Winchester Hat Fair
 

I just discovered that our visit to Winchester in July will coincide with the annual Hat Fair. Is this a happy coincidence--or a curse? Any thoughts/suggestions welcome... Thanks!

Depends really.

With a handful of exceptions (like Edinburgh's August junkets, the Hay on Wye book thing or the Notting Hill Carnival, but only in North Kensington) all these local festivals excite their organisers and participants a great deal more than they excite anyone else. Their websites are often masterpieces of making something no-one else cares about sound like the most important thing ever to happen in the thousand years the town concerned's been around.

In medium-sized towns like Winchester, Bath or Brighton, they add a bit of colour to the specific streets where something's on when something's on - and that's about it. Apart from a bit of knock on traffic congestion in their immediate vicinty, they have close to zero impact on anything or anywhere else.

If you enjoy buskers, you'll find some streets are sometimes more fun than usual, If they're not your thing, you'll not be troubled. If you've got children with you, there'll be a goodly sprinkling of entertainment (not, BTW free: it's called the Hat Fair because the hat's passed round at each event and you're really expected to put something in, though whether you do or not's up to you). There's a modest recent local practice of some families taking picnics to some of the child-centred events.

No-one - whatever claptrap the organisers might con the local council into believing* - troubles the local hotels with extra bookings, and seats in local restaurants will be as easy or difficult to get as usual. Road access into Winchester will, as always, be driven by the overall level of congestion on the M3 and A34: rail access by whether SW Trains are behaving themselves that day.

England's not Italy: towns don't define themselves by festivals, least of all ones concocted in the past few years, and in London's ancient urban suburbs (of which Winchester is a prime example) there are an awful lot of other competitors for people's attention.

*In fairness to Winchester's councillors, they're not dumb to buy into that nonsense. It's just a bit of fun.

And there's me thinking it might have an Aretha Franklin look-alike competition.

The Hat Fair is a fair of street performers who pass around a hat at the end for money (hence the name).

In general these are bloody awful - crusties juggling is the main motif.

There are some more formal events - including people you might of heard of if you were English.

It ends with a big street party which I enjoyed enormously as a youngster. Apart from the time my mate had a bad acid trip there. Being surrounded by hundreds of pissed clowns really didn't help him.

http://www.hatfair.co.uk/2008/index.php

The pubs in the centre of town will get very busy - but if you were so minded you could avoid it altogether.

I'm disappointed, I was picturing all the fancy hats.

Patrick, didn't Aretha look like a chess piece in that hat?

I'm disappointed, I was picturing all the fancy hats. >>>>>

Don't be. Every muppet who can juggle will be there and they will ALL be wearing jester's hats. It seems to be some kind of by-law.

Thanks for the helpful perspective. We just didn't want to get caught in too much of a crush--or, on a more positive note, wanted to know if this was something worth checking out. Sounds like we won't be bothered too much by crowds and can take in as much or as little as we like, which seems about right for us. We've been some places where local festivals can be a nightmare traffic-wise, so it's good to know that this isn't that kind of event. Thanks!

I used to go every so often, but have always found it a big dissappointment. CWs description of "Crusties juggling" is a fairly succinct summing up.

I expect your kids will love it - it is worth experiencing, but not worth a major diversion to go and see.

And it normally rains !

Every time I see this thread I think it says "Winchester Fat Hair". That is all.

Yes, but "fat hair" is never my issue when I travel... "Hat hair" would be more like it! :-)