We're delighted to share that we are the 2024 main business sponsor for Wellington's Midsummer Fayre on Saturday 8th of June.  Let's come together to create memories, support local businesses and soak up the lively atmosphere!

Pictured above is our Valuations Director, Matt Hood, with Anthony Nicholls from Anthony's of Wellington Farm Shop and Nick Brooke from All Saints Church, both members of the organising team.

ABOUT THE MIDSUMMER FAYRE

The Midsummer Fayre is a foot-tapping, feel-good spectacular that takes place annually on the second Saturday in June, 10am – 3pm around Wellington’s Market Square, All Saints Church and Market Hall. Organised by Wellington H2A and All Saints Church, it is funded with support from Wellington Town Partnership and local businesses, and sees thousands of people coming out to enjoy the town. With around 40 stalls set up outside the parish church, music and dancing throughout the day and a costumed procession first recorded in 1773, its a day no Wellingtonian should miss!

WHO WILL BE PERFORMING?

This year you can expect performances from Wellington Brass Band, Odd Socks Folk Band, The Severn Valley Stompers, Above My Head Puppets, The Belfrey Theatre, The Telfordaires, Hadley Orpheus Male Voice Choir, Wrekin View School Choir, The Wellington W.I. Ukuladies and ToriArts. New for this year, we’ll be joined by The Stray Horns roaming brass quartet – they move around but they’re hard to miss. Street entertainment will come from The Boardroom Games Master and the Conwy Jester, with Jack the Jester hosting his usual circus skills tent in the churchyard.

ORIGINS

June fayres were taking place in Wellington at least as far back as the 13th century, when the town’s Market Charter of 1244 sanctioned a fayre to take place on the Vigil, Feast and Morrow of St Barnabas (10th-12th June). An important commercial event in Wellington’s calendar, it is likely that street entertainers would have been there to make the most of the large crowds and long hours of daylight – just as they are today.

Five hundred years later in the 1770s, the June fayres were still taking place, but the town’s most colourful annual celebration seems to have been the Wellington Jubilee. This was staged slightly earlier in the year at Whitsun, and was advertised in the newly established Shrewsbury Chronicle newspaper from 1773 – 78. Described then as an ‘ancient festival’, it perhaps dated back much further. It comprised ‘a breakfast of tea, coffee and chocolate’ on The Green (the area just north of the parish church), followed by a costumed procession through town and, at night, a ‘Ball and Assembly’.

It is from these past fayres and Jubilees that today’s re-vived Midsummer Fayre takes its inspiration, stirring together six centuries of festivities and folk culture from the 13th to the 19th centuries, when Wellington’s June fayres disappeared.

We can't wait to see you there!