Hat Fair packed with fun
IN its 33rd year, Winchester's Hat Fair claims to be the UK's longest-running street festival, offering four days of outdoor performance and entertainment, starting on Thursday, June 28.
At the launch of this year's event, at the Slug and Lettuce, in The Square, Simon Eden, chief executive of Winchester City Council, referred to its international standing and said it was "a pretty good thing for Winchester to have fostered and nurtured".
He added that one Hat Fair act, The Incredible Bull Circus, had gone on to perform in the Melbourne Comedy Festival. "That says something really important about what the Hat Fair has achieved." Mayor, Chris Pines, said: "There is some marvellous stuff that we come back year after year to see." Sian Thomas, director of celebrations for the event, explained: "The Hat Fair is held by the people who live in Winchester and that is what makes it unique."
With the return of Inside Out Day on Thursday, June 28, the Hat Fair continues to engage with community projects as children ask adults from the world of work to come out onto the street and answer their questions.
On Schools Day - Friday, June 29 - more than 1,000 youngsters will parade in the city centre. On Saturday the whole city comes alive with street acts and shows.
Winchester's own Wet Picnic, in their first street theatre venture, are creating a walkabout show which they hope to develop further for next year. Evening festivities include the Hat Fair cabaret, Under the Stars, accompanied by the jazz sounds of Brighton-based The Magic Number.
The Hat Fair Picnic, at Oram's Arbour on the Sunday, will round off the programme. For details see www.hatfair.co.uk
4:00pm Thursday 21st June 2007
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