Fairground fun is a jigsaw puzzle

Fairground fun pours back into Great Yarmouth tomorrow - but will not this year continue on Sunday. A civic opening attended by Yarmouth mayor Tony Smith is due to take place at 6pm tomorrow when the fair key is officially handed over to the chairman of the showmen's guild.

Fairground fun pours back into Great Yarmouth tomorrow - but will not this year continue on Sunday.

A civic opening attended by Yarmouth mayor Tony Smith is due to take place at 6pm tomorrow when the fair key is officially handed over to the chairman of the showmen's guild.

Although some of the smaller rides opened earlier the main attractions began spinning and whooshing from 6pm continuing on Friday and Saturday from 10am to 11pm

In 2008 and during a year of celebrations to mark the granting by King John of Yarmouth's Charter, the spectacle and colour enjoyed by all ages carried on over the Sunday.

But the following year the extension - despite being well managed - triggered complaints about noise from people living mainly in Northgate Street, and seafront traders who said it drained weekend trade away from the main holiday hub.

Earlier this week Gary McHugh, market superintendent, was juggling the requirements of 43 separate guild people with at least 120 different pieces including rides, foodstalls and sideshows, slotting each one into a spot spread between four sites.

He described the task as “a big jigsaw puzzle” with seemingly even more pieces this year.

Duncan Mallet, market manager, said after trying out the Sundays for two years the Tory cabinet were persuaded by the level of protest to bring them to an end.

He said there were also issues around parking, with so many fairground vehicles clogging one of the town's main car parks, although this year arrangements had changed to free up more public parking.

A fair on the market site can be traced back at least 200 years.