Changing the date of the 2020 May Day has caused distress to event organisers up and down the country including those in Nailsea.

Next year the first May bank holiday will be on a Friday instead of a Monday.

May Day 2020 should have been on Monday, May 4, but to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the government pushed back the bank holiday to Friday, May 8.

Schools will be closed and workplaces shut on the Friday for the start of a long weekend.

But all this has given a big headache reorganising the May bank holiday Monday fair run by 2nd Nailsea Scouts at Millennium Park.

The 2019 scout fair included a fairground, inflatables, side-shows, stationery engine and bike displays, barbecue, refreshment marquee and a bumper car boot sale all of which have to be booked long in advance.

It is the major fundraiser for the Hannah More Road-based troop and last year made more than £3,000 for the group.

This money is used towards maintaining its HQ and replacing and renewing equipment..

Luckily Shaun Rogers family fun fair were able to swap dates and North Somerset Council licensing department have also rubberstamped the Friday instead of Monday.

But it is the car booters which are causing the biggest worry.

2nd Nailsea Scout Group chairman Richard Simmons said: “The car boot traders don’t book in advance they just turn up on the day and we never know who is coming and how many.

“We need to get it out there that our fair will be on the Friday not Monday this year.”

VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, marks the day towards the end of World War 2 when fighting against Nazi Germany came to an end in Europe.

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School holiday

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The holiday will form part of a three-day weekend of commemorative events with everyone back to work or school on Monday.

The celebrations will include more than 20,000 pubs encouraging people to toast the heroes of the war, while churches will take part in a Ringing Out For Peace.

It was on May 8, 1945, that the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill made an announcement on the radio at 3pm that the war in Europe had come to an end, following Germany's surrender the day before.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said that changing the day ‘will ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to remember and honour our heroes of World War 2 and reflect on the sacrifices of a generation’.

The May Day bank holiday has been moved only once before.

It was changed from May 1 to May 8 in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day but these dates were both Mondays.

The new arrangements have already seen Morris dancers and May Day organisers going to parliament to protest about the decision to move the date in 2020.  

It was in June 2019 the government announced the bank holiday would be moved to Friday, May 8 to commemorate the anniversary.

None of the objectors were disputing the idea of having a public holiday to mark the occasion - they wanted an extra day not the Monday being cancelled.

Nationwide organisers complained that they had already planned and booked their events and did not have time or money to re-organise.

They said a second holiday should be arranged, but the government said that would hit the economy.

Weddings, school exams, holidaymakers and calendar makers have all been hit by the date change, according to St Ives MP Derek Thomas, who organised the debate about it in the House of Commons.

Mr Simmons echoed others when he added: “The decision to move the bank holiday was just bonkers and ridiculous.

“I fear many of our bank holiday car booters will turn up on the wrong day."