THOUSANDS of families will flock to Abingdon’s Michaelmas Street Fair next week.

The fair, which will be held on Monday and Tuesday fills the length of Ock Street and is reputed to be Europe’s longest street fair.

The entertainment stretches for about a mile along the High Street, Market Place and Ock Street, transforming the town centre into a wonderland of games stalls, fairground rides and sideshows.

While fun-seekers love strolling the length of Ock Street to enjoy the rides and sample the food, the fair can make it difficult to find places to park, as road closures will be in place over a wide part of the town.

Former town councillor Alastair Fear, who runs the Abingdon Blog, said he was looking forward to taking photographs of the rides, which will light up the darkening nights with flashes of colour.

He added: “Some people are not fans of the fair and actually leave town for a couple of days, but I’m a big fan of it – the fair takes the town back to a tradition that is almost medieval.

“Pubs, shops and restaurants all do very well out of it, with all the extra people coming into Abingdon.”

He added: “I hope residents who have just moved into the care home at Mayott House in Ock Street don’t find the fair too noisy.”

The annual fair dates back to the 14th century and is now hosted by the town council and organised by Birmingham-based Bob Wilson and Sons Funfairs Ltd.

It originally served as a hiring fair, a place for farmhands and other labourers to find work on village farms surrounding Abingdon.

This year it will be followed, as usual, by the smaller scale Runaway Fair. The event, on Monday, October 12, is believed to have taken its name from being a second hiring fair for those who had ended up serving untrustworthy patrons – literally allowing them to “run away”.

Any workers who had landed themselves positions at Michaelmas Fair had the chance to escape their new roles and head elsewhere before the winter, should their bosses have proved overly harsh or corrupt.

Over the years the fairs grew and evolved, as farmers of yesteryear looking for extra hands made way for the excitement of games arcades and entertainment seen today.

Roads in the centre of the town will be shut from Sunday for traders to set up, and the Michaelmas Fair Service will be held at 8pm in the Market Place.

Road closures will be in place between Sunday and Wednesday morning, with the fair open for business – and importantly the rides – on Monday and Tuesday from 11am to 10pm.

High Street, Market Place, Ock Street and The Square will be completely closed to vehicles while Stratton Way will be shut from its junction with Bath Street to Ock Street, and West St Helen Street will be shut from the junction with High Street to Lombard Street.

Temporary one-way traffic will be imposed in Lombard Street from west to east, and the usual one-way traffic flow across St Helen’s Wharf will be reversed, to run from east to west.