Egremont’s Crab Fair has been bringing people together for a weekend of celebrations since Medieval times.
It is believed to have been held continuously since 1267 – except for during the War years, Covid and the Queen’s death – and got its name from the Lord of Egremont, who started a tradition of giving away crab apples to celebrate harvest time.
While Crab Fair has changed over the centuries it has run, many of the fair’s weird and wonderful traditional events have remained.
It still hosts the parade of the apple cart, the climbing of the greasy pole, the singing of traditional hunting songs, a pipe smoking competition, the world famous gurning championship and more – all of which have long and winding histories at the fair.
But its thanks to the fair’s voluntary committee, who work tirelessly organising it year after year, that these activities and the wider well-loved modern aspects of the fair like Dancing in the Street and Crab Fest, are fiercely upheld.
Current committee chair Callum Scott, 36, who is from the town, first joined the committee as a child and has since worked his way through the ranks.
Over the years, the committee has brought all kinds of things to the fair – including getting Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream to sponsor the gurning championships in 2001.
It’s also welcomed dozens of famous faces over the years including X-Factor stars like Shayne Ward, television presenters like Helen Skelton and Michaela Strachan, and more recently, comedians like Nish Kumar and Josh Widdicombe, who were filming for a TV show at the 2023 fair.
The committee also welcome people from all across the world who travel to visit the fair and take part in its activities – with the World Gurning Championship arguably being its most popular event.
Callum said: “It’s one of the oldest fairs in the world and goes back to 1267, it has made Egremont world famous and it’s important to keep heritage alive and keep traditions going.
“Highlights that stick in my head are when Ben and Jerry’s sponsored the fair and that year when you went to the gurning you got free ice cream.
“I also remember getting up for school and watching GMTV interviewing committee members and gurners back in the 90s and Michaela Strachan, who was a Countryfile presenter, taking the title of champion female gurner and there was a lot of controversy over that in 2002.
“The first year I was secretary Helen Skelton also came to the Crab Fair and I had the job of showing her around and looking after her, which was also a real highlight.”
The Crab Fair committee is made up of both junior and senior members – with some as young as 12 involved in helping organise the events.
It’s a system that’s in place to keep local young people interested and to secure how the fair is organised in the future.
Callum, who first joined the committee as a youngster, said: “I joined the committee as a junior member in 2002 when I was 12-years-old, so that’ll be 23 years ago now.
“Looking back the reason I joined, you learnt about Crab Fair in school and you were encouraged to go along and take part in the street racing, catch apples at the fair and pull faces at the gurning.
“But it was foot and mouth time and there was a letter in the paper saying the future of Crab Fair was in jeopardy because nobody was coming forward to join the committee.
“It was aging and they said they were having a meeting and that anyone who wanted to join was welcome to come along.
“I had it in my head I wanted to join, so I went to this meeting, which was a bit daunting because I was 12-years-old, and I was very quiet and shy, but I was made welcome.
“In my first year as a junior I threw apples from the cart and organised the children’s sports hub on the field.
“Being part of a committee with like minded people, it isn’t like being at work with colleagues, it’s a bit like a family in a way.”
Callum started out as a junior member, before progressing to a committee member at 16, assistant secretary at 17 and then he remained secretary for 10 years before he took over as chairman in 2018.
He added that it was former fair secretary Derek Shutt that took him under his wing and trained him up.
Callum said: “What keeps me going is it’s a voluntary role and you’re organising an event steeped in the history and heritage of our town for people from all over the world that come.
“Sometimes you wonder if it’s all worth it, but when u see it all come together successful, it makes you proud to be part of it.
“The committee now is only small and it’s all voluntary so people do as much or as little as they’re comfortable with.
“We’ve got a new member this year, Zac Raynor, who’s 12-years-old, and he’s attended every meeting since October.
“Zac reminds me of myself 23 years ago, so we’re going to get him doing the children’s street racing in the morning, throwing apples from the apple cart and doing the children’s sports in the afternoon.
“Then he’s getting thrown in at the deep end and he’s going to hold the braffin for the gurning.
“But young blood is the future and they come through and learn from older and more experienced ones and all being well, they stick with it and progress and take over the running of it in time.
“There’s not many older many committee members left now, but I’m proud to be part of it and I’m proud of the committee members who work to make it happen.”
Planning for the Crab Fair takes all year to do, so as soon as this year’s fair ends, planning for next year’s fair will begin.
Committee meetings take place once a month in The La’al Club in Egremont and often, it’s the young committee members who bring new ideas to the fair, including the now popular events like dancing in the street and Crab Fest.
Both events have brought both local and national bands, artists and entertainers to stages in the town.
While the committee spend a lot of their time working hard to put on the fair – it doesn’t change the excitement and nostalgia they feel for it.
Callum said: “The excitement gets me when the Monday before we start setting the sports field up and it sinks in that Crab Fair is on the Saturday and it’s already hyped up.
“We call it between ourselves on the committee crab fever, we’re all that excited. But I think my favourite bit is when I get on the apple car and you pull onto the main street and you see the atmosphere of the crowd waiting for it.
“You would think we were throwing gold at people, but at that point it’s Crab Fair in the middle of the day, everyone is there and everything is as it should be.
“Another thing we enjoy is when the fair starts arriving and there’s generations of fair people and traders landing.
“Some have been coming for generations, so we go and shake hands with them and congratulate each other on another year and that makes you really happy.
“I’ve worked with some people not from Cumbria and they will say at this time of year it doesn’t feel like Autumn yet and we call it Crab Fair weather, when the nights are a bit chilly and the sun is there during the day and all the autumn colours are coming in the trees.
“You try to explain it, but if you’re from Egremont, you just understand it.”
When Callum first started with the Crab Fair team it cost £5,000 to put the fair on, but now the fair has grown, it costs £59,000 to put on every year – and it all depends on fundraising and sponsorship.
He added: “We don’t get the sponsorship we did maybe 20 years ago when there was plenty of money about and when we put in for it, they want to see registered charities, but if we did do that, we wouldn’t be able to have junior members.
“Obviously we want them to keep the fair running, so we have to fundraise instead. Without that we wouldn’t be able to put it on and the sponsors who do come out and support us we’re very very grateful for.”
Callum added that the committee are ready and waiting to host this year’s fair and have got some new things planned for fairgoers to enjoy.
This year the fair will take place on Friday September 19 and will run late into the evening of Saturday September 20.
He said: “We’re almost sorted for this year’s fair, obviously we started planning after last year’s fair and it takes about 12 month to pull everything together.
“We’ve invested more in children’s entertainment this year, so we’ve got Pet Encounter, circus workshops, a re-enactment, characters, children’s sports and activities and then we’ve got back a main attraction.
“We haven’t had a main attraction in about eight or nine years, so we’ve got a motorbike stunt team and I’m really looking forward to it.
“Obviously Covid played its part and then when The Queen died and we cancelled getting it back up and running was really hard. But this will be our third Crab Fair since we cancelled and it’s back to what it used to be like.”
The Crab Fair committee is always open to new members who are interested in joining.
It also welcomes anyone interested in helping out with the event in other ways – from marshalling to working behind the bar to helping with the gurning and apple throwing.
We’ll be covering the fair live this year and sharing more stories, tales and behind the scenes details from the fair.
Have you got a Crab Fair story to share? Whether it’s historical or more recent, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]
