Saturday the 14th of June was the first Stockport Zine Fair, run by PippyMakesZines! I met her at Barnsley Zine Fair back in February 2024 and followed her and her sister on Instagram. Her sister Lolah lives in Sheffield and dresses in like a goth Lolita style which I really love, so I'm always happy to see her. So when I saw Pippy was doing a zine fair in Stockport I applied for a table and was happy to get one. From our house it's only about an hour to Stockport so it's ideal.
We set off about 8.15. I was driving because Lee has been having some problems with his knee which makes driving painful. We managed to find Merseyway shopping centre and parked on the top for all day. We went down in the lift and the Stockroom, where the fair was being held, was just near where we came out. We went in and found our table as well as a whole information pack for traders which was really thoughtful and really helped!
We got set up and the fair opened at 10am. There was a steady flow of people all day, it was really busy! I had a ton of conversations with people about what zines are, what I write, the type of zines I like to read, and so on. I traded with a woman maybe a little older than me who had really cool designs of stuff, and with a youngish person who was SO happy to trade with me. I will ALWAYS trade - I love it, it gets my zines into more hands, and it gets me more zines that I might not otherwise have had a chance to read. It's just so lovely.
Kirsty and Vicky were also trading, Kirsty sells their own zines and Vicky has a distro and sells zines by a bunch of people, so it was nice to catch up with both of them. Jane Claire Bradley attended as a buyer; she was one of the organisers of Grrrl Con which I went to twice in 2016 and 2017 so it was lovely to see her and I happened to have a Grrrl Con 2017 zine that I made that I gave her.
At lunchtime Lee went out to get lunch for us. I ended up with an egg sandwich and a veggie sausage roll from Pound Bakery; Lee got a jacket potato from a van in the precinct. He also told me that there was a donut van right outside the Stockroom so we decided we would go there when the fair finished.
I started a new cross stitch - I have been working on other crafts but as we were about to go on holiday I needed something that was more portable than the lace making I've been doing. This is a kit from Caterpillar Cross Stitch that I have had for a while but hadn't started. I love those first new stitches on a brand new piece of cloth.
The fair finished at 3 and we got packed up. Then we headed downstairs and out into the precinct. We walked to Zizzi to have something savoury. We weren't extremely hungry so we shared a margherita pizza, some fries, and some courgette fries. It was just enough for us. Then we went back to the donut stall and had donuts, ice cream, and chocolate sauce. It was delicious!
We set off home about 5pm; Lee drove this time. We got home just before 6 and rested for a bit - we had had a very difficult week so we needed it. Then I just watched some crap TV before bed. My last photo is of everything I bought, traded, or was given. The purple post it note was given to me by a small child and while I'm not entirely sure what it's meant to be, I love it! I am going to stick it in my journal soon!
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