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The Big Fat Hairy Hat Fair Exhibition from Saturday 28 June to Sunday 20 July

The Big Fat Hairy Hat Fair Exhibition

Saturday 28 June - Sunday 20 July

A big, bright, colourful exhibition celebrating 34 years of Hat Fair, the UK's longest running street arts festival.

Winchester City Council Cultural Services, working in partnership with the Hat Fair, are assembling a permanent collection of archive material that records the history of the 34 year old festival. To launch the first year of the archive, we are holding the Big Fat Hairy Hat Fair Exhibition in City Space at the Discovery Centre from the 28th June - 20th July 2008.

Founded in 1974 by Jonathan Kay, the festival has grown into a four day event of national and international significance attracting over 30,000 visitors annually.
Over the years a vast amount of material, photos, banners, posters, costumes and other memorabilia has been accumulated and is now in the process of being archived to form part of the collection of Winchester Museums. On display will be photographs from previous at Hat Fair events - see if you can spot yourself, a giraffe's head, Ron Purse's pram and also winning entries in a children's art competition and of course, weird and wonderful hats!

Alex Hoare, curator of the exhibition said,

"This exhibition provides an opportunity to celebrate the Hat Fair and what it has meant to generations of people living in Winchester. We want people to come and enjoy finding out about the festival and to leave some of their own Hat Fair memories with us for future exhibitions".

Cllr. Patricia Stallard, Portfolio Holder for Culture, Heritage and Sport said,

"This is a very exciting and innovative exhibition using items which have been collected from many sources. Whilst some items have been donated permanently to the new collection others are simply on loan to the City Council for the duration of the exhibition".

She added,

"It is hoped that this collection will continue to grow over the years, as the festival has itself, and develop as an educational resource becoming very much a 'living archive'.

The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday 10am - 5pm and Sunday 12pm - 4pm until Monday 30 June. From Tuesday 1 July, the exhibition will be open Mon-Fri 10am - 6pm, Sat 10am - 5pm, and Sun 11am - 4pm.

Admission is free.

Workshops.

Make your own bunting using colourful materials at workshops on Saturday 28th June, 1 - 2.30pm or 3 - 4.30pm or on Saturday 5th July come along and make some hats and bunting at 10.30am - 12pm, 1 - 2.30pm or 3 - 4.30pm.
£5.00 per session, all ages and abilities welcome, but children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult.
Workshops can be booked at City Space in the Discovery Centre or by calling 01962 873 610. Places are limited so please book early.

Note to editors:

01. City Space is the exhibition gallery at Winchester Discovery Centre managed by Winchester City Council. For more information visit the weblink: www3.hants.gov.uk/wdc/city-space
02. Accompanying image
03. For further information regarding Winchester Museums visit www.winchester.gov.uk