Fairs and Markets

Organisers of the Parcours des Mondes decided to go ahead with this edition instead of heading online – but only after careful deliberation

Following the cancellation of the popular vintage bazaars at the Cheese and Grain arts centre in Frome, Somerset, textiles dealers Liz van Hasselt and Clare Powell have been doing the next best thing: organising the events online via Instagram.

Organiser of events across the country has fingers crossed for fairs scheduled later in 2020.

MADAM – I note with interest that the Firsts London rare book fair is on the move again (News, ATG No 2454).

PBFA (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association) has held four monthly online book fairs, with the fifth going live to the public at noon on Saturday, August 29. Up to 15 books/items can be put up for sale by each bookseller member.

Suzanne Hall is the organiser of a small monthly midweek antiques and fleamarket in Old Windsor which is reopening as lockdown eases on Wednesday, September 2, at the Memorial Hall.

For the first time in 26 years GNB Fairs will not be running an antiques and collectors’ fair at the Brentwood Centre in Essex over the August bank holiday weekend.

Thirteen-year old Miles Raymond from Tunbridge Wells started collecting after he found an old bottle in his grandparents’ garden. He would like be a dealer in the future, but his career path also leans towards design and engineering – with his interest in antiques a useful influence.

“We opened at the earliest opportunity two months ago and were immediately ridiculously busy,” said David Skeet, general manager of the Brighton and Lewes fleamarkets.

Gary Wallis, organiser of the 'Henley Decor Fair', is delighted that all the exhibitors who booked for the original May/June event at Greenlands Park beside the Thames are on board for the reorganised dates following its cancellation due to the pandemic.

Kate Lee, an antiques dealer in Beccles on the edge of the Norfolk Broads, is also co-organiser of the Beccles Antiques Market.

The timing could have been a disaster, but three dealers who opened an antiques centre in Dorking at the beginning of the month have been rewarded for their ambition by a very encouraging start.

Nathan Alexander is a busy man. He has opened three antiques centres in three years with two in Southampton and a third in Fareham, all under the same title of Robin’s Nest Emporium.

Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs’ mid-summer fair at the Dorking Halls on August 16 has been cancelled.

The Petworth Park Antiques & Fine Art Fair can go ahead as planned in September after the National Trust deemed it an ‘outdoor’ event.