Saturday, June 7, 2008

Join the carnival!


There’s nothing like a day at the fair. After all, everyone loves a day of junk food, free samples, entertainment, and, er lawyers and financial advisers?
It’s the Divorce Fair and it’s coming to a city near you.
Organisers of the so-called Starting Over Show, say the fair will feature everything a couple at odds with each other could possibly desire – health professionals, lawyers, financial advisers, healers, estate planners, psychics, and even pole dancers!
The Starting Over Show (SOS) is the UK’s first, though similar fairs have been held in Austria, Germany and Holland with great success.
The event will be held in October in Brighton, where more than 20 per cent of couples divorce – 4 per cent higher than the UK average.
Event producer Suzy Miller said the fair may help people who are too frightened to split because of financial worries, and also give guidance to those struggling with separation, with a variety of experts all available in the one spot.
SOS has three main focuses:
· To provide a great collaboration of lawyers, especially when children are involved,
· To give good financial advice to take the fear out of the process, and
· To give motivational help to make it feel less doom-laden.
Suzy says: “From the people I have spoken to, they have said, ‘God I wish something like this was around when I broke up’. There is a sense that there are a lot of people who have got to the other side but without the right support and advice, people can end up bitter and unhappy.
“Going through a break-up can be an extremely lonely time so we are placing a lot of emphasis on mind, body and soul to help people get through it.”
There will also be live music, a chill-out room, and a creche, so parents can talk privately about concerns, without worrying their kids.
While some critics worry fairs like these will trivialise divorce, and even make it easier, I think anything that makes divorce a little easier has to be a good thing.
And unlike the Austrian fair, which also included private investigators and DNA laboratories selling paternity tests, organisers of SOS seem to have a more wholistic view of divorce, with the emphasis on moving on and upwards.
And perhaps that will give comfort to those who feel that their lives are over, and make them realise, that a new life is just beginning.
Let's just hope the organisers don't forget to include dagwood dogs and fairy floss!

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