Sadly this fair has now closed.

We would like to inform all our customers of the circumstances surrounding our departure as organisers of the ‘Criccieth Antiques and Collectors Fair’.

The circumstances which led us to take the decision to move the fair were that the Committee who administer  the Memorial Hall, in what was deemed to be a 'good business move', decided to more than double the rent we were previously being charged for the hall. We had worked with the previous management for many years and they understood not only the costs of organising our fair but also the benefit our fair bought to the town of Criccieth.

We attracted many hundreds of visitors to Criccieth at each fair and our rent reflected that benefit which also mirrored the ethos of the Memorial Hall which was, but seems to have escaped the present management, to benefit the people of Criccieth and at the same time honour those who had fallen in all the battles that have been fought since 1914 to present day.

Based on the known costs of running the fair and in the light of several concerns regarding the managerial capabilities of the present committee at the Memorial Hall and also in an attempt to ensure that an Antique & Collectors fair remained in this area, we were forced into making the decision to take the fair away from Criccieth to Porthmadog – a decision that was in fact backed by the majority of dealers at the Easter Monday fair.

It seems appropriate to recall an example of the calibre of the Management skills of those supposedly running the Memorial Hall. Our Easter Monday fair was almost thrown in jeopardy when I was contacted by a member of the committee and was informed that as we had not confirmed our intention of holding a fair on that day we would not be allowed to do so. In fact we had booked the whole season way ahead last November as we had always done in the past through their Booking officer and that in fact, all our dates had been accepted and confirmed. Leaving out the obvious lack of communication between those involved, you would have thought that the good will that had existed between us and the hall based on more than twenty years of fairs at the hall would have counted for something, but it seemed not. They were content to stop our fair dead.

 They also stated that we had not signed the necessary ‘new contract’ they were introducing and when asked where the contact was so that we could view and sing, we were told that it was in the process of being drafted, so it would have been impossible for us to sign at that given time.  In the end they realised their mistake and we received confirmation to go ahead with the fair with just two days remaining before the event.

We ran that last fair on Easter Monday and in view of the above we decided that the only way to proceed was to move the fair to Porthmadog where the rent was cheaper and there was much more in the way of passing trade. We handed out over three hundred leaflets to announce our intention to move the fair and consulted our dealers giving them the facts and in the main they supported us in our decision to move the fair. The fair ended with the support of the majority of dealers booking for what looked to be a very successful move to Porthmadog.

Then, in what can only be described as greedy and opportunistic, two of the dealers who stood at our fair, namely Malcolm  &  Dorothy Denham from Colwyn Bay  and Tom Parry from Gwalchmai Anglesey, took it upon themselves to rebook the Memorial Hall and proceeded to entice dealers away from our intended fair at Porthmadog  to stay at Criccieth. This was done without our prior knowledge and completely behind our backs.

It would not be an untruth to state that we were usurped by the two opportunists in question who proceeded to entice our dealers to stay at Criccieth.  This is an extract of their explanation of the hand over.  “We decided to give it one more chance and took over the running of this popular local event. We are encouraged by the support from all the stand holders and local trade’s people who like ourselves were very sad to see this event fold. “     In actual fact the above statement sounds as though the hand over was amicable when indeed it was most certainly not.  The event was snatched from us behind our backs with the support of a certain clique of dealers who did not have the courage to support us at Porthmadog.

Although we understand many of the dealer’s decisions to jump ship and stay at Criccieth it has to be remembered that each of those dealers only ever risked the cost of their stand whilst we on the other hand risked many hundreds of pounds at each event.  We felt that given the costs of running our small fair properly with all the advertising, both locally and nationally in the press, on the website and with full essential public liability insurance to cover all of the events, that any decision to stay at Criccieth would have been both flawed and short sighted.

Sadly it seems there is no loyalty in this business. Everything that we had done in the past was for the benefit of the dealers and customers who attended our fair and I honestly do not believe that any of them would say any differently.  We now feel however that they have betrayed the good faith we had invested over all these years, which is very sad.

And now in a further body blow the organisers of the new fair have decided to take our company name and trade as Criccieth Antiques & Collectors Fair which they legally cannot do as we own the rights to the name of that Company. We are currently liaising with our Solicitors to ensure they do not trade under our name. Also, the new organisers are currently advertising the fair as being under new management!! Are they suggesting that we were in some way responsible for the circumstances we all found ourselves in?

There is a cloud hanging over this fair…