“Hat Fair, the Art of the Unexpected”, is Britain’s longest running festival of street theatre and outdoor arts, taking place in the ancient city of Winchester in July every year.
Hat Fair doesn’t charge the audience a penny for most performances but you can show your appreciation by putting coins (or notes!) in the artists’ hats after the performance.
The programme represents a diverse range of streets arts, from small scale hatting shows to large scale spectacle. Hat Fair features artists drawn from the UK and overseas. There is also focus on young people and community on the Thursday and Friday of the Festival with the Citizenship project Inside Out Day and on Friday with the Children’s Procession. Hat Fair is a Without Walls partner and will be featuring seven of these performances in 2009, as well as several new commissions.