BARTER FAIR BOUNTY

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A BARTER FAIR IN YOUR AREA?

George and 1 are barter fair veterans now. We've attended the Northeast Washington festival every year since that first experience, and I-for one come home so full of enthusiasm that I'm sure such a people's celebration could be worthwhile in any area.

What would it take to get a swappin' fair going where you live? You'll need to do some careful planning for a start. 1 contacted an experienced festival organizer about the subject, and his main piece of advice was to "do lots of planning way ahead of time . . . and then be flexible when reality intrudes".

He also gave me other helpful tips to pass along.

SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER

First, decide what kind of barter fair you want, since that choice will Influence your other decisions right down the line. The gathering can be citywide, countywide, or even serve folks from several states! It could be a harvest festival (as is the Washington, event) . . . or a spring celebration, where such goods as plant starts and winter-made crafts could be traded.

It's easier, of course, to make a success of a small, local, one-day affair than it is to "pull off" a big gathering that would require facilities for camping out, parking for hundreds of vehicles, and meals.

For any barter fair, however, you'll need a free location . . . such as an open field, a parking lot, or a baseball diamond. The site is of first importance, to be sure, but no more essential than are people who'll be willing to make advance preparations and cover the initial costs. The Northeast Washington gathering's organizers are able to make do on about 25¢ per person for the two-day event. The whole Idea, of course, is that-just as the exchange of money is discouraged in transactions at the fair-the swap meet Itself should be based as much as possible on volunteered land, materials, and labor . . . with only a minimum of cash involved in the preparations.

Here, for example, is one fair's financial breakdown:

As you can see, a good bit of that total is spent on printing and mailing leaflets to publicize the event, because publicity will determine how many people-and what kind of people-will come to your celebration.

"The main reason for our success," the fair's planners pointed out to me, "is the responsible group that attends ... people who're highly conscious of how to live in harmony with the land and with each other."

In other words, vaguely phrased publicity placed in random locations will probably draw a less than ideal crowd, so the Washington festival's leaflets are carefully explicit about the fair's barterin' nature, and they're mailed directly to places where rural alternative communities (local food cooperatives, for example) gather.

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