Folk music at Binsted Strawberry Fair
When: 22nd July 2018, 2pm – 4.30pm
Where: The Flint Barn, Binsted, near Arundel, West Sussex BN18 0LL
£: Admission costs £1 (children under 12 years go free)
What is it?
Forget the hubbub of the modern festival and head to Binsted in West Sussex for a more relaxed, traditional country fair.
Binsted Strawberry Fair will take place on Sunday 22nd July with folk music, stalls, rural crafts, games, sheep and strawberries.
This will be the 31st year that the event, which focuses on the more traditional entertainment of a country fair, has taken place. The fair is held in a 19th century threshing barn and the Strawberry Fair fields near Arundel.
The Strawberry Fair is a charity event and this year the fair will be raising money for Arun Countryside Trust and for repairs to Binsted’s 12th century church.
The fair first began back in 1977 as a Herb Festival in the churchyard, to raise money for repairs to the tiny church steeple. This was followed by the first charity Countryside Fair in 1983. Since 1988 there has been a steady run of Strawberry Fairs, with villagers and other volunteers their giving time, skills and produce every year.
Binsted’s Green Man at the Strawberry Fair
There will be plenty of family friendly activities, including face painting and children’s games. Expect activities and games such as lucky dips, whack the rat, fish the duck and toss the cone.
Don’t expect any bouncy castles or canned music though, this is a traditional country fair. Instead there will be a small group of traditional folk musicians playing in the entrance to the lovely old flint threshing barn, where cream teas with strawberries will be served, alongside cakes and strawberry scones. There will also be local produce for sale, a raffle and a strawberry coloured Pimms Tent.
There will be village fete standards such as sales of books, a bottle tombola, bric-a-brac, and ice cream, as well as the more unusual stalls selling herbs, shrubs and perennials, and the animal corner with donkeys, turkeys, chicks and owls.
The fair usually has craft demonstrations such as cane chair making, pole lathe turning and traditional broom-making.
As well as crafts and stalls there will be countryside interest stands, with local environmental group MAVES, Sussex Wildlife Trust, the South Downs Society, and the South Downs National Park Rangers who have been helping MAVES with traditional hedge laying and dormouse surveys.
More info: www.binsted.org/strawberryfair
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