The Lilac Fair
Two days of stalls, music and the procession to the statue, on the third weekend of May when the lilacs on Church Walk are in flower.
The next fair
The Lilac Fair is held on the third weekend of May. The dates for 2027 will be announced in January, and stall applications open on 1 February.
The Lilac Fair has been held in Vengerberg every May since 1899, except during the two world wars and in 2020 and 2021. It is run by the Trust’s Lilac Fair committee and about sixty volunteers, and it is the Trust’s biggest single source of income: in 2025 it raised £8,214 for the museum after costs.
Over the weekend about ninety stalls fill the Market Square, High Street as far as Castle Lane, and Church Walk: local food, plants, crafts, books, and the stalls of the town’s clubs and charities. The town band plays in the square on both days. The museum is open from 10.00 to 17.00.
The procession and the wreath
On the Saturday at 14.00 the procession leaves the museum, led by the town band and pupils from the two primary schools in lilac crowns, and goes down Sheep Street to the statue in the Market Square. There the flower guild of St Laurence’s lays a wreath of lilac on the plinth, and the oldest person present who has walked in the procession reads the inscription. The procession then goes up Church Walk under the lilacs to the church, where it disperses for tea.
The cordial
The lilac-and-gooseberry cordial is made by the cordial committee in the Church Hall in the week before the fair, and is sold only at its stall by the statue. It usually sells out on the Sunday afternoon. See The cordial.
History
The town had a charter fair long before the Lilac Fair: the August fair on the feast of St Laurence, granted in 1252, which had dwindled to a horse sale by the 1860s and was last held in 1874.
The Lilac Fair grew out of the unveiling of the statue in the Market Square on Thursday 19 May 1898, when the lilacs were in flower and the town held a procession, a tea for the children in Bridge Meadow and a market of stalls. The statue committee repeated it the following May, as the “Lilac Fair and Procession”, and the town has held it every year since. It was held on the Thursday nearest the anniversary until 1921, when it moved to a Saturday, and became a two-day fair in 1968. The Trust took it over from the old Lilac Fair committee in 1987.
| Year | Fair | Stallholders | Cordial (bottles) | Estimated attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 112th | 91 | 1,180 | 8,700 |
| 2023 | 113th | 94 | 1,364 | 9,100 |
| 2024 | 114th | 96 | 1,512 | 9,400 |
| 2025 | 115th | 95 | 1,438 | 9,050 |
| 2026 | 116th | 98 | 1,486 | 8,900 |
Getting there on fair days
High Street is closed to traffic between the Market Square and Castle Lane from 7.00 to 18.30 on both days. Park in the Riverside car park, where there are extra spaces on Bridge Meadow if the ground is dry, and blue badge bays near the Water Lane entrance. There is a quiet area in the museum garden, and accessible toilets in the Market Square and the museum.
Dogs on leads are welcome, but the Market Square is very crowded on Saturday afternoons. No barbecues, drones or glass on Church Walk.
Questions about the fair: lilacfair@vengerberg.org.