Dance Camp East website.
Dance Camp East has always been proud of its strong spiritual link to these early fairs: in particular the communal aspect, and people participating rather than passively waiting to be entertained by the ‘superstars’ of the day. And this was the ember those first core group members took when planning the first Dance Camp East in the winter of 1991, when the vision was born and became a reality the following summer.
This year’s Dance Camp East has been re-imagined to continue that spirit and take the event into another chapter that will see it flower and grow for years to come.
Film and photographs of the early fairs are hard to come by, in the early 70s film was expensive, equipment scarce and the general ethos was about being part of the event, rather than stand behind the camera.
In the seminal book about the fairs, ‘The Sun in The East’, the author Richard Barnes touches on the subject of photograph; “How do people react to cameras at a Fair? One group of actors at an early Barsham shield and pointed at the non-mediaeval camera – ‘beware’, tis the evil eye!”.
Thankfully Alec Hutchison managed not to bow to peer pressure and captured 15 minutes of amazing footage from the first ever Barsham Fair. Enjoy!
