Bridgwater Fair
Being in the home town of Event Sparks, this event was well known by us before we even started in power. Fun fact, business director, Chives Farrance actually worked on this event in 2003. Bridgwater Fair is a much-loved event for Bridgwater and lots of people in the community look forward to it each year. The fair runs from Wednesday to Saturday night and takes place during late September. West Street, Bridgwater is closed for the 5-day event and completely taken over by market stalls which lead you up to the fairground field where you can ride the biggest rides. The event is held by Sedgemoor District Council, who hold the relationship with us at Event Sparks.
Our Role At Bridgwater Fair:
Supplying Bridgwater Fair is early starts and late finishes. From placing the generators at the start of the week to monitoring them during the event until collection at the end of the week, this job requires intricate planning and seamless execution. The week starts at roughly 4 am Tuesday and then runs through till roughly 4 am Sunday morning. At Event Sparks, we have the responsibility of keeping the lights on, the food cooking and the council happy. Over the many years we’ve been supplying Bridgwater Fair, we’ve got to know each trader, which helps build trust for us to check their electrics and for them to look after our equipment.
2024 Equipment List & Timeline:
Monday 23rd – This year, we began the set up for the fair Monday evening from 5 pm. We had 8 generators and 8 fuel browsers to get into place down West Street without the road being closed off to the public. In order to do so, we had Event Sparks staff stop traffic while we craned the generators and fuel browsers off of the lorry.
Tuesday 24th – We worked through Monday night, prepping cable and ramp and loading our trailer. We arrived bright and early to West Street at 4 am to start laying the cables down before the traders arrived at 8 am. The reason we lay the cables beforehand is due to how manic it gets once they all start arriving. We have to lay over 3600m of cable and over 80 pieces of ramp to supply the power for over 75 traders.
Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th – During these days we have a senior responsible person on site all day monitoring the generators and handling any problems that arise. Not only do they monitor, but in the morning and night they pack away and place out the distribution boxes to prevent theft (this is due to the road being accessible for the public to walk through).
Saturday 28th – The Fair’s last night is Saturday. Once the market closed at 10 pm and the traders began packing down, so did we. Throughout the night we coiled up all of our cables and packed away our ramp and distro’s, finishing at around 4 am.
Monday 30th – All that was left to do now was the reverse of the previous Monday. We had to stop traffic and remove the 8 generators and fuel tanks.
2024 Equipment List:
- 3 Generators of 100kva
- 5 Generators of 60kva
- 8 Fuel tanks
- Over 3600m of cable
- 8 Distribution boxes (125A)
- 80+ Cable ramp, mixed between linebacker and ADA ramp
