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The charity organisers behind what was due to be Jersey’s first ever vegan festival have cancelled the event due to what they call "extortionate" stall fees of £1,000 for UK and French traders.
Farplace Animal Rescue – the UK sanctuary behind the event - had hoped the festival would take place on 22 September at Fort Regent.
But last week, charity CEO Gareth Edwards warned Jersey’s 1,414-strong Facebook community of Vegans and Vegetarians that the event had hit a major road-block.
"Any trader not on the Island and not a charity is, we have been informed by the Jersey government, liable to pay a traders licence of £1,000 even for a single day of trading,” he wrote on the page.
Mr Edwards explained that the fees meant there wouldn’t be any off-island traders at the festival.
"We urgently need more traders from the island to make the event viable," he said, adding: "We have been emailing a lot of potential traders but none of our off-island traders who support us a lot can afford to come to an event with both ferry and this £1000 cost."
The organisers apparently received a lot of interest from stall holders offering cosmetics and chocolates, but also required, "...hot food traders and other stalls to have a balanced event."
"We bring a number of stalls ourselves as a charity but will need more volunteers to help staff them to enable them to function too," Mr Edwards explained. "It is proving more than a little difficult to bring our festival to Jersey so any help and support would be appreciated over the next week or two," the CEO concluded.
A States spokesperson confirmed that the Business Licensing section of the Population Office handles the licences. They said: “Traders who come to Jersey to buy or sell goods must apply for a licence called a non-resident trading licence. There is a fee of £1,000 for this licence and it must be paid before the trader arrives in Jersey. The licence applies for the whole trip, and a new licence must be applied for each time the trader returns.”
Pictured: Farplace Animal Rescue organises vegan festivals in the UK and France.
A local trader says that Mr Edwards came to Jersey at the end of July to meet with business owners. Nine had confirmed and paid to join the festival in September, while a few others had expressed interest, but it was not enough to make the event viable.
With take-up not meeting expectations, organisers decided to pull out from the organisation. They announced their decision not to go ahead with the event on Monday in a post on the Festival's Facebook page, which had gathered 500 likes since its launch last December.
"Due to the fee from Jersey government for non-Jersey traders and very little interest from stalls from Jersey, we have had to take the decision to cancel and stick to mainland UK and France for our festivals. The few stalls and the few advance tickets purchased will be refunded this week. Our thanks to Fort Regent for their support and understanding," the organisers explained, adding that any ticket purchases would be refunded.
Islanders shared their outrage and disappointment at the news. "What a shame," one wrote, while another said that they were "gutted."
One local woman added: "How utterly stupid. 1000 quid is an outrageous fee. How can they justify that? I can't believe the French that go over for the food festival pay that amount... as usual the States have to spoil things for everyone. Such a shame for you Jersey residents. Hope they see sense and change the fee amonut to something reasonable for the future."
Business owners who had bought stock especially for the event were also very disappointed to hear about the cancellation. "It's a huge letdown," one trader, who wished to remain anonymous, told Express. "Some businesses were planning for a stall and had invested in stock needed for the event. It's a disappointment as they had planned their business around the event and they now have money tied into stock.
"The cancellation has a detrimental effect on local and non local events. It's a real shame the event couldn't go ahead."
Clarissa Negro, who will soon be opening a vegan café on Halkett Street, added: "It’s been a huge let down as it would have been Jersey’s very first vegan festival and it was for a wonderful charity to help rescued animals. There was a lot of interest and it’s very sad to see that it has been cancelled due to the extortionate amount they were being charged to bring their stalls over from the UK.
"I was looking forward to being a part of it as it could have given a lot of opportunities to the vegan community to show what veganism is all about and of course a chance to help the animals too."
Pictured: The Jersey Vegan Festival was due to be held at Fort Regent in September.
There is still hope for the event, however, with the local vegan community pulling together to help make the event aimed at celebrating their lifestyle happen.
A local group have since taken over the festival's Facebook page to try and organise a new event soon. They will be meeting in the next few days to form a committee and take things forward. One of the future committee members explained that the group is currently made up of vegans whose "aims are all aligned." "We are hoping to hold an event that might be slightly smaller. It won't be big immediately, but it will grow from year on year.
"With us being all locals and having contacts with the vegan community here, we hope we will have more interest from local traders. It was probably a lot harder for Farplace to work from a distance, having no troops on the ground."
The local trader explained that while Farplace has cancelled the event altogether, the charity has offered to give them advice and support. They added: "The key reason for the cancellation was the trading licence fee. It was cost prohibitive. We hope to organise a smaller event and to resolve the issue, or come to an agreement, around the traders' fee.
"We will be taking the issue up with the States as this might have had a different outcome if the States had been in touch and allowed Farplace to invite traders."
Express has approached the States, who set the fee, for comment.
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