Strawberry Fair in Cambridge is a free, annual event run for the public. It is held on Midsummer Common, a space of grass in the centre of the city surrounded by trees and next to the river: also home to Midsummer Fair that started back in Medieval times and one of the oldest fairs of the country. It was established by a group of university students in 1974 as an alternative festival in Cambridge that played on carnivalesque features and political protest, rapidly growing in popularity. It became a significant event on the calendar for Cambridge, especially in my family as we have always dressed up.
People come from all over the country and the world for the festival, but it caused widespread disruption in the city and had to be shut down around 2009/2010 as the event proved to be difficult to control (for example due to drug use, violence at the train station, excessive camping). In the return of Strawberry Fair as re-branded family event from 2011 onward, measures have been put in place to reduce the fair in disruptive ways. The event is smaller to try to make it more manageable. There is now a huge barrier around the perimeter of the location. There are lots more site staff and volunteers in hi-res jackets and lanyards. The market in the fair feels to me as if it has tripled in size, now there is a lot more emphasis on trade. There is a designated children's area as a main feature of the fair, and an art area next to it so that there is more to look at and engage, deterring drug use. The entrances to the site have security to check your bag and a limit on how much alcohol you can take in.
People come from all over the country and the world for the festival, but it caused widespread disruption in the city and had to be shut down around 2009/2010 as the event proved to be difficult to control (for example due to drug use, violence at the train station, excessive camping). In the return of Strawberry Fair as re-branded family event from 2011 onward, measures have been put in place to reduce the fair in disruptive ways. The event is smaller to try to make it more manageable. There is now a huge barrier around the perimeter of the location. There are lots more site staff and volunteers in hi-res jackets and lanyards. The market in the fair feels to me as if it has tripled in size, now there is a lot more emphasis on trade. There is a designated children's area as a main feature of the fair, and an art area next to it so that there is more to look at and engage, deterring drug use. The entrances to the site have security to check your bag and a limit on how much alcohol you can take in.
But many remember Strawberry Fair as the internationally renowned event that it used to be when it brought huge crowds to the heaving music stages. The fair now has a curfew at around 9 or 10pm, rounded off by a fun finale act brought to the last of the fair-goes, provided they are sober enough to notice. What always strikes me, however, is the energy of the fair that recalls and relives the past version of Strawberry Fair. For example, the parade that kicks off the event usually booms across the city with the rhythms of the samba band. I have been told that the re-branded fair now has a decibel cap checked by the council. Each year I feel like the parade gets quieter too. I feel that the limits on the fair's sound compromises its joyous energy. Even if it is aiming to disturb less of Cambridge's residents, the restrictions somewhat tone down its carnival nature.
Luckily, the samba band that characterises the fair with its hand-made musical power, continues to play. Cambridge is subject to its instrumental trail from around 11:30am onward, and to me this symbolises communal spirit as people gather to celebrate. During morning costume preparations at my house some 20-minute walk from the site, I listen in anticipation every year for the thundering drums of the parade to ripple across the urban landscape. It is our call to join it snaking though the city and we can't lose a minute to catch it in time! The moment I first hear the drums makes me finish my costume prep with arm hairs standing on end.
Luckily, the samba band that characterises the fair with its hand-made musical power, continues to play. Cambridge is subject to its instrumental trail from around 11:30am onward, and to me this symbolises communal spirit as people gather to celebrate. During morning costume preparations at my house some 20-minute walk from the site, I listen in anticipation every year for the thundering drums of the parade to ripple across the urban landscape. It is our call to join it snaking though the city and we can't lose a minute to catch it in time! The moment I first hear the drums makes me finish my costume prep with arm hairs standing on end.
My mum has always reminded me of her raving days. Strawberry Fair was one of them, and a big part of her memories in the city. She tells me that when she used to go to the fair, she could work her way through the crowds and, reaching the centre of the site, turn to face each of the main stages and thus make her decision on where to go next depending on what music she liked. Stages at the re-branded fair get smaller every year. There are no main stages now, as they have been fragmented so that there are lots of small ones. In fact, stages are so quiet that two years ago I recall seeing, from the other side of the site, the largest crowd I'd seen around a stage in a while, but I couldn't even hear the music!
Music has always been important for my family. I grew up listening to the Trance and House my Mum and her friends raved to. She would always take me to Strawberry Fair as a kid, especially since my Uncle used to DJ there. I won't ever forget the vivid memory of being carried up and put on the main stage as a toddler during his set. I was in front of the biggest speakers, with the hot evening sun flooding my vision, people dancing as far into the sunset as I could see. I was dressed in my DIY dragon costume that my Mum and I had sewn and adorned together in the months before the event. We have put together costumes ever since.
Being a child at Strawberry Fair used to be intense when I was not being carried by parents. I always remember the sheer scale of the crowds and people dancing uncontrollably. These days, small stages seem to attract dancing crowds still, but in ways that attempt to control them as mentioned. It feels like the memory of the original fair is almost relived at times where crowds are about to lose control. A distinct happening of last year’s fair is the perfect example: I watched a huge crowd gathered in the Kings Head (one of the larger tents with a stage in it) begin to bounce in time to the beat of a musical build-up in the early afternoon, and, just as the 'drop' came, it seemed the DJ's somewhat killed the brimming excitement by selecting more minimalist music. The crowd was at its peak in energy, itching to let go and dance however they felt like, something they could easily do at old Strawberry Fair, and all they needed was a beat to take them over the edge. Instead, the choice of music seemed to anti-climactic in the face of this urge: eventually people on the verge of moshing and jumping gradually dispersed. One could see this as a success in terms of keeping the event under control. Nonetheless, moments like these recall the ways of the fair in the past.
Midsummer common is perhaps a bizarre feature of Cambridge: an open, grassy plain by the river that is situated in the city. Those around me growing up have sometimes disputed Cambridge as a city because it is very small and feels more like a town. Open spaces in Cambridge give way to culturally-rooted, public gatherings that could be less possible to establish for denser cities with less green space. Events in Cambridge like Strawberry Fair couldn't be possible without these spaces, so I am thankful for these historical green spaces that give way to opportunities of fantastical gatherings. Though I still find myself harking back to how Strawberry Fair used to be, feeling like these safety measures often become a little of a compromise to energy it used to bring, I am grateful that the fair is a lot safer and continues to run. This piece gave some insight into my family experiences of Strawberry Fair as a public event in the city: how it has felt as it has changed over time and the ways disruptive elements of the fair as it used to be still, at times, peep through into the present.
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