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Since 1201, robes, a proclamation, and pennies raining down.
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The fair runs on the early May bank holiday Monday, noon to 5pm in 2025, with free entry and the mayor's proclamation at midday; parking was £10 per car (£5 Blue Badge). The rest of the year the fair green is an open village green.
Reach: every May since 1201, more or less, Cambridge's mayor has come here in robes to proclaim a fair and throw pennies.
Reach Fair was granted by King John's charter of 1201 to the burgesses of Cambridge, and has been held on Reach's fair green almost every year since, missing only during the Civil War and the Covid pandemic. The green itself was made in the 1700s by levelling the end of the Devil's Dyke. Each year the Mayor of Cambridge and the aldermen, in full robes, come out to the village at midday to proclaim the fair, then throw pennies into the crowd for children to scramble after. Once held on Rogation Monday, it has moved since 1979 to the early May bank holiday.