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A view from the Swinderby fair, which has an extra date on April 29 next year.

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These are: Swinderby on April 29; Ardingly on June 18 and 19; and the particularly popular three-day Shepton Mallet fair on July 5-7.

Robert Thomas, IACF director, told ATG: "Our stallholders have long been asking for further dates at Swinderby and Ardingly.

"The Shepton July fair is one which we have been trying to get for a couple of years - so to be able to reinstate this summer date marks a welcome return to six outings a year for the premier West Country event."

The Shepton Mallet event is held at the Bath & West Showground, also the venue for Sue Ede's popular giant flea and collectors' market, held on Sundays, with eight events this year, so it all adds to the mix of West Country fairs.

The extra date at Swinderby Airfield -  launched in 2010 followed the scrapping of the two-day event held on the site - is a vindication not only of this event but of the success of IACF's "Monday-only" fair concept, also seen at Newbury Racecourse and the Hertfordshire Showground at Redbourn, and is a particular hit with trade buyers.

The Ardingly fair has now been going for 40 years and was taken over by
DMG in 1996, which was also the date that DMG started to run the Shepton Mallet fair. DMG sold their four big UK fairs to IACF in 2009.