The annual three day Hat Fair opens on Friday (June 30) promising outdoor arts events and street entertainment for everyone all over the centre of Winchester.

The UK’s longest running festival of outdoor arts starts at midday with the traditional schools parade and ends with a family picnic day at Oram’s Arbour on Sunday.

According to Andrew Loretto, Hat Fair Director, the event is an opportunity to "experience an eclectic, fun and sometimes provocative range of outdoor arts designed to cater to diverse tastes.’

One of the highlights of over 40 acts and activities at 17 venues is the world premiere of Silence from the Polish company Teatr Biuro Podró?y. The show about refugees takes place at the back of the Bus Station on Saturday evening and features physical theatre, fire, puppetry and music.

Other featured acts include Wired Aerial Theatre performing To Me, To You…, a ‘domestic’ scene performed on a giant rotating crane in Abbey Gardens and How I Hacked My Way Into Space, the story of a man’s mission to set up an international space agency in his garden shed. To mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, there’s a tango dance piece outside The Great Hall titled Corazón a Corazón which fuses ground and aerial performance and British Sign Language.

On Friday and Saturday, Hat Fair takes over the streets of Winchester and the Cathedral grounds. There are dozens of events to surprise and entertain visitors: children can step inside a giant bird’s nest, a Tea Party will get soaked with 200 litres of water, jukeboxes will spring to life, visitors will be playing street pianos and the moon becomes the subject of an immersive performance that surrounds the audience with sound and vision.

There are many opportunities for participation from engaging with life size arcade games in The Actual Reality Arcade to helping construct and climb through a giant straw-like structure in Stalker Teatro’s Steli. In Table Manners, people can enjoy a feast while assumptions about polite dining are turned upside down around them or they can explore human wildlife in an Urban Safari.

Two events involve members of the audience and performers meeting on a one-to-one basis. On the top of Chesil Street Car Park, adults will join young people to reimagine the city in Lookout. In Landed, performers and audience will meet to share reflections on love and life. Both of these events are free but need to be booked through Theatre Royal Winchester box office.

Blue Apple Theatre, a Winchester-based company working with learning disabled actors, will be performing Argus The Watchman, a piece specially devised for the Parchment Street Party.

Students from the University Of Winchester will take over The Brooks Shopping centre for the Hat Fair Fringe Festival. There will be a children’s area in the Cathedral grounds. On Sunday the People’s Stage features local acts as part of a giant picnic at Oram’s Arbour. Performing on all three days will be traditional ‘Hatters’ from around the world including Felicity Footloose, Quatuor Stomp and Fraser Hooper.

Hat Fair is supported by Arts Council England, Winchester City Council, Without Walls and University Of Winchester. The festival’s headline sponsor is The Brooks Shopping. Other sponsors include Hampshire Chronicle, Guildhall Winchester, Shentons and Winchester Science Centre. ‘Festival events are free which means we are constantly looking for ways to support Hat Fair from donations in a bucket to sponsors and funders,’ said Hat Fair Director Andrew Loretto.

Hat Fair attracts over 60,000 visitors to Winchester every year. It is part of Live Theatre Winchester Trust which also runs Theatre Royal Winchester.

For more information about Hat Fair 2017, visit hatfair.co.uk.