There are lots of changes at this time of year as we put the long Winter months behind us and for Carters Steam Fair it’s one of the busiest times of the year as we start our annual tour around London and the South East.
During the Winter we are busy at the yard repainting and restoring the rides. As all of our rides are vintage, we find that they tend to need some ‘tlc’ over the winter months to get them back to pristine status after the wear and tear of a summer season.
Next time you’re at the fair take a close look at the rides, vehicles and wagons. All the lines and letters have been painted by hand!
Our 2019 tour sees us visit 23 locations from Woodley on the 6th April to Reading on the 12th and 13th October. 2019 promises to be a bumper year with 11 new dates for our popular Fairground Art and Heritage Tours, 5 dates for our Vintage Vehicle Road Runs, new sign-writing and art courses, new exclusive Carters merchandise and of course lots of special offers for family days out!
Hear the history of the fair first hand
When the fair is on tour you can tune in to watch Joby talk about the rides with his Facebook Live videos. They proved so popular in 2018 that we decided to go one step further and we launched our first Fairground Art and Heritage tours in Hammersmith, Bath and Maidenhead. At Maidenhead we had over 30 guests turn up, despite the pouring rain! We had people with their cameras and sketchbooks and we encouraged everyone to get up close to the rides and enjoy the fair away from the crowds.
This year we have added the guided tours to 11 new locations. Tickets cost £5 per person which we donate to the Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice.
Will our vintage vehicles take over your town?
How do you know there is a vintage fairground in town? Your first clue will be our posters which go up about two weeks before we visit… you might even see our giant Galloper horse on a van around town. But in selected locations we go one step further and take our vintage vehicles out around the town! In Lichfield last year we even had an escort form the local Harley Davidson owner’s group. If you’ve got vehicle enthusiasts in your family (whatever age!) then check if we are doing a tour near you.
Over the Winter we’ve also been busy developing our new website and we thought you might like to know a bit more about some of the features we have been adding.
Find your nearest fair
This is probably the question that we get asked the most here at Carters: “when is the fair coming to my town”! The reality is that we can’t cover the whole of the UK as we are based in the South East and we travel the fair using vintage vehicles too. It would probably take us a week just to get as far as Manchester, let alone Scotland! The furthest North we travel is Lichfield near Birmingham but we welcome visitors from all over the country at our other stops. We do quite a few dates around London including Stoke Newington and Peckham so perhaps 2019 is the year that you jump on a train and come and visit us? Find your nearest fair here.
Learning activities for kids (and grown ups too!)
Carters Steam fair is more than just a fair so we thought it would be fun to share some activities and information that help explain a bit more about how it works, about our history and some inspiration for the kids. We know it’s lots of fun to go on our rides, but we encourage you to look a little closer at the rides the next time you visit and appreciate all the different styles of fairground art that have been lovingly reproduced by hand by Joby Carter and his team. Learn more about Carters and join in with the new Learning section of our website.
We hope we’ve inspired you to come and visit the fair and look forward to seeing you soon.
