Feedback on Spring Fair

Many vendors shared that this was their best sales day ever, which made us so happy to hear! We also received wonderful compliments about the event’s organisation, the marketing efforts, and especially our team’s friendliness and helpfulness. It was also lovely to hear that the effort put into all the small details was noticed and appreciated. Thank you!

Some vendors felt that closing times could have been more flexible. As communicated in the application form, only food trucks were scheduled to trade into the evening, with regular market stalls closing earlier. In practice, the market area naturally quietened down from around 4pm, as most guests had school run or work the next day. This is something we anticipated. In addition, there is also limited outdoor lighting in the market area, making trading after sunset impractical and unsafe. Some vendors preferred to close slightly earlier when it became quiet, which we allowed on the day.

The main stage area often appeared busier simply because people tended to sit and linger there. Customer feedback, however, was that they enjoyed the overall layout and flow — it allowed them to shop in calmer spaces and then move toward the main event area. Overall, the looped design worked well and ensured visitors moved through all areas of the market.

We do acknowledge that some vendors felt the area near The Distillery was a bit quieter and suggested that opening the bar in that section could help create more activity there in future. This was our first event of this scale, and part of the layout was influenced by the need to position vendors within zones that had Wi-Fi coverage. That said, we’ll be relooking at all layout options for future events to find the best possible balance between flow, foot traffic, and atmosphere.

We wanted to provide some context from our IT team about the technical challenges experienced on the day.

1. Network Outage in the Food Stall/Entertainment Field

There was a temporary two-hour network outage in the main field area caused by unstable power supply, which disrupted the Wi-Fi equipment. The team replaced the backup power system during the event, but signal interference from FM transmitters (used for sound around the fair) also caused one of the two Wi-Fi access points to go offline. Only about half of the coverage could be restored on the day.

To prevent this in future, our IT providers have requested alternative power and transmitter setups for upcoming events. During this time, Wi-Fi in the field was completely offline (not just slow), which is why some payments could not go through.

2. Card Machine (Yoco Khumo) Problems

Several vendors using Yoco Khumo card machines experienced connection issues. This was unrelated to the Wi-Fi outage. The problem came from the device’s internal settings, which falsely reported a network error. Other Yoco models (such as Khumo Print and Go) were not affected. The IT team managed to correct the issue later in the day and has since worked with Yoco to ensure it won’t happen again at future events.

There was a suggestion to have car guards assist as porters during pack-up. Unfortunately, this isn’t practical — our car guards work into the evening and we don’t have extra staff available to help with setup or strike-down. If you anticipate needing assistance, we recommend bringing an extra pair of hands along to help.

We did host a raffle on the day and invited vendors to contribute prizes, but received limited participation. Raffles at open events can be tricky because visitors often come and go, meaning some winners weren’t present to collect their prizes. We’ll continue to refine this concept for future events.

We received feedback from a vendor expressing frustration that some stalls didn’t receive a personal check-in visit from our team during the course of the day. We thought it would be valuable to give feedback on how our team are spread on the day.

As you all know, our core planning team consisted of just three people, each with specific responsibilities leading up to the event, as well as on the day. Although our full on-the-day team included all of our team leaders and team members, they were each fulfilling other essential operational roles — such as managing power, water, food and beverage service, accommodation, security, and so much more. Each department has only one team lead, meaning one person was solely responsible for each of these critical areas.

We intentionally keep our events authentic and small, so while we would love to connect with every vendor individually, it’s not always possible. Please know that even if we couldn’t personally check in, our entire team was working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure everything ran as smoothly as possible. This feedback was shared by one stall, and we’re grateful that the majority of responses highlighted our team’s strong work ethic, helpfulness, and visible involvement throughout the day.

While the weather and several other well-known markets taking place on the same day did affect overall foot traffic, we were still very happy with the turnout. We’re also so glad to hear that the majority of stallholders reported incredible sales and were thrilled with their results on the day.

We worked carefully to maintain a mix of offerings, using past event data to guide where we needed more or fewer vendors in specific categories. Some overlap did occur, but this was intentional to ensure enough availability of high-demand items and to create a balanced market experience. That said, we’ll be even more thoughtful with layouts for future events to avoid placing vendors with similar offerings too close to one another, while still keeping the overall variety and flow of the market in mind.

Sadly, a few vendors experienced theft on the day. This deeply disappoints us, as it goes against everything we stand for. While we can’t control every guest’s behaviour, we continue to explore ways to enhance security at future events. We also encourage vendors to consider their stall layout — at busy markets, when multiple customers are browsing at once, it can be difficult to keep an eye on everything. Small layout adjustments can make a big difference in visibility and flow.

Christmas Market:

After careful consideration, we have decided not to proceed with a Christmas Market this year. Unfortunately, weather at this time of year is unpredictable, and the risk factor is simply too high for us to move forward confidently.

Despite the good attendance and positive feedback, none of the first three markets turned an overall profit for Rosemary Hill.  The overhead costs associated with the JOC application, security, car guards, generator and electrical infrastructure, expanded Wifi, entertainment, equipment rental, etc are just too high to make the current business model work, despite the tweaks we implemented every time. In order to eliminate the weather risk at that time of the year, we would need to rent in major marquee tents and the costs associated with this are simply too high when considering the scale.

2026 Events:

Looking ahead to 2026, we will relook public events and will communicate the next trading opportunity to vendors closer to the time.

Our first event is a two day large-scale mountain biking and trail running event on 24 & 25 January, more details will be made available to vendors once we receive further feedback from the organisers.

We are in communication with partners regarding a monthly music event that may also hold some trading opportunities for food & drink vendors in the new year.

At this stage it looks like our next major festival-like event (The Winter Fire Festival) will be on 16 June 2026.