SHANES CASTLE GAME FAIR - POSTPONED TO 26th & 27th June 2021 A NEW ‘VIRTUAL FAIR’ FOR THIS YEAR - COMING SOON

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FROM THE PEN OF : ALBERT  TITTERINGTON

 

    SHANES CASTLE GAME FAIR - POSTPONED TO 26th & 27th June 2021

A NEW ‘VIRTUAL FAIR’ FOR THIS YEAR - COMING SOON

As many will be aware when Covid struck we put in place contingency plans to postpone the fair planned for Shanes Castle in June.

Later, as the pandemic became more serious, we implemented them to plan to run on the 29/30 August.

Unfortunately we have now had to take the difficult decision to postpone the Irish Game Fair until NEXT YEAR on 26/27 June 2021.

It was a difficult decision to make as we had everything in place: a new layout, a Covid compliant plan right down to branded Game Fair face masks and loads of sanitiser; and a good range of new exhibitors were committed to being there.

However, in spite of all that we had done, recent spikes and clusters in the UK and in particular in NI and the ROI created the additional dimension of a greater health risk to visitors’, exhibitors’, competitors’ and staff safety which we felt we could not ignore.

I would like to thank a number of people and organisations who worked with us to try to deliver the 2020 fair. These include: Jim Shannon, MP who took our case to the highest level in government; our hosts the Rt Hon Shane O’Neill at Shanes Castle and staff at Antrim & Newtownabbey Council; our contractors; event organisers and entertainers; our sponsors and exhibitors; and last but not least our Great Game Fairs of Ireland team who invested a great deal of time and money making plans and then amending them.

Part of our contingency planning was that if we had to postpone the fair until 2021 we would run a VIRTUAL GAME FAIR in 2020.

It’s a BRAND NEW CONCEPT - and you will hear a lot more very soon as the site is designed and currently being built.

Our VIRTUAL GAME FAIR 2020 will open for business at www.thevirtualgamefair.com on the 29th & 30th August 2020.

The Virtual Game Fair will run throughout the year 24/7 with an exciting mix of exhibitors, competitions and bargains galore.

The slogan will be ‘The Game Fair you can visit every day’

See the upcoming Autumn issue of Irish Country Sports and Country Life and this group for more news!

Virtual Game Fair cover images by Peter McArdle and Jan Evans

Edited July 21, 2020 by appleblossom