Billy Welch warns of misleading Appleby Horse Fair website

Representatives from the Multi-Agency Strategic Coordinating Group (MASCG) for Appleby Horse Fair have warned members of the public not to be fooled by a new site, applebyfair.com, which is claiming to be the “official” Appleby Fair shop.

Gypsy and Traveller representative on the MASCG, Billy Welch, said, “We wish to disassociate ourselves completely from this new site, which has nothing whatsoever to do with us and is clearly misleading. The official website for Appleby Fair is www.applebyfair.org, which has our full support.”

Steph Cordon, Director of Thriving Communities at Westmorland and Furness Council and Chair of MASCG, the coordinating group tasked with managing the response to the annual Appleby Horse Fair, said: “The MASCG has been made aware that a new website is claiming to be the official Appleby Fair shop.

"Unfortunately, this website contains inaccurate and misleading information about the fair and we’re concerned that anyone visiting the site may come away with a false impression about how and when the fair takes place.

“There is also a concern that the purpose of the site appears to be to sell, what it terms, ‘official merchandise.’ The MASCG and representatives of the Gypsy and Traveller community do not endorse either this new website, or the merchandise it sells.

“It is important that members of the public understand that for accurate and up to date information about Appleby Horse Fair, they should go to www.applebyfair.org. This is the only website endorsed by the MASCG and its Gypsy and Traveller representatives.”

The Travellers’ Times can reveal that we were contacted by an organiser of the new site a couple of weeks ago. The organiser asked us if we wanted the Travellers’ Times website to be added to the new site’s directory. We looked at Applebyfair.com and became suspicious, and instead contacted Billy Welch and Bill Lloyd to raise our concerns.

TT News/MASCG press release

(Photos by Bela Varadi)