Debating country matters at Game Fair highlight of season

WEST Country-based online TV presenter Charlie Jacoby, who hosts the weekly Fieldsports Channel on YouTube, will be leading debates on hot topics in the countryside this weekend at the Game Fair.

The Game Fair Theatre, sponsored by Carter Jonas, is by tradition one of the major events at the annual gathering of country sports enthusiasts and country lovers.

In previous years panelists at the theatre’s debates have included former Ukip leader, now heading up the Brexit party, Nigel Farage, historian and journalist Sir Max Hastings and MP and former farming minister George Eustice.

This year leaders in the fieldsports pressure groups, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Countryside Alliance will be debating the recent challenge by Chris Packham’s Wild Justice group to the release of game birds into the countryside. Big game hunting and why to be truly environmentally-friendly, vegans should actually be killing their own meat are also on the agenda.

The Game Fair, which this year takes place at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, was formerly run by the CLA and has been the annual gathering for country lovers for more than half a century.

It is now run by an independent organisation who saved it from closure after the CLA announced it was pulling out following the 2014 event because it was losing money.

This year’s event is expected to be particularly well-supported thanks to the promise of good weather and the proximity of Hatfield House to London.

West Country exhibitors will be attending including regulars Devonbased Ladds Guns who will be among the retailers and manufactures in Gunmaker’s Row. Gundog scurries, falconry displays, horses and hounds and the fishing area will all be operating over the three days of the event, which starts today

In recent years food and drink has played an increasingly large part at the Game Fair, with chef and country lover James Martin running a restaurant at the event, specialising in game dishes.

Numbers have been boosted in the last couple of years thanks to free entry to all members of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. The organisers have also worked hard to broaden the appeal of the event, including a section on gardens and other attractions for those who don’t shoot, hunt or fish.

But the Game Fair’s new organisers have been careful to stay true to the event’s roots and cater first for country sports lovers, who will be out in force over the three days.