Fairground Travellers
Funfair or travelling showmen are a community of travellers officially called occupational Travellers, that can be categorized broadly defined as a business community of travelling show, circus communities and fairground families. Occupational travellers travel for work across Scotland, the rest of the UK and into Europe. The Show/Fairground community is close knit, with ties often existing between the older Romanichal families, although showmen families are a distinct group and have a vibrant social scene centered both around the summer fairs and the various sites and yards used as winter quarters. Many Scottish show and fairground families live in winter communities based mainly in the east end of Glasgow. Housing an estimated 80% of all showfamilies Glasgow is believed to have the largest concentration of Showmen funfair quarters in Europe, centred mostly in Shettleston, Whiteinch and Carntyne.
Showmen families have a strong cultural identity as ‘Scottish Showmen’, as well as long histories within these communities. Scottish Showmen are members of an organisation called Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and Ireland, and are known within the UK as the “Scottish Section” of a wider British showman community. As with other showmen communities they call non-travellers including members of the public, and other non related travelling groups including Romanichal, Roma, Scottish Lowland traveller/Gypsy groups, and Highland traveller, Irish Travellers as “Flatties” or non-`showmen’ travellers in their own Polari language. The label of "Flattie-Traveller" can include showmen who have left the traditional way of life to settle down and lead a sedentary lifestyle.
Read more about this topic: Scottish Travellers, Non-Romani Groups
Famous quotes containing the word travellers:
“We are like travellers using the cinders of a volcano to roast their eggs. Whilst we see that it always stands ready to clothe what we would say, we cannot avoid the question whether the characters are not significant of themselves.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)