Wednesday, October 10, 2007

All the fun of the fair

It is Hull Fair this week. I live nearby, so the night sky is full of light whilst life is lived to a background cacophony of throbbing music and an all pervading smell of chips. It is reputed locally to be the biggest travelling funfair in Europe but this is disputed by Will, whose Geordie pride will not permit a rival to Newcastle's own, The Hoppings. A simple visit to Wikipedia will soon sort out the rival claims. Here are the entries; Hull - Newcastle. Ah.

Well, there is no disputing that Hull is the oldest and you can find out more about the social history of the fair from the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield here.

Whenever I walk round it I see people apparently enjoying being thrown into the air and whizzed around at high speed and all I can think is, 'that doesn't look like a good idea to me'. I hate rides, so watch this You Tube offering (via Will). I identify with the one on the right.

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