The Onion Fayre Returns to Newent Lake on the Twelfth and Nobody Will Say Whether the Eating Contest Is On
Newent has held a fair since the twelfth century. The onion eating competition is a recent addition and has stopped before.
Newent in Gloucestershire has a fair on the twelfth of September at Newent Lake, ten in the morning until six, billed as living history and live music. What is not on the billing is the onion eating.
The fair itself is old. Newent has held one since the twelfth century, which makes the onion eating competition, a fixture only since the mid-1990s and with breaks in it, a very recent addition to a very old event.
The competition is simple. The organisers supply peeled onions. Whoever finishes theirs fastest wins. There are separate classes for men and women with differently sized onions, the whole thing takes a few minutes, and it produces the expected quantity of tears.
The fayre moved out of Newent's market square to the lake and did not fully recover from the pandemic years. This year's listing mentions the history and the music and does not mention onions, which may mean the contest is not running, or may mean nobody has updated the page.
That is worth stating plainly because it is the normal condition of events like this. They depend on a small number of volunteers, a licence, an insurer and a supply of onions, and any one of those going missing ends the thing for a year, after which it either comes back or quietly does not.
If it is running it will be advertised on the day, in the field, on a board.