Carnival!: The Day the Fair Came to Town

On Saturday I went to the annual fair in a local village. I try to go each year (even if my sole objective is a hot dog from the Scouts hot dog stand !)

The fair has been running for just over 700 years and since I don't know when, has had a theme for each year. This year, the theme was 'Carnival'!

Shopkeepers had the chance to participate in a 'Best Dressed Window' competition--above is one of my favourites; it really caught my eye and is brilliantly put together. Very deservingly, it won first place!

Over the course of the afternoon I saw the procession but also had the opportunity to work on a goal...

 044. Try 10 foods/drinks I’ve never tried before

More on this in a moment; first some pictures from the procession!

Awesome dragon! It was a fairly breezy afternoon so it looked pretty lively!

This float was called Carnival of the Animals and had a great deal 'going on' in it. I didn't take any pictures of the rest (or much of the other floats) because the majority of participants were children, and I don't think it's right to share images of other people's kids online.

Happened upon this temporarily discarded item from one of the walking floats. Was entertained to see that the building it was parked in front of is named 'The Coach House'!

Along with the typical village fair attractions (the procession, arena events, stalls...) there was a funfair too. I really love the fact it has a mixture of old and new rides, and that a lot of the rides and that along with the stands and older rides, most of the accompanying vehicles are painted in a traditional way, too (though I wouldn't be surprised if most of these were vintage...)

Unfortunately I found the stalls a bit of a let down this year. Whereas, in times gone by, the stalls area was populated by local groups, organisations and charities, I noted an awful lot of commercial trade stands both here and in the craft tent (the craft tent wasn't very exciting either--only a couple of 'true' crafters there, the rest being people selling on mass-produced products...Bah!)

But enough whining, on to the really important part: the food!

This year, the fair included a number of food vendors along a street. This included pizza, Thai, Bratwurst, luxury ice cream, hot dogs, and something I've been curious about for ages: Indian street food!
Pictured above are an aubergine pakora (small round thing), vegetable pakora (weird-shaped thing), and another thing I've forgotten the name of (but it was delicious!)

I am counting this towards my 'new food/drink' goal! 

Really enjoyed this street food and hope I get the chance to try some more one day--there was a lot of choice on the stand, but I just picked things at random.

If I'd had more money on me, I might have gone back for seconds at some point, but no trip to this fair can be complete without one of these beauties:

A wonderful, delicious hot dog, courtesy of the Scouts!
I've gained a bad habit of putting too much mustard on my hot dog, but it was delicious nonetheless.

Of course, no trip to an English summer fair can be complete without a glass of Pimm's, and there just so happened to be a Pimm's stand there... Well, I have to treat myself, don't I? ;)

Overall, whilst the stalls were disappointing, the procession and the food certainly weren't! I was going to stay for a little longer to watch some of the arena events, but my sister invited me over so I went to visit her instead (it worked in my favour: I came home with a new magazine! Thanks sister #1!)

Whilst watching the procession, I was handed a leaflet about the village's festival, which happens later in the year. Having browsed their website, I'm looking forward to tickets going on sale--there's definitely a few things I want to attend!