No fun at the fair: travelling showmen face crisis after summer washout
Funfair operators have fallen through the cracks of emergency support schemes, finds Simon Foy
‘It’s not a job, it’s our life’s work and a lifestyle and a heritage that we’re very proud of. But this really has put us on our knees as an industry’
The next six weeks should have been the most profitable time of the year for Lyndon Leighton. As a travelling fairground operator, the stretch from Hallowe’en to Christmas earns him enough to see his family through the winter and pays for a holiday in the new year before he starts the business back up at Easter.
But this year, having barely worked on a fairground since March, Leighton has been forced to work odd jobs – sweeping yards, painting fences and making log burners – just to get by.
“I was in my yard at the weekend with the equipment and I was distraught,” he says. “This time of year you usually have all of your debts paid and you get a run of bonfires and Christmas markets. But we’ve earned nothing as an industry – we’re struggling terribly.”
Funfair operators, known as travelling showmen, have fallen through the cracks of the vast majority of the Government’s emergency support schemes. As a mobile industry, showmen do not have rateable premises and were ineligible for the emergency grants that propped up thousands of small businesses.
Although they would like better financial support, it is not their biggest grievance. After being told by the Government that they could reopen on July 4 with the rest of the hospitality sector, the fairground industry feels aggrieved that many councils deemed them “unsafe” and refused to give travelling fairs permission to restart.
Leighton was baffled by the decision. He asks why amusement parks, indoor play centres and gyms could reopen but funfairs were regarded as “high risk”.
He managed to operate at one fair in Burnley during the August bank holiday before his next event was cancelled. He says that the Burnley fair demonstrated that fairgrounds can be Covid secure, citing measures such as hand sanitising, wiping down rides and drastically reducing capacity. “It was very down on money, but it was a living.” It is unclear why many councils did not allow travelling fairs to reopen during the summer. When asked about the rationale behind the decisions made by councils, the Ministry for Local Government did not provide any definitive answer, but it is thought some councils had concerns regarding the amount of people attending fairs.
A spokesman for East Riding Council in Yorkshire, which allowed some fairs to take place during the summer, said recent fairs had been cancelled “on public health grounds”.
Operating fairground rides is a costly business. The rides can cost more than £100,000 each and showmen often take out hefty loans to finance them. On top of that, they require public liability insurance to operate, pay fees to get their rides tested annually, as well as tax and insurance on their large vehicles.
These costs did not disappear like magic during the crisis, says Philip Paris, president of the Travelling Showmen’s Guild. “We’re not receiving adequate funding and we’re not getting the message across that local authorities are putting these blanket bans on not allowing fairs to operate. People are genuinely facing bankruptcy and they don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” he adds. Paris also believes the
Government neglected the concerns of fairground operators throughout the crisis. Before the summer, Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, established task groups involving members of various hospitality sectors to set out a road map for reopening, but the Showmen’s Guild was never invited.
A government spokesman said: “We meet regularly with representatives of the Showmen’s Guild to understand the impact the pandemic is having on the sector and are working flat out to help those affected. Support has included the job retention scheme, Bounce Back loan scheme and VAT reductions.”
To raise awareness for the plight of the industry and push for clarity about when it can reopen, six “lady showmen” have launched a campaign called Future for Fairgrounds.
Colleen Roper, one of the groups’ members, suggests that the ban placed on fairground operators could be a result of discrimination. “Unfortunately it does seem that there is an acceptable form of prejudice and discrimination against the travelling community. If you were to discriminate against any other cultural minority, it wouldn’t be acceptable,” she says.
Despite little prospect of reopening anytime before Easter, the showmen are determined to weather the storm.
Leighton says: “I ain’t giving up my business. I’m sticking with it – it’s got to come around good at some point.”
Roper is more cautious, but says: “It’s not a job, it’s our life’s work and a lifestyle and a heritage that we’re very proud of. We do adapt and we are very resilient, but this really has put us on our knees as an industry.”