Competitors Will Pull Faces Through a Horse Collar at a Cumbrian Fair That Is Seven Hundred and Fifty Nine Years Old
The World Gurning Championships close the Egremont Crab Fair on the nineteenth of September, after a greasy pole, a pipe smoking contest and a parade that throws apples into the crowd.
The Egremont Crab Fair in Cumbria, which organisers describe as 759 years old, returns on 18 and 19 September 2026 and closes with the World Gurning Championships.
The gurning runs at Egremont Market Hall from seven in the evening on the Saturday until about half past ten. Competitors put their head through a braffin, a horse collar, and pull the ugliest face they can. Judging is on how far the face is distorted from the competitor's normal appearance, which is widely held to favour anyone who can remove their dentures.
The Friday evening carries a pipe smoking competition in the Market Place at half past seven and a wheelbarrow race. Saturday opens with greasy pole climbing at half past ten, riding the boundary at half past eleven and the parade of the apple cart at half past twelve, when apples are thrown from a lorry into the crowd on Main Street. The fair is named for crab apples, but eating apples are now used because crabs are too sour.
The fair field on Baybarrow Road charges seven pounds plus concessions and hosts sporting events, dog shows, ferret displays, horticulture judging, Cumberland wrestling and hound trails, alongside a new zone for children. The Crab Fair Queen for 2026 is Lilly Aleixo.
The defending champions are Ryan Barton in the men's contest and Lynn Kelly in the women's, with Kendall Lister the junior champion. The record for men's titles belongs to Tommy Mattinson, with eighteen wins including eight in a row between 2001 and 2008. Anne Wood won the women's title 28 times between 1977 and 2014.