Winchester Hat Fair 2016

Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd July 2016
various venues, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 8SB, England MAP
FREE

Daily capacity: 1,000

Last updated: Thu 9th Jun 2016

The 42nd Winchester Hat Fair, Britain's longest running Festival of Street Theatre and Outdoor Arts, returns annually on the first weekend of July from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd July 2016.

A crazy, colourful celebration of theatre and music where entertainers perform voluntarily in exchange for money to be thrown into their hats. Supported by local businesses, colleges and organisations, this FREE festival takes Hat Fair takes over the whole of Winchester's ancient city centre.

Free events

The Amazing Camera Obscura, Miss High Leg Kick, Barada Street, The Barrowman - Ed Wren, Entelechy Arts, Blue Apple Theatre - Beware the Jub Jub Bird, Camper Van of Love, Harry Giles, Children’s Area, TreeCreeper Theatre, Lulu's World, Circus Outside the Box, The Cricketers, Talking Birds, États des Lieux Collectif A/R, Grassman, Ashley Peevor, Haircuts by Children, Mammalian Diving Reflex, The Brooks Shopping, The Hattery, Claire Harvey & Annie Brooks, HeadSpace, Kazzum Arts, Juggling Jake, Kiki Bittovabitsch, The Great Kazadorian Fountain of Hope, Lance Moi En L’Air, Joli Vyann, Les Dudes - Let's Do This!, Lucy McLoughlin, Long, Broad and Sharpsight, SharkLegs Theatre, Lords of Strut, Los Excentricos, The Melting Pot Pourri!, Luigi Ciotta, Everything in a Suitcase, manoAmano, Kinematos, Maple Staplegun, Breaking Broken Dreams, Marco Borghetti, Equilibrium Tremens, Masquerade, Yello Brick, Micro Shakespeare, The Crazy Golf Company, Morning Clubbing, The TNT Show with Mr Vita, Of Riders and Running Horses, Still House & Mayk, People’s Stage, Winchester Poetry Festival, Project_Vee, Circus Geeks X PanGottic, Schools’ Parade, The Singing Dictionary, Blossom Street Singers, SkyPod, Spinney Hollow, Woodland Workshops, TreeCreeper Theatre, Street Pianos, Tea Party, Ockham's Razor, Urban Astronaut, Highly Sprung Performance Co., Incredible Edible Winchester, Vertical Garden, Vespaqua, Swoolish Garage, World War Two Soundscape, and more.

More info

The streets of Winchester will come to life for three days of performance, from the weird to the truly wonderful- and everything is FREE! With theatre, dance and circus-inspired events to surprise you on every corner, Hat Fair celebrates the unexpected, rewards the curious and delights all those who come out to play.

There are also lots of opportunities to get involved! Turn your hand (or foot?!) to swing-dance for our citywide flashmob event Swingtime.

Winchester's Hat Fair began in 1974 as a busker's festival, taking its name from the tradition of putting money in the buskers hats, and is now Britain's longest running celebration of outdoor arts.