SCENTS of sizzling burgers, the boom of disco bass, siren wails, shrieks and screams ? Tavistock was yesterday (Wednesday) transformed from quiet market town to packed people-magnet as it celebrated Goose Fair day.
The event draws huge crowds from all over the region as the town centre is given over to stalls, traders and fairground rides ? and this year was no different.
But there was a difference in the organisation of the mammoth event. For the first time in more than 20 years, a new man took on the task of seeing the fair ran like clockwork.
Tavistock Town Council?s new works superintendent Wayne Southall said the event took a huge amount of time to organise. ?This year we have had to incorporate fire access to the town hall , so the fairground rides had to be juggled round a bit and in Plymouth Road, there?s 37ft less space for traders, just to make it a bit easier for the big buses.?
At Tavistock Livestock Centre, more than 100 geese went under the hammer.
Chris Clapham said people came from across Devon and Cornwall to sell their geese at the fair: ?We?ve had entries from Mary Tavy, Pensilva, Launceston, Bray Shop, Dousland. We normally get people coming from the Exmouth area and quite a few from Newton Abbot way, and Totnes ? it?s very unusual to get geese sales nowadays.?