only went to Goose Fair on one occasion as we left Nottingham when I was two years old and we went on one of our visits to Nottingham to see my grandparents and I remember wrapping up in a coat, hat, and gloves. The last few years have been pretty much t-shirt weather which may mean something about global warming but if it means an Indian summer (are we still allowed to call it that?) then I’m not going to complain.

What I will complain about is the fact that Mandi won’t go on the scary rides with me, so I have nobody to go with as nobody I know seems to go on a Saturday. I also didn’t see anyone on Friday night which is odd because I know loads of people from Nottingham so I need to find out when they are going. The only rides I went on were the carousel and the swing chairs, when I wanted to go on the reverse bungee and a few other things.

There is something about the atmosphere at the fair that cannot be rivalled or replicated anywhere else in town, this doesn’t just apply in Nottingham but anywhere else that hosts a travelling fair. When I lived in Boston there was a May Fair which landed (if my memory serves me right) over the May Day weekend and took over the whole of the market place, you actually saw people out and about then, more so than Goose Fair in fact. This is what annoys me about Nottingham, why bother to live in such an active city and not take part? I’ve heard some people say that they never go to town or won’t drink in a particular pub because it is too touristy. Are these perhaps the same people who won’t go to Goose Fair, one of the best things that Nottingham manages to do? I even know people who don’t like mushy peas with mint sauce, one of the best examples of local cuisine there could be and one that seems to be uniquely Nottingham (apart from Bonfire Night of course when the whole country gets involved). The people who run the (the) mushy pea stall only do it for Goose Fair and do other things (including selling flowers) the rest of the year. It’s a sad fact that the demand for coal fire cooked mushy peas isn’t sufficient throughout the rest of the year in Nottingham; what about the Riverside Festival? The Christmas lights switch on (I am available for that if anyone from the council is reading this), or the various food markets that go on in the Market Square? On Twitter at the moment there’s a load of hype surrounding International Robin Hood Day later this month, but not a single mention of mushy peas has been made. This is from the creator of the #NottinghamRocks campaign on Twitter too!

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