Stalls attract locals and visitors during Chartist Uprising celebrations

~ Shaun Featherstone ~

Earlier this month the first radical bookfair Newport has seen for many years took place. It had at least 200 visitors, 16 stalls and a constant flow of people and conversation across the day. The stall variety ranged from anarcho zine makers and distros to more established national campaigns and publishers. In amongst that were artist-led book and creative material stalls and LGBTQ+ groups, with several local youth activist groups taking stalls on.  There was also a display of radical posters. 

The bookfair was held in the Corn Exchange, a community owned venue in the heart of the centre, just 5 mins walk from train and bus stations.  In part, it came about to complement the city’s annual Newport Rising festival, which celebrates the Chartist Uprising of 1839, and gets bigger every year. The local charity Our Chartist Heritage, which runs the festival and a year-round programme of events from its base on the high street, teamed up with Red Shoes Poster Archive, a radical archive of working class poster art, to organise it.  As it was the first one, and something of an experiment, it was decided to keep things very simple, so no talks or workshops as such, just stalls. 

Newport, if you don’t know, is in South Wales, 12 miles from Cardiff, and 30 from Bristol.  It’s often described as having a radical spirit and independence which can be traced back to its chartist legacy, history as a port and place of heavy industry (steel) and an enduring diverse working class identity.  It’s thirst for and promotion of punk, hardcore and alternative culture has also been a mainstay despite or maybe because of several decades of economic mismanagement and neglect, so a radical bookfair felt like a no-brainer and long overdue.

The weather on the day was very crisp and dry which really helped with attendance numbers. 100% of stalls booked turned up. What probably helped boost attendance was the festival’s annual torchlit chartist parade in the early evening.  Folks hung around (in crisp, dry weather) for that and so maybe lingered longer at the bookfair, had lunch, came back a second time or the other way round and were coming to the torchlight procession anyway so decided to come a bit earlier and visit the bookfair too, or chanced upon it.  Either way the two aspects helped each other and anecdotal feedback from stallholders was it was well worth it, and visitors were really enthusiastic. 

Newport’s ethnic diversity was only partly represented, as was Welsh language, so plenty to build upon and improve. But the plan is to do it again next year, with workshops and talks, and maybe an afterparty gig.  It felt like a solid start had been made to establish this as a regular annual event.