Ah, the heady scent of candy floss, wet straw, toffee apples, diesel generator fumes, burgers and fried onions, and chips with industrial lashings of salt and vinegar.
This was the evocative smell of The Hoppings, which begins its annual week-long sojourn on Newcastle Town Moor tomorrow (Friday June 21).
Devotees of the celebrated fair will recall the long avenue of sideshows, featuring delights such as the boxing booths, striptease, animal freaks, a woman in a goldfish bowl, and the motorcycle Wall of Death.
There were the stalls where the objective was to lob a ping pong ball into a goldfish bowl, a feat never ever witnessed by a living person, or to hit a playing card fixed to a wooden board with a blunt dart which always slid to the floor.
The thrill of “anything off the bottom shelf” — usually chalk ornament tat — on the bingo where players covered their numbers with bottle tops, or fired lead slugs at metal men in the shooting gallery.
For those of limited means, there was always the challenge of rolling a penny to land in the middle of a square bearing the number of coins returned if successful, dispensed at lightning speed by the proprietor wearing a Trilby hat.
But the main mission was to win a coconut, at whatever the cost. Failure to do so called into question one’s manhood, a fact exploited by an enterprising chap who set up a table at the Moor exit point selling coconuts at a premium so that the coconut-less could avoid social shame.
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Second in the prize stakes was the goldfish in a plastic bag of water, with many joining the shoal from previous years in the Leazes Park lake on the way home.
Unlike the high-tech rides of today, the source of high-octane thrill came via the ghost train, the waltzer or the dodgems.
It was all magic to artist, author and photographer Peter Dixon, who lives in North Shields.
Fifty years ago he made daily trips to the Hoppings, taking around 300 photographs to record what was then beginning to be a vanishing fairground world. They provided an exhibition at the Joicey Museum, then housed in the Holy Jesus Hospital in Newcastle.
He will return to 2024’s incarnation of The Hoppings for a comparative set of pictures with the aim of creating an exhibition and book.
Peter, who has staged several exhibitions of his paintings, says: “I have always been fascinated by fairgrounds and fairground art.
“I used to love the sideshows, such as the two-headed sheep, or the one urging people to see the tattooed woman. Now you can see several tattooed women every day at the bus stop.
“If you were peckish, the choice was confined to pie and chips, fish and chips or multi-coloured burgers. Now there is the option of any number of cuisines from all over the world.”
Peter’s output now includes producing old-style fairground art to adorn pubs, clubs and food outlets.
He says: “When I took the pictures, that sort of art was starting to disappear. The Hoppings then were also part of what was a changing world and it was important to record it.”
But some things never change. You still have to win that coconut.
All images credited to Peter Dixon
