See ya next year! Goose Fair cancelled for only the 9th time in 729 years

For the 9th time in 729 years, the Goose Fair has been cancelled due to challenges in maintaining safe standards amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first 10 days of uni should mean diving in headfirst to freshers week, getting all the freebies at Welcome Week stalls, signing up to societies you’ll never go to, catching freshers flu and of course, riding the big wheel at the Goose Fair. But not in 2020.

The perfect end to a week of hard-core partying during freshers was a nice little trip to the fair, hopping on the tram to Forest Recreation Ground, enjoying some candy-floss, and riding on the Ghost Train with your newfound friends. The atmosphere is always electric and just wouldn’t be the same if it opened with social distancing measures in place. It was for this reason that Nottingham City Council announced on the 21^st August that the fair would not be taking place this year despite the best efforts being made to try and prevent this from occurring.

Whilst government guidelines allow fairgrounds to open providing they follow a very strict set of rules and procedures, it was decided that Goose Fair was not to go ahead. Due to its bustling atmosphere and popularity, drawing crowds of up to 400,000 visitors over the five days from far and wide, it would have been near impossible to provide the Goose Fair that we all know and love during the current climate.

Prior to 2020, the only things that stood in a fresher’s way to the Goose Fair were two world wars and the bubonic plague.

Attracting over 400,000 visitors, Goose Fair is one of Nottingham’s biggest events

Councillor Dave Trimble, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture at Nottingham City Council explained how they “took the decision not to cancel the event earlier in the year, but to work with the Showmen’s Guild and our events partners to come up with potential alternate solutions to stage Goose fair…[it] is Nottinghams’ iconic event and making a decision to cancel this year due to the Coronavirus is a decision that the council does not take lightly.”

All sorts of measures were considered to ensure that residents of Nottingham and the surrounding area could enjoy the fair, such as increased parking to reduce the numbers utilising the NET Tram system or extending the fair and reducing capacity by timed sessions. However, it just would not be the same.

My Insta post from freshers week will just not look the same…

Fingers crossed, this time next year, the Goose Fair will be back.