Early Saturday morning on August 16, a group of volunteers started unloading truckloads of household goods, clothes, and food at Queen Square in Saint John, all to be given away for free. Tables, chairs, and canopies were set up for service providers, all who also offered their services free of charge.
Months in the making, the Free Fair was built on the success of two previous “Free Store” events, held at Haven Music Hall in December 2024 and Stone Church in March of this year.
By noon, Queen Square was transformed into the Community Free Fair, put together by a team of about 25 organizers and volunteers with the Saint John Community Coalition. The four-hour event was a mosaic of food, music, art, services and community with people of all ages and demographics present. Food was served to hundreds of participants, and music was played with local musicians Wen Gao, Zara Bokay, Data Bainanta, Andri Cahyadi and Try it again Pierce.
Several subject matter experts offered information and discussions on topics such as Martha MacLean on food security, Tobin LeBlanc Haley on housing, and Chris Smith on unions.
The event was rewarding for both residents and volunteers. Local resident Courtney Figler loved the opportunity to socialize and connect with neighbours. “It was really awesome,” she said.
Organizer Brit Rose was volunteer coordinator, and spoke about the feedback she received. “Everyone was thrilled to be there,” said Rose. “The energy in Queen Sq was incredible. The event pretty well ran itself once everything was set up which allowed for organizers and volunteers to enjoy themselves as well.”
Volunteer Caitlin Lapena also enjoyed the event, “the fair had a very welcoming environment and it was wonderful to see how comfortable and happy folks were to engage with it.”
Throughout the day, residents were invited to participate in a community art project, which started as a blank canvas with the question, “What does community mean to you?”
“A lot of people followed the prompt and took it as a moment to reflect, and others just had fun painting!” said volunteer Alison Parrell. “Kids enjoyed it a lot too. They played a major role in adding a lot of colour and more abstract stuff to the canvas. The evolution of the painting was incredible to witness. Some common themes that stood out with folks were Free Gaza, Free Palestine, Love, Autonomy for all, and Community Care.”
Rosella Mullin, an organizer, enjoyed seeing people’s joyous reactions to the event.
“An event highlight for me was the surprise and delight that people expressed when they realized that the whole event was created by the community, and for the community. There were no strings attached to participation; it was all truly free,” she said.
The event was also supported through partnerships and collaboration with many participating local organizations. Johanne McCullough was there on behalf of StreetTeamSJ. “We loved that it was so well attended. We had to go back and get another trailer full of clothing midway through!” she said, adding “these kinds of events are very important and I’d like to see them happen as often as possible.”
Some of the participating organizations included Third Shift, PULSE Saint John, Street Team SJ, Coverdale, Fresh Start, Teen Resource Centre, The Learning Exchange, Saint John Pride, The Sewist, Key Industries, CVITP Tax Volunteers, , Newcomers Centre, Saint John East Food Bank, Brick City Barbershop, NB Black History Society, Jeremy’s Piercings, and The Pumpkin Patch.
Organizer Jon Smith felt inspired by the turnout and highlighted how important it is for people to have a space where nothing is expected of them.
“We are conditioned to expect to pay for everything, or expect free things to always have an ulterior motive,” he said. “The Free Fair is a great way to demonstrate to the community that we can take care of each other, anytime, while keeping goods and services within our community and keeping money out of the pockets of billionaires,” he added.
Evan Miller, another organizer, emphasized the value of mutual aid, “now that people have been here and experienced radical mutual aid, they know It’s real and tangible. One of my friends spoke about the strange feeling of picking up a dress, and accepting that she COULD just take it; that it was there for her, and everything there was for everybody. Anyone who felt that is one step closer to imagining a better world.”
The team behind the Free Fair hopes to continue more mutual aid events in the future. Anyone interested in participating are invited to reach out to the team at info@sjcommunity.ca or through Instagram.
Raven Blue is a Saint John-based activist and board member of the Saint John Community Coalition. Nomaan X is an organizer with the Saint John Community Coalition and teaches at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John.
