Arts and Culture Features

The Winchester Hat Fair is the UK’s longest running and most exciting Street Theatre Festival.

Amazing sights at the Hat Fair

The event has a reputation for presenting innovative and beautiful outdoor performances; unique and highly skilled small-scale shows; and an engaging programme of community arts.

This year's Hat Fair ran for four days, jam-packed with hundreds of breathtaking performances from over 40 different companies.

Winchester's medieval streets were full of artists from all over the globe, including England, Wales, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and America.

Named after the tradition of throwing donations into performers' hats, the Hat Fair started as a buskers' festival in 1974 and is still going 35 years later.

The organisers estimate the festival brings about 30,000 people to Winchester that it brings in just under £1 million pounds in revenue to the city.

Winchester Hat Fair

Founder and Vision Director Jonathan Kay explained the philosophy of the festival:

"We just like everyone in Winchester to relax and enjoy themselves - we'd like to have it for weeks on end.

"Tourists come to the town, everyone has a good time - the main ambition is to get the adults to crack open and go 'blaaagh'!"

Hat Fair Highlights

Special highlights on the line-up this year included the Incredible Talents of Los Dos Play, Mario Queen of The Circus and Orkestra Del Sol.

Interactive installations around the city included The Insect Circus Museum and The Amazing Camera Obscura and Bootworks new show, ‘Little Box of Horrors.’ 

Pirates in Cathedral Close!

Breathtaking show ‘Saurus’, the wonderful Flying Buttresses and Winchester regulars ‘Heliosphere’ joined many other festival favourites.

In addition, the programme included innovative community and education projects including Inside Out Day on Thursday, involving a procession through the city, where local school children knock on the doors of civic buildings, asking senior representatives of the city any question they wish.

Friday is traditionally Schools Day which this year featured a colourful procession of over 1,000 children in pirate costume with music and dance, culminating in outdoor theatre, circus and craft workshops in the grounds of the city’s famous cathedral.