Dear Retailers, Traders, Stewards, Entertainers, Suppliers & Support Partners,
It is with deep regret we must inform you that the Bargoed Winter Fair will not take place on Saturday 7th December 2024.
We have been in close contact with suppliers, Met Office, CCBC Emergency Planning and various weather forecasters throughout the week but unfortunately the forecast has now developed into a storm system called Storm Darragh, with the Met Office issuing an AMBER warning for many parts of Wales; highlighting the potential for severe gales on Saturday.
Met office have stated: Storm Darragh will likely bring wind speeds of 70-80mph across some coastal and higher communities, although it’s possible we could see winds gusting to 70mph quite a way inland as well – and the unusual wind direction means that communities and transport links that are usually well sheltered from the winter gales could be quite exposed on this occasion and hence vulnerable to damage. We can expect to see numerous instances of tree damage, and at these sorts of wind speeds then some damage to buildings, walls etc is also possible, obviously getting around will be difficult with some extremely treacherous conditions on transport links, with the unusual wind direction in particular bringing crosswinds to some roads that aren’t usually affected by crosswinds.
Based on this information we have no option but to cancel the event as safety is paramount to the organisation of all our events. We have received notification of other events which have already been cancelled, so we wanted to give earlier notification than our usual Friday morning email due to the forecast having only deteriorated all week. We are absolutely devastated as you can imagine but we wanted to give traders, suppliers, retailers and visitors adequate time to rearrange their plans.
