Strawberry Fair

Strawberry Fair is an annual festival dedicated to music, entertainment, arts and crafts. Founded in 1974, it is held in Cambridge, England on the first Saturday of June. Strawberry Fair is a free and volunteer-run event which attracts over 30,000 visitors each year.

First and foremost, Strawberry Fair is an arts festival for people of all ages. Its main focus is music: the festival features over 100 artists and bands, both local and from other areas of the UK, who offer a non-stop music extravaganza that lasts for 12 hours. Strawberry Fair encompasses an impressive array of music genres and has several music stages. The festival also hosts a local band competition which gives emerging musicians a chance to play live in front of an audience.

Along with live music performances, Strawberry Fair features other exciting events and activities. Its program includes the Cambridge Strawberry Shorts Film Festival, spectacular street parades featuring local dance groups, performances by the Cambridge Community Circus, a marquee full of activities like crafts, painting and storytelling, an exhibition of local art, and more. The fair also has food and merchandise stalls.

Strawberry Fair is independent from any events run by the city council. It is a volunteer-run not-for-profit event planned by the committee of local people from Cambridge which consists of several groups that take on specific aspects. They include Steering Group, Programming Group, Communications Group, Finance and Admin Group, Event Management Group, and Infrastructure Group. The fair is run by about a thousand volunteers who are affectionately known as Strawberry Fairies.

What started as a small local event has grown to become one of the largest cultural events in the United Kingdom. With its 30,000 attendees, Strawberry Fair is the highlight of the summer season in Cambridge. Residents and visitors gather together on Midsummer Common, an area of common land in central Cambridge, to celebrate the vibrant and creative city of Cambridge, its talented artists and craftsmen.

The festival itself is preceded by a series of events including the annual Cambridge Band Competition in local pubs, workshops and benefit gigs. The gigs are held to raise money for the festival which allows Strawberry Fair to keep operating as a free event.

In 2020, the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.