Guernsey Press

Clear-up begins after wet and windy Earth Fair

ATTENDANCE was down but the team behind the Vale Earth Fair was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by how many festival-goers were unfazed by Sunday’s wet and windy weather.

Published
Simon Ellis of Centre Stage packs away gear after Sunday’s Vale Earth Fair. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 22374334)

Volunteers and sound crew were at the Vale Castle yesterday as clean-up operations started just hours after the annual music event came to an end.

Vale Earth Collective member Rob Roussel said the weather conditions had played their part in the smaller turnout compared to 2017.

‘We were definitely down on last year, but we still had over 1,000 on Sunday and a good crowd on Saturday night as well,’ he said.

‘I was pleasantly surprised by how many people didn’t care about the weather.’

Mr Roussel said that recycling plays a big part in the clean-up process, which will go on for a few days yet.

‘All the PA needs to be loaded into a trailer and taken back to the UK. We will be clearing up rubbish until about Thursday and the scaffolding will be the last thing to come down,’ he said.

Last year, quite a few people had popped down to volunteer for a few hours having enjoyed the weekend, and he hoped that might be the case again this year.

The main stage was one of the first major structures to come down, with the off-island equipment being shipped back to the UK this morning.

Simon Ellis from Centre Stage said they were on-site until around 2am yesterday getting the stage cleared. ‘We came back at 9.30 this morning to start stripping down the roof and start taking the stage down,’ he said.

‘So far, we have taken the cables from the PA down.’

While there is more of a reliance now on their own equipment, he said the kit that is brought over from the UK adds variety.

‘We try to change the lighting up a little bit each year to stop it from being too samey, which is why we like to bring in bits and pieces from the UK, but most of it is on-island,’ he said.