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Egremont Crab Fair
15th September
Baybarrow, Orgill, Egremont, Cumbria.

The Egremont Crab Fair includes traditional and unusual sporting event and competitions including the world renowned gurning (pulling of grotesque faces) competition. The rules of the gurning competition are very straightforward.  Competitors put their heads through a horse collar and have a set time in which to contort their faces into the scariest / silliest expression possible. False teeth may be left in, taken out or turned upside down if desired. The person who gets the most applause for their ugly face wins! 

(A little bit of history: The Egremont Crab Fair was first held in 1267 to celebrate the time when the local lord of the manor wheeled a cart of crab apples through the village of Egremont dispensing fruit to the poor. Crab apples have a sharp taste and it is said the gurning competition originates from the faces the locals made when they bit into the sharp apples)