The programme for this year’s Hat Fair has now been published. The free outdoor arts festival, now in its 44th year, takes place from Friday, June 29 to Sunday, July 1 around Winchester, with theatre, dance and circus-inspired events to surprise on every corner.
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This from festival organisers in their own words:
The festival will run throughout the city centre on Friday and Saturday with Sunday’s festivities taking place at a new venue for 2018 - the North Walls Recreation Ground, a short walk from the High Street.
Blazing Saddles Pic: Raysto Images
The festival kicks off in style at noon on the Friday with the energetic and spectacular Hat Fair Parade featuring hundreds of local school children parading from the Cathedral to the Guildhall with banners they’ve created along the theme of Vote – 100 years! to celebrate the centenary of some women in the UK being able to vote for the first time. The schools will be joined by Bicycle Ballet performing Blazing Saddles - a unique roving performance telling the story when bicycles became more widely available to women and how this transformed clothing.
NoFit State Circus Pic: Dan Tucker
NoFit State Circus and Motionhouse’s thrilling dance-circus collaboration BLOCK headlines on the Friday night at Winchester Bus Station. This show is directed by Kevin Finnan MBE whose previous work has included the spectacular Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Twenty oversized blocks, fashioned to resemble giant concrete Jenga blocks, are deconstructed and reformed into an infinite variety of shapes for the performers to play on, move and explore with daring physicality, split-second timing and thrilling feats.
Highlights for Saturday include; Sur Mesure’s Fillage a fusion of circus artists and musicians that combines trampoline, acrobatics and juggling with live music; Max Calaf Sevé’s dip an interrogation of relationships in society today with breath-taking, air-twisting tricks and funky tunes and Helen Eastman Production’s Bicycle Boy - a bicycle powered musical for children and their families.
Festival goers will be able to set foot inside the belly of a giant inflatable whale to hear wonderful storytelling by Circo Rum Ba Ba in The Whale; use their smartphones to become part of the sound and movement trail of The Hum Winchester by Flexer & Sandiland and go on a walkabout with two strange mirrored beings that have crash landed on Earth with Mind the Gap’s Mirror Mirror.
The Romanian celebrated street performance company Masca Theatre will transport Winchester back to 19th Century Paris in The Forgotten Crafts of Paris as street traders are brought to life through mime, powerful masks, costumes and theatricality. Two disoriented circus performers will be searching every nook and cranny for their lost big top in Mimbre’s I’ve Lost My Circus and the Saturday night celebrations culminate in a party on The Broadway with music from the riotous gypsy-folk band Ushti Baba whose fusion of traditional folk music and modern dance rhythms will inspire frenzied limb-flinging, heart palpitation and general fervour!
Pina Polar
As always, top street theatre performers from around the world will also busk or ‘hat’ during the weekend maintaining the long tradition that gives the festival its name. Returning ‘hatters’ Barada Street will charm audiences with their acrobatics, live music and cheeky idiocy while Pina Polar takes the audience Into The Wild with her hula hoop tiger dance and knife juggling and Fra Marto will be hanging out her washing with clowning, hula-hooping and fun for everyone in Out of the Blù.
Family favourite Juggling Jake will be back with his collection of circus equipment for everyone to try and Aerial Southampton will be providing the opportunity to have a go at aerial silks or hoops. Younger audiences can also take a miniature theatrical flight of imagination on The Bewonderment Machine, an artist-built cycle-powered carousel made by Bird in the Hand Theatre.
The local businesses in Parchment Street will be hosting a Street Party with live music, stalls and performances. Three student theatre companies from University of Winchester will take part in the Top Hat Competition – the winning company will be mentored by the Hat Fair Director to create a piece for Hat Fair 2019! Festival goers can stop by St Maurice’s Covert to watch and vote for their favourite performance.
As well as showcasing international artists the festival will also be providing a stage for local talent including Winchester’s own Blue Apple Theatre Company, Glen the Magician and local poets Joe Riley and Graham Langley.
Take part
There will be opportunities to take part in the festival with Sharon Richard’s Singing School’s ‘The Greatest Showman’ Flashmob choir – participants attend a free workshop in the morning at Theatre Royal Winchester to learn the smash hit song This is Me from the film and then perform it throughout the day all over the city!
The gardens of St John’s Almhouses will become the venue for our Village Fete with free tea and cake, charity information stalls and live performance by Yoni the female woodland choir. ‘Living Portraits’, a series of short films inspired by the lives and experiences of the older residents of Winchester, will be presented in the St John’s Chapel throughout the day.
The festival moves to North Walls Recreation Ground for Sunday’s festivities which includes performances by the international ‘hatters’: Able Mable - a showgirl with a flair for the dramatic and the ridiculous; Jon Hicks the International Man of Artistry whose diverse repertoire includes origami, tea making, magic chalk, deadpan comedy and dextrously executed outsized artworks; Mighty Mike who’ll be throwing bowling balls and sledgehammers as if they were as light as a feather and driving nails through boards with his hands; and George Orange will perform effortlessly on a slack rope rig that rocks and rolls like a crescent moon in Man on the Moon.
Dance
The Dance Stage will welcome Candoco Dance Company’s Dedicated To… a touching portrayal of female strength, support and friendship. Also performing will be Etta Ermini Dance Theatre Company’s Roadworks – a quirky and humorous engagement between a dancer and a BMX rider, featuring acrobatics, B-Boying, contemporary dance, BMX-ing and clowning!
Festival goers will also be able kick off their shoes and step into a labyrinth of chambers to explore the intense views of colour in Colourscape by Eye Music Trust.
The People’s Stage will feature local musical talent, local dance groups and Young Theatre Royal performances. There will be mini golf, escape room escapades, the Amazing Camera Obscura as well as fine selection of food and gift stalls and much, much more!
The festival is FREE to attend and takes place from Friday 29 June to Sunday 1 July 2018. Full details of the festival programme can be found at www.hatfair.co.uk.