There’s the world, and then there’s Appleby.
Appleby as at the annual Appleby Horse Fair which brings together thousands of Irish Travelers and Gypsies gather in the North West of England for the rare pleasure of being embraced rather than shunned by the community.
“When we come to a place like Appleby Fair and we sit around the campfire, there’s a sense of place, of belonging, of lineage,” said Billy Welch, an organizer. “We feel like we’re actually at home this week.”
Life in England has never been easy for Irish travelers or Gypsies, as many still refer to themselves (elsewhere many find the term derogatory, preferring Roma or Roma).
Both emerged as nomadic groups many centuries ago, with the Roma migrating to Europe from northern India and the Travelers emerging in what is now Ireland. In England, Appleby has brought the community together year after year.
The roots of the fair date back to the 18th century when traders from across the UK began to set up camp in the rural Cumbrian town of Appleby-in-Westmorland every June. And with all the trappings that the fair has brought with it since then, horses remain the stars.
They will be bathed in the River Eden. They are chased through the streets and paraded with fanfares – the “flash” as it is called. They are still bought and sold.
“I’ve been coming all my life since I was little and my family has been buying and selling horses for generations,” said Riley Gaskin, a 26-year-old from Derby. “It’s a holiday and a business rolled into one.”
The families of many fair visitors have called England home for hundreds of years. But life was often hard.
Poverty and poor health are widespread and many communities are openly hostile to their camps. Even “sedentary” gypsies – those who have left the streets – are discriminated against.
“People are telling us to go back to where we came from,” said Mr. Welch, organizer of the show. “My family has lived in Darlington for decades and we still get that today.”
And it’s only getting worse, they say.
Sophie-Lee Hamilton and her partner Tom Smith said their trailer was attacked by the side of the road – once when Ms Hamilton was alone with their three young children.
“They try to stop Appleby every year,” said Mr. Smith, “but they all came anyway.”
During the festival, Appleby, a town of 3,228, suddenly hosts up to 30,000 visitors.
And it can be a party-loving audience.
“We can sense the atmosphere changing when there’s trouble,” said Ruth Harper, a police officer.
The fair has little formal organization and Kevin Hope, a visitor from Darlington, acknowledged that there could be wrongdoing. “Anywhere there’s gooduns, there’s baduns, but we’re all lumped together,” he said.
Some shops will close for the five days of the fair and some local residents are clearly unhappy about this.
But Constable Harper said she was looking forward to the fair. As the festivities drew to a close one evening, she said, using an Irish word for fun: ‘Everyone was very happy all day. It was really relaxed, really good vibes.”
When Mr Hope first came to Appleby he was so small he could fit in a fruit crate. “I first came here in an orange box,” he said, “in front of an iron-wheeled wagon with a bow hood.”
He’s 60 now, but families still bring children to the carnival, often in traditional dress.
Mr. Welch pointed to the children playing nearby.
“If you said to them, ‘Do you want to go to Disneyland or to Appleby?’ there would be no competition.”
For some who spend much of the year conforming to the conventions of the modern world, the Appleby Fair is a chance to live up to their traditions.
Those who own the wagons, which are traditionally painted green, fetch them from storage for the journey, which can take several weeks. It is both a sentimental and a strategic decision.
“You don’t get as much abuse with a station wagon as you do with a trailer,” said Becky Lumb, 35, who had traveled to the fair from Bradford in the north of England. “People see that there’s a tradition and there’s a romance.”
Once at the fair, they pitch their tents and look for friends and relatives they may not have seen in the year before.
Some really want to see the horses. Others – especially teenagers – prefer to look at each other.
More than one romance has blossomed between the floats, caravans and tents that trek around Appleby’s grounds each June and the younger participants often don’t venture out unless they have just the right attire. But there is no rush: the days are long, as are the evenings.
Sometimes even the weather cooperates.
“It was a beautiful fair,” said Mr. Hope as this year’s Appleby drew to a close. “It was a bit hot, but it’s much better hot than wet.”
