What is Strawberry Fair?
Strawberry Fair is a free volunteer run community music, entertainments, arts and crafts fair. The Fair takes place every year in the first week of June and is set in the heart of Cambridge on Midsummer Common.
For 2010 the event has been stopped but the official Strawberry Fair committee are supporting a range of other activities (NOT on 5 June) across the city during the summer. With your support the Fair will be back in 2011!
A Brief History of the Fair
The fair has been running for over thirty years and has a vibrant and interesting history. As far as we can ascertain (details have become cloudy with time) the event named Strawberry Fair began in 1974. It was started by a collection of Cambridge students belonging to a selection of alternative societies. It began with the idea of being an alternative to the May balls, which were seen as exclusive and did nothing for the people of Cambridge. The students booked Midsummer Common for two events, one on Mayday and another on the first weekend of June…the second event became known as Strawberry Fair. The event started as a small affair with a number of activities and musicians performing, this was in the days of Monty Python so everything took on that weird surrealism that has never left the event. The local Health food store, Arjuna, was involved in those early days and still strongly supports the fair today. As the years went on the fair has grown, but has never lost its committee run volunteer ethic, with its dedication to offering the people of Cambridge something truly unique for free.
The fair has grown to be Cambridge's favourite Outdoor Arts event (according to a City Council survey in 2008) and attracts a huge number of people each year who seek out the amazing entertainment and stalls on offer, or just love the day out. The future promises to see even more opportunities for local people to get involved, take part and have fun.
Want to view more history of Strawberry Fair? Then check out this selction of short films each about Strawberry Fair, the first from 1977, the last from 2007, a span of 30 years.
This is only a brief introduction, if you can share with us any other information about the history of the fair please get in touch.
Pre-Strawberry Fair
A link to details of a free festival held on Coldham's Common, held in 1969:
Click here to view
We ♥ The Fair
