Reflections on the 2017 Bird Fair (1)

What a great Bird Fair that was!  I have a feeling that it was the biggest ever – because I don’t recall a year when it wasn’t (!) but I am sure that it was one of the very best.

I spent a lot less time rushing from place to place and a lot more time chatting to people and going to other people’s talks this year. I really, really enjoyed it.

Chris Packham is an absolute star and we must cherish him and support him and look after him.

Thank you to all the people who came up to me and said nice and supportive things about what a whole lot of people are doing for Hen Harriers and on the issue of driven grouse shooting. Your support is much appreciated and makes a big difference.

I wish we could bottle that Bird Fair feeling and pour it out over politicians to make them realise what so many people want them to do.

The Bird Fair has moved a lot in recent years in terms of its political relevance (see previous posts in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 and again in 2016 on this subject).  Difficult issues are now discussed in front of big crowds and in packed marquees. But we are still talking to ourselves too much.  Let’s just say that we have proved the concept of proper debate at the Bird Fair and now we need to use its power to influence the world.

Let me take the CLA Game Fair (now defunct) as an example. This was a much bigger event in terms of public attendance (five times as big?) but then it was heavily subsidised by the CLA (until they pulled the plug) and many of the people attending were simply out for a day’s entertainment. The Bird Fair will never be that big (certainly not on the current site) and I wouldn’t suggest that it should be. But take the Game Fair debates (on whose panels I have sat on very many occasions) – a big crowd at them would be c200 people. The Bird Fair now achieves multiples of that figure on political subjects. But the Game Fair would almost always be attended by politicians of several political parties who would take part in a debate or two, who would be wined and dined by landowners bending their ears in private and who would be taken around the stalls and introduced to exhibitors and some normal people too. Much of this happened without most of the people attending the event participating in it, or even noticing that it was happening, but the Game Fair was a big political opportunity for its community.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the Bird Fair to turn into a political event but we should be using it to get into the heads of politicians as well as buying birding holidays, optics and having great chats with our mates.  I hope that standing ovation of getting on for 1000 people after talks about bird killing in the Mediterranean and on the grouse moors of the UK wasn’t a one-off, but if it was then we missed the chance that politicians would see it and be moved by it.

It may be, I don’t know (so I’m guessing), that the RSPB and Wildlife Trusts would feel a bit sheepish about inviting Michael Gove to next year’s Bird Fair because little of the passion generated at recent Bird Fairs has been generated by the RSPB or the Wildlife Trusts – it has been generated by grass roots campaigns.  Or is that too cynical a thought?

Our two major wildlife conservation organisations have left a gaping hole in the Bird Fair – mobilising the attendees – and others have filled that vacuum.

More on this later today.

[registration_form]