Hat Fair

For a few years now we've been meaning to go to the Hat Fair in Winchester, but it's always clashed with something else we've wanted to do or see.

Not so this year.

Event began on Friday and ended on Sunday.

We went on Saturday.

As we walked out of the train station there was a group of people milling around and we wondered if something had just happened and we had missed it, but lucky for us it was just about to happen.

Music started and people from amongst the little crowd made their way forward and began to dance.

S is off on a camping trip with the school next week and as we had to shop for  new leggings as part of the kit she'll need for the exciting activities they have planned, we made our way through the city centre and past Parchment Street the home of the sculpture of the kite flyer.

Once at the shopping centre we stopped to watch a couple of acts. The young pair on the left preparing for a tea party we could only stay and watch for a few minutes as the sun was blazing in through the glass roof and it was just too hot a spot to be in. The young lad in the bottom right was part of a group of half a dozen smartly dressed office workers. Their performance involved one of them depicted as literally drowning in his work signified by the balled up pieces of paper he was floundering in.
Then when the shopping was done, as our per our last trip to Winchester a few weeks ago, we made our way to the Cathedral close to have lunch. We struggled to find a spot to sit as it was packed out with hundreds of others who were also picnicking and enjoying the festival atmosphere. Judging from the laughter and applause coming from where the man on the unicycle was just away to our left he must have been very entertaining.

I left G and S sitting in the shade whilst I went an watched this quartets performance which was all about how something you say as a joke could be taken out of context and used against you to a detrimental effect through the medium of social media. Ring any recent bells? It was really good.

The final act we all caught was Ernest the Magnifico. This was absolutely fantastic. 'Ernest' had the audience in the palm of his hand throughout, he was so funny and the volunteers who he coaxed into taking part really joined in with it all. If you are ever at an event or festival where he is playing I urge you to go and watch, you won't be disappointed.