Hat Fair 2026 – a pause with purpose

Hat Fair will be taking a break in 2026, but will be back in 2027.

Please put Saturday 3 July 2027 firmly in your diaries.

This hasn't been an easy decision for Play to the Crowd, the arts and education charity that runs Hat Fair, so I want to offer some context as to why this decision has been made.

In November 2022, we learnt that our application to Arts Council England (ACE) to be a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), had been unsuccessful, despite scoring highly in the assessment and being recommended for funding. The reason given was because our postcode area wasn’t a priority place on the government’s agenda. To have been part of the National Portfolio would have given us 4 years of core funding for the festival between 2023 and 2026.

In the years before this, we had received £134k per annum investment from ACE towards presenting this joyous festival. While this in no way covered the whole costs of putting on the festival, it did allow us to plan, knowing that some core costs had been covered. It takes about 18 months – 2 years to plan this festival and without any financial certainty it makes planning near on impossible.

As you may be aware ACE is currently going through a significant government review and the likelihood is that the next round of National Portfolio funding applications will be deferred by a year while this is carried out. So, even if our next application was successful, it would be for Hat Fair 2028 and beyond.

ACE have actually been incredibly supportive of Hat Fair, despite the NPO decision. We are grateful for their support for the last three festivals through one off National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG), however the short-term nature of this funding puts the team and the wider charity under greater stress as we cannot make any longer-term plans.

This year we have been successful in our NLPG application for £60k, although this was only confirmed in May and so the pressure has been on the team to organise the festival in a significantly reduced timeframe and without financial surety. The one-off grants have also been well below the funding level we used to receive which is why Hat Fair 2025 will be a one-day festival only. Funding the festival in this way is unsustainable in the long run.

In addition to ACE, there is uncertainty from Winchester City Council (WCC), who currently invest in us as a charity. Our area is part of fast-tracked local authority devolution and will therefore have a new Mayor by May 2026. Winchester City and District Council will cease to exist by 2028 when local authority reorganisation will take place. We are currently on a one-year extension of our current investment agreement with WCC and we don’t know what the settlement will be beyond that.

With all the current uncertainty from our major investors, not to mention the increases to National Insurance and the Minimum Wage, the Board and Senior Management team of Play to the Crowd have reluctantly taken the decision to have a fallow year for Hat Fair in 2026. This ‘pause with purpose’ will allow us to get on the front foot as we look at ways in which we can make the festival more financially sustainable in the future and get planning for 2027 and beyond.

We don’t want to compromise the quality of performance we are able to bring to Winchester audiences. To have had a festival in 2026 we would have needed secure funding by May 2025, which has been unrealistic given the level of uncertainty and amount of change currently underway in the external environment.

We know this is disappointing and that this decision will have a knock-on effect on many festivals around the country, businesses in Winchester and on the fantastic artists, crew and community groups we work with. However, my role as the Chief Executive is to look to the future and to plan strategically to ensure the longer-term viability and security of the festival and the Arts Charity that enables it. This is why I know that this pause with purpose next year, is the right decision at this time.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss how you would be able to support future festivals please do contact me deryck@playtothecrowd.co.uk

Deryck Newland
Chief Executive and Artistic Director
Play to the Crowd