Horsing around: a wild weekend at Appleby Fair
- Text by Stefy Pocket
- Photography by Stefy Pocket
One week every year, the tiny town of Appleby in Cumbria host the largest gathering of Gypsies and Travellers in Western Europe. Around 10,000 members of the travelling community pour into the Eden Valley to trade horses, party, gamble, meet friends, and even find love.
Increasingly, horses are being brought to the three-day fair for leisure rather than for trade, and the vast majority of visitors are there as part of a traditional family holiday. Hundreds of horses are seen being ridden around the town, washed in the river, groomed, and exercised (the best way of showing them off).
I’d known about the Appleby fair for years – it’s been around since 1775 – but last year was the first time I got to visit. It was amazing: there was so much going on. I was surrounded by incredible faces everywhere – young boys riding cobs around, long-haired girls wearing beautiful outfits, and men dealing horses of all shapes and sizes.
Everyone was welcoming and charming. As a photographer, I always look for permission from people I shoot, and the majority of attendees were fine with me taking their photo. That said, I did receive a few nos – I felt some people were a bit suspicious of me, which I completely understand given the ignorance and prejudice these communities have faced in the past. I would probably be sceptical of photographers too.
See more of Stefy Pocket’s work on her official website, or follow her on Instagram.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
“Like skating an amphitheatre”: 50 years of the South Bank skatepark, in photos
Skate 50 — A new exhibition celebrates half a century of British skateboarding’s spiritual centre. Noah Petersons traces the Undercroft’s history and enduring presence as one of the world’s most iconic spots.
Written by: Noah Petersons
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The Strokes condemn US imperialism in Coachella set
Oblivius — The band finished their performance at the festival’s second weekend with a montage of bombings in Gaza and Iran, along with images of world leaders that the CIA has been accused of overthrowing over the past century.
Written by: Noah Petersons
