Bird Fair donation from 2019, and what of the future?

Mark 5 Comments

I am a great fan of the Bird Fair – but will we ever see it again?

The last face-to-face, binocular-to-binocular, pint-to-pint Bird Fair was in 2019 and it would be a brave organiser who would risk calling the world to Rutland Water in August 2021 what with Covid and all.

But if you can remember back to 2019 it was a quiet Bird Fair – partly because it rained a lot and there was a sea of mud.

After Bird Fair 2019, I wrote this in a post called Bird Fair slower thoughts;

I’m sure it was a record year, it always is, but Friday had a low attendance (was it the weather forecast or Countryfile Live at Castle Howard for the first time or something else?). Saturday was busy, perhaps as busy as ever, but Sunday was quite quiet, I thought. My prediction is that Bird Fair will hand over a smaller cheque to BirdLife next spring than it did last spring (and my prediction about that was right). I hope I’m wrong but that’s my prediction.

https://markavery.info/2019/08/21/bird-fair-slower-thoughts/

I have, off and on, wondered about how big was the 2019 Bird Fair cheque and I now discover that it was for £168,000+. That’s a lot of money, I know, but not when you compare it with the other most recent years;

https://markavery.info/2019/04/01/bird-fair-in-decline/

I won’t bother with adjusting the sum for inflation, because £168,000 is obviously a lot less than any of the previous six Bird Fairs and less than half of the 2016 peak.

Would a Bird Fair in 2022 be a massive success? I think it might, because by then we might have adjusted to the new normal, we might be pining for the old familiar things and overseas visitors might find that getting in and out of the UK and their own countries has become more routine – a get together might seem like the best thing in the world.

What do you think?

[registration_form]

5 Replies to “Bird Fair donation from 2019, and what of the future?”

  1. The 2019 Bird Fair was impacted a lot by the significance reduction in overseas exhibitors, largely due to increased restrictions on the sale of holidays caused by a change in legislation. Additionally some foreign governments had withdrawn their support for exhibitors. Quite a number of potential visitors may have been put off by this. One further aspect is a disillusionment with the environmental credentials of Bird Fair and all that it aims to represent.

    I have been a regular visitor for many years but, othervthan those times when I wanted to talk with someone specific, I had begun to wonder why. Every dog has his day, after all.

  2. Let’s hope a small scale Bird Fair can be a “goer” for this year and then back to normal for next year 2022. It is a really great event which thousands of people enjoy and which raises great sums for conservation. We should not worry too much iif the sum goes up or down too much it is bound to. I think it is important to show that despite the totally crass stupidity of leaving the EU we and the birds can still attract exhibitors and people from the EU and around the world.
    Here’s to the next Bird Fair.

  3. I have heard that part of the drop was to do with the change of management at LRWT. With the RSPB having downgraded their engagement after Martin Davies’ retirement and then LRWT terminating Tim Appleton there is a leadership vacuum. The team is still in place and volunteers have been approached about willingness to be involved this year so something may happen but, like you, I wonder if it will be 2022 before it really goes big again.

Comments are closed.