{"id":35987,"date":"2026-10-04T20:31:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T19:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35987"},"modified":"2026-10-04T20:31:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T19:31:55","slug":"sunday-opening-brings-families-to-the-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35987","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Opening Brings Families to the Fair"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThis is the second year the annual Michaelmas Fair has started on Sunday, rather than Monday.
\n
\nIt was already in full swing at 3:50 pm when I arrived for the fair blessing service. I was just in time to see the councillors and the Mayor climbing off the galloping horses after the traditional post\u2011blessing ride.
\n
\nAbingdon’s impressive town mace was also there.<\/p>\n

The service had been at 3:30 pm, and I\u2019d missed it. My apologies to anyone else who followed my timing from the blog What\u2019s On.
\n
\nThe fair stretches from the Market Place to the end of Ock Street and is often described as the longest street fair in Europe.
\n
\nEarlier in the day, as part of the fair set\u2011up, there was a lot of heavy work,
\n
\nand also some pruning. One of the Market Place trees was cut back to make space for Meteorite.
\n
\nNotices around the site remind visitors just how much work goes into running a fair, from transporting and assembling the rides to safety checks, staffing, insurance, and cleaning. The notices went on to say that every visit helps keep the fair moving.
\n
\nIn previous years the fair has been erected on Sunday morning and then sat idle for the rest of the day before properly starting on Monday. This year the operators must be pleased: they\u2019re getting three days instead of two. The day was sunny, and the fair busy. What was different was the number of young families, all together, out enjoying the sunshine on the Sunday afternoon. Often parents are at work during the daylight hours on Monday and Tuesday.
\n
\nI may have missed the fair blessing but \u2014 no matter \u2014 the fair was blessed with good weather and plenty of visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second year the annual Michaelmas Fair has started on Sunday, rather than Monday. It was already in full swing at 3:50 pm when I arrived for the fair blessing service. I was just in time to see the councillors and the Mayor climbing off the galloping horses after the traditional post\u2011blessing ride. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}