The people of Frome are being invited to bring their broken kitchen appliances, torn jeans, moth-holed jumpers and squeaky bikes along to a large repair cafe event this month, run by SHARE – A Library of Things.
SHARE, which ran small weekly repair events through the spring and early summer, is now organising a much bigger event with a wide range of repairers to fix clothing, bikes, decorative items, toys, small items of furniture and electrical items on Tuesday 15th November, from 7pm – 9pm, at the Edventure Hub, The Welshmill, Park Hill Drive. SHARE’s weekly events fixed over 50 items in ten weeks, from electronic keyboards to induction hobs.
Repair Cafes have been growing in popularity in recent years, as people have become increasingly unhappy with the ‘disposable’ culture. There are now regular repair cafes in at least 23 places in the UK and more than 1,000 locations worldwide. Frome last had a repair cafe in 2013.
There is no charge for the event, but people will be expected to stay as the expert fixers try to repair their items – and to learn and join in with the fixing if they can.
There will be several experts on hand to deal with electrical items, jumpers, jeans and other clothing, small household items like lamps, broken crockery, toys, small items of furniture and bicycles. Bicycles don’t have to be broken – people can bring their bikes along for a pre-winter maintenance check. Although there will be experts on hand for certain items, people are welcome to bring along anything they want to fix, and see if the repairers can help.
“We have some excellent fixers lined up, including Jen Gale from the blog My Make do and Mend Life and Alex Hooper on bikes,” said SHARE co-project manager Helen Johnstone. “Most of the fixers are keen amateurs, but what they all have in common is a flair for hunting down a problem and sorting it out!”
The event will be held at Edventure: Frome’s hub, upstairs at The Welshmill. People bringing larger items, such as bikes, can contact the organisers through SHARE for help getting items up to the first floor. More information can be found via the website: sharefrome.org/events or on the SHARE Facebook page.
SHARE is an Edventure: Frome enterprise, in collaboration with Frome Town Council, Sustainable Frome and The Cheese and Grain.