Tip of the hat

Hat Fair is Britain’s longest running festival of street theatre and outdoor arts. It takes place in Winchester on the first weekend of July every year. Hat Fair was originally created by Jonathan Kay. Jonathan first founded Attic Theatre, inspired by the theatre traditions of Attica in Ancient Greece, where the community regularly took part in creative happenings. He then went on to create the Hat Fair, which first burst onto the streets of Winchester in the early 1970s. A registered charity, Hat Fair originated from performances where artists pass round a hat for donations after their show. For several years it was run on an entirely voluntary basis, and even in 2011, under its new Artistic Director, Kate Hazel, it has only two part-time paid members of staff – Kate and General Manager, Angela Bentham, who work six days a week between them – this is the most paid staff time that Hat Fair has ever had.

Kate says: “Hat Fair has been built on volunteers. The festival would not have lasted for so long without the support from the local community. Volunteers from all walks of life make the festival diverse and wide reaching, and have allowed the festival to develop. It provides a bespoke local workforce united in their shared ambition to see the event succeed year on year. Our volunteering programme is open to anyone, we never turn anyone away.”

With Hat Fair’s new National Portfolio Organisation status from 2012, formal staffing requirements are set to increase in the next three years and Kate believes that, thriving as it does due to its long-standing public support, Hat Fair has a responsibility to provide local employment opportunities wherever possible. She is keen to reward the loyalty of volunteers by providing routes to employment for those who are interested. So how will this happen?

Hat Fair is currently being developed as a creative production and events management company that can deliver events on behalf of other people in addition to delivering the main festival. For the first time this year it is providing some of its volunteers with formal stewarding training. This means that rather than being outsourced this aspect of festival management, it can be delivered in-house. The plan is also to sell the stewarding services to other organisations. Having also taken on a contract to deliver a number of events in Winchester throughout the year on behalf of the local business community, it is now in a position to explore employment opportunities for volunteers. For example, one of its volunteers, who has demonstrated lots of skill and talent over the years on the production side of the festival, is being offered a paid role as Technical Manager for these events.

Kate says: “We hope to diversify this list of opportunities in future years and continue to offer interesting and innovative roles. At Hat Fair we may not have a large team of full-time staff, but we have something better. We have an engaged community of volunteers who work for Hat Fair because they want to; not because they have to. What better recommendation is there?”