The History Of The Fair
We're basically not absolutely sure why Strawberry Fair started. If you know anything, or have any old documents, please send them to us. In the meantime, here's what we currently know:
Pre-Strawberry Fair
A link to details of a free festival held on Coldham's Common, held in 1969:
Click here to view
Accounts of early Strawberry Fairs
Some undocumented history, from a reader of this site, who was asked if Strawberry Fair has any connection with the Albion Fairs: with the 1977 poster below: "Strawberry Fair is on a completely separate track from the Albion Fairs. It was started in 1974 by a bunch of people from Cambridge - ex students and friends and just kept going. It's always been young (mostly non university) Cambridge strutting its stuff. The original crew may have taken some inspiration from the first East Anglian fairs in 1972 and 3, maybe not. We'll have to ask them.
In the first year of Albion - 1978 - we took the dome to it and some of our regular acts performed, and in the 80s Albion Big Top was used at SF but that sort of thing was the only organisational connection.
The original 1970s fair in East Anglia was a medieval one Barsham Faire and there the spelling was deliberately olde. With later fairs the whole fair/faire/fayre thing was always a matter of taste."
Strawberry Fair Poster (1977), front
Strawberry Fair Poster (1977), back
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 assertain, (details have become cloudy with time) the event named Strawberry Fair began in 1974 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 by the freak community as exclusive and did nothing for the people of cambridge, the students booked midsummer common for two events, a Mayday event and also the event on the first weekend of June. The second event, no knows who called it this, became called Strawberry Fair. The event was a small affair but had a number of activities and musicians performing, this was in the days of monty python so everything took on that wierd surrealism which has never left the event. Arjuna was involved in those early days and still is in strong support of the fair today. As the years went on the fair has grown stronger and stronger and has never lost its committee run volunteer ethic, with its dedication to offering the people of Cambridge something truely unique.
Over the years a lot of controversy has arisen from Strawberry Fair, often due to its politics which have always been distictly left leaning and liberal. Often because it plays music 'late' and occassionally because people just can not stand fun. Despite this the fair has grown to be Cambridge's favorite summer event and attracts a huge number of people each year who seek out the music or the amazing range of stalls on offer or just love the day out.
This is only a brief intro to the history of the fair, keep checking as there is more to come. Also any information about the history of the fair would be much appreciated - please get in touch if you know something we don't!
