Give your honest opinion on Stow Fair

Be as honest as you can as its important for the future of Stow Horse Fair!

Did you enjoy this years event?
What would you like to see changed or is it fine as it is?
Do you think it can ever be returned to the golden days!

they have some great wagons and horse at stow at times which is what its about and the people that own them but that about it - its for the gysies 1st and foremost.

I'm in the US and our Native Americans have their Pow Wows where they dress in their native costumes, dance, have booths to sell their crafts and in general celebrate their culture. It's important to be able to let these peoples be who they are and all can enjoy their art and culture.

keep it going and sort it all out thats what should happen once its gone it gone

more horse and less people then there will be less police it should be for travellers

I have many fond memories of Stow Fair in the 1970's with my mum and younger sisters.
The love of horses united everyone at this twice yearly event - long may it continue.

what does it matter if they have a future or not the countries f----d anyway so why should these fair be any different.

WHY are we even discussing this,We as romanies or whatever label given to travellers should have the same rights as every other ethnic group in Britian,The gay parades all around the U,K, leave MUCH more mess,injuries and general problems for all living there and police and general services, (no problems there!)the notting hill carnie has immense impact (still no probs) Mosques popping up everywhere, (O,K, too) Schools with next to no english speaking kids (how quaint) OH but GYPSIES!!!! Wharever next?
The country hosts all manner of celebrations but none seems to get the attention of a few hundred families from around the country getting together a few times a year to have a yarn, swap or sell items,sink a few bevvies and generally celebrate our way of life (which is slowly being strangled by beaurocrats anyway)
There will always be drunks, fights, sillyness and mess whoever meets or where! Steam fairs, Boot sales,country shows, whatever you like so WHY are we different!
The days are gone when a family could follow the seasonal work trail and belong only to themselves, nowdays we cant even tie up overnight, Try and tell a Muslim not to wear a Burka and listen to the squeals! ours is a hundreds of years tradition but who listens? (its not too great this GREAT BRITIAN and I was born here

What needs to happen for gypsies to be accepted is that they CLEAN UP! It's that simple. Just look at the mess in the photo. Who wants to be around there? It's filthy. When I was wee, the gypsies were clean and tidy. Now most of them don't care.

Have you EVER been to ANY fairs,marches,races for life,marathons festivals >>>>need i go on! They all leave immense mess wherever large amounts of humans gather there is total mess,
You must live in a shell not to see that overpackaging and our modern throw away culture is filling the world with waste that is totally unnessecary,As a child my family travelled all over England following the harvests and when we left it was as we found it, Life today and the right to roam being lost has made our way impossible, As for packaging we never had such a thing, Is it really any better now? i truly wonder what will be the end result.
As for the Stow fair - the authorities decided to put it in the worst field possible and with the weather it is impossible to find a dry spot, and dont even start me on the parking! it is impossible to keep the old trads going , Maybe we should call it a religion then MAYBE we can once or twice a year celebrate who we are and where we come from without predudice,

truth is that romany peoples just dont organise as it just aint what was tought us. all those festivels and such hav hundreds of volonteers to clean up or counsil pays to clean up the places afterwoods. cant compare the notting hill carnival. I was there for the first un. Now gorgees get stabbed robbed etcc every year there. it is true but no one is stoping it ar they ? we all know who and what causus problems at th e fars. same peple year on year caorses it and lot of kids we d be ashamd off. behavin like holiguns. terible and we dont want to tak blam us selvs. well if we dont organiz we wil be all of us mad e to pay and no futuer at all so. I saw this and it says. IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! Cop that!

just wanted to say that my family live near stow and every year we go and look at the waggons and enjoy the atmosphere. occasionally you get a squabble break out, but doesnt that happen everywhere there are lots of people? like football matches and festivals? its part of human nature, no one gets along with everyone they meet. every year there are moans of oh no the gypsies are hear again, and as a few others have rightly pointed out, can you imagine the uproar if there where shouts of oh no here come the gays or here come anything other than what is seen as the norm? people need to realize they are being predudice towards the travelling community and its discusting, and unfortunately the majority is down to plain ignoance of not understanding the gypsy way of life. maybe the people who have a problem with the fairs should try going and talking to the folk they would meet.

Spot on Albert. I visited Stow horse fair years ago, and I loved it. I've always been interested in gypsy life, and, truth be told, I envy you your culture. So I'm a sympathetic gorjer. But you've got to tidy up these places! Treat the locals with respect and you'll be treated with more respect. I know there'll always be some that are prejudiced - sod them - but there's plenty that would be a lot more supportive if there weren't so much mess. Maybe gorjer festivals have just as much mess as traveller ones, and I'm sure a lot of the mess at the horse fairs is from visiting gorjers, but I think Albert's hit the nail on the head in that gorjer festivals have organisers who take responsibility for parking, tidying etc etc. It's not on to leave all this to local councils and then moan when they want to close the fairs. I really hope you keep the fairs going, but it's up to the traveller community to make it happen. (by the way I've seen lots of different spellings and pronunciations of gorjer/gadjo/gorgi - does it vary with region or what? which is most widely used in UK?)