After the rush of pre-Christ­mas shop­ping when it’s all about every­one else and the right present for the right per­son and being lovely and self­less, it’s rather nice when sum­mer fair sea­son rolls around. Sum­mer fairs are not just about shop­ping for thing for oth­er people, although that is an excel­lent and import­ant com­pon­ent to every good fair. Sum­mers fairs are about loads of lovely food, things to divert the atten­tion of small people and bands of all shapes and sizes. Sum­mer fairs are more often as not fun­drais­ing fairs, which means going to them is help­ing make the world a bet­ter place.

Kick­ing of the sum­mer fair sea­son is Eat Drink Be Crafty this Sat­urday Janu­ary 28, Battle Hill Farm Forest Park, Paekakariki Hill Rd, 10am ‑4pm. Last year was its debut and it went off like a rock­et. This year they’ve tweaked the for­mula a little more with even more gour­met food and wine, craft stalls and things for small people. Last year park­ing and traffic was a bit of an issue and while they’ve resolved that for 2012, my sug­ges­tion is to arrive early so you can get a jump on all the yummy noms.