Wellington Midsummer Fayre

The 2026 Midsummer Fayre will take place on Saturday 13th June. It’ll be a packed programme of singers, bands, choirs, dancers, and a costumed procession modelled on one first recorded in 1773. If you would like to sponsor Wellington’s biggest open community event in future, get in touch!

This year’s event will be celebrating the 250th anniversary of Dr William Withering’s ground-breaking book of botany as part of the wider Flora 250 programme. Expect to see Dr Withering take pride of place in the costumed procession alongside his 18th Century contemporaries, and look out for the Flora 250 stall where you’ll be able to make floral hair decorations or buttonholes with Amanda from Shy Violets.

We’ll also be marking the 50th anniversary of our good friends The Ironmen and Severn Gilders Morris Dancers, who will be leading a day of dance in Market Square alongside other Morris dancing sides from the region.

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!

BOOKING A STALL

We begin taking stall bookings in February each year. Existing traders are given the opportunity to book first before we open up any remaining spaces for new traders. To enquire about stall bookings use the About Us page. UPDATE: All stalls for 2026 are now booked!

BECOME A BUSINESS SPONSOR

If you run a local business and would like to support Wellington’s biggest community event, here’s how it works…

As our main sponsor, £500 will get you the following:

  • a full page advert on the reverse of our event programme (c.3000 hard copies printed plus online PDF shared widely online)
  • article and photo of you on the H2A website
  • mentions in our press releases before and after the event
  • mentions via our social media accounts (combined followership of 1,500) and on Love Wellington (15,000 followers)
  • a 3m x 3m stall space at the event where you can display banners, hand out literature etc.

As one of our supporting sponsors, £250 will get you the following:

  • a third of a page advert in our event programme (c.3000 hard copies printed plus online PDF shared widely)
  • article and photo of you on the H2A website
  • mentions in our press releases before and after the event
  • mentions via our Facebook and Twitter accounts (combined followership of 1,500) and on Love Wellington (15,000 followers)
  • a 3m x 3m stall space at the event where you can display banners, hand out literature etc.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: PICTURES FROM PAST FAYRES SINCE 2008

These photos from past events will give you an idea of what the whole thing is about…

Morris men in Market Square
Picnic time
Wellington Weekend 2010 050
Wellington Weekend 2010 057
Morris dancers in the Square
Morris dancers
Vic et al
duke street procession
Cooper's Sausage Rolls

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.