For one week of the year, the quaint Cumbrian town of Appleby welcomes tens of thousands of Gypsies and Travellers for its annual Horse Fair – the community’s largest gathering in Europe. A tradition dating back to the 1700s, here, horses are bathed and rode in the River Eden, raced through the streets and showboated down the Flashing Lane, which runs right through the middle of the town. Amongst caravans and horse-drawn wagons, the Fair is the most anticipated event in the year for those who attend, gathering amongst friends and family.

Fascinated by coming-of-age rituals and rites of passage, British photographer Jack Tennant was attracted to the Fair after hearing about the youth culture that thrives there. Fuelled by hormonal impulses and a sense of unbridled freedom, for the community’s teenagers, the Fair is an opportunity to connect, chat-up, flirt and date. “We’re full of such emotion at that age – precocious but awkward, arrogant but unsure,” says Tennant. “So I went with the hope of seeing something original, exciting, and fresh. Dating is one of the biggest self-styling showcases when you think about it. There’s a lot of thought and effort in that. The idea of having this within a world that I didn’t know really interested me.”

Attending for the first time this year, Tennant’s resulting photo series – Sunday Best – is a tender portraiture study of teenage individuality and self-expression. Amongst Appleby’s rural landscape, dressed-up girls pose in designer bling and lads show off their tats and sports gear, all taking great pride in their appearance and style. Gaining the trust of the community, Tennant immersed himself in the event across three days, capturing the uninhibited joy of the Fair’s youth. For them, Appleby provides a sense of camaraderie, of family and, of course, a chance to pull.

Alex James Taylor: What first attracted you to Appleby Horse Fair?
Jack Tennant: It was when I was away in Scotland on an artist’s residency photographing motocross. I made friends with a neighbour and she’d lived in Appleby. She gave me a whole new angle on the Fair, that all the girls get dressed up in these amazing outfits, and there’s a big teenage dating scene. I hadn’t realised there was anything like that going on, I’d only really heard about the more traditional horse-based things. I was already photographing a lot of young adults and teens with a fascination for that coming-of-age, very transitional time in all our lives. We’re full of such emotion at that age – precocious but awkward, arrogant but unsure. So I went with the hope of seeing something original, exciting, and fresh. Dating is one of the biggest self-styling showcases when you think about it. There’s a lot of thought and effort in that. The idea of having this within a world that I didn’t know really interested me.



AJT: What was it like when you first arrived? How did it compare to your expectations?
JT: I researched it a lot, so I knew what to expect roughly speaking, in terms of the traditions. It dates a long way back as a farmer’s and animal market, but it’s unclear when it became the traveller fair that happens now. Certainly over 100 years. It’s held onto traditions but there’s modernity too, it mixes nicely. There are wooden horse-drawn wagons but some of them are brought on trailers. So modern conveniences aren’t ignored, everyone has a mobile phone obviously, but no one uses bank accounts, it’s a totally cash community; I realised this in the supermarket where the till queue was huge but not the self-checkouts. Some of the new caravans were top of the range, not cheap, and I saw this full metallic copper Land Rover – that car was sick, I want one. [laughs]

“Dating is one of the biggest self-styling showcases when you think about it. There’s a lot of thought and effort in that.”

AJT: It must be crazy, crowds and crowds of people.

JT: Yeah, it’s crazy – horse crazy. The passion for horses is absolute, as far as I could see, if you’re a traveller you’re going to love horses. People have full ‘back’ tattoos of horse-drawn wagons. They’d show me their tattoos saying, “Look at this one!” with a clamour to show how big their horse tats were. The traditions are strong. There’s the ‘flashing’ of the horses along the ‘flashing lane’, which is the main road into the town – this is where the horse’s speed is shown off, a few are ridden bareback but most have small metal cart-like carriages in bold primary colours attached. Kind of like the back of a rickshaw, they fit two people comfortably, though there are often five or six crammed on. This sprawls further out of the town down other unofficial runs and lanes, with caravans in the fields alongside and people gathered watching, eating, and trading. It’s beautiful chaos, a little bit of that reminded me of Napoli, a proper street culture that you don’t see much in the UK.

At the bottom of the hill in the town, there’s an area known as ‘the sands’ which is a big beach-like riverbank where the horses are ridden into the river Eden and ‘washed’ to show their strength against the water and when they come out, their coats are wet and their muscles show up more, they look beautiful and impressive.

AJT: I’ve seen pictures, it’s a bit like a mass baptism.

JT: Yeah, and that’s age-old. Part of the river tradition also includes teenagers riding through the water – it’s also to show how well they can ride a horse through a river. There are certain points where the horses are up to their neck and the kids riding are almost swimming holding on horizontally. A lot of people sit on the river banks watching this, travellers and visitors. And just out of the river is where most of the buying and selling happens, though that’s hard to detect at first. I heard a fun exchange between two young guys about this impressive muscular stallion, the kid riding said “Ten grand, shake my hand” and the lad on the beach was very careful not to touch him at all –  that would have been a signed contract. I asked him what he thought and he liked the horse but had been sent with four thousand by his Dad to buy a horse, so they had a way to go on that deal. [both laugh]

“Some of the girls were doing outfit changes in the day, they had a daytime and an evening look planned.”

AJT: And Travellers from all over the country come to Appleby?

JT: Apparently even European travellers and gypsy communities make the trip. I think there are four or five main communities that come together.

AJT: It must be like Christmas in terms of it being this vast annual meeting of families and friends.
JT: It’s definitely on a level with Christmas. I chatted to young people asking them how many times they’d been and a lot of them said every year – they’d been coming since they were born and it’s the best week of the year. They do their own teenage version of the Fair. That was the concept I had, the idea of a long summer, that summer teenage feeling we all know, when summers felt huge. They were meeting up with old friends, flirting. There was lots of bravado from the boys, but I also spoke to groups of teenage boys who were asking me which girls I thought liked them – they weren’t as confident as they were putting on, like all teenagers there’s plenty of uncertainty. But also the young people are riding constantly, for fun and as a way to show off. There was some fearless riding.

 The fashion is so good, the creativity behind the looks. 
The clothes were really exciting, heavily accessorised and original. Some of the girls were doing outfit changes in the day, they had a daytime and an evening look planned. The lads were more into sportswear, gold chains, any chance to get their tops off in the sun. A lot of Hugo Boss, Under Armour. There were some really fun fakes, Prada, Fendi, Gucci. It was really inspiring, I changed my whole jewellery look to all gold after coming back from it. 

[laughs]

AJT: How did the community react to you and to having their photograph taken? Were you able to gain access easily?

JT: I started by going to speak to one of the main traveller organisers, Billy Welch, he’s pitched in the same spot each year. He was so kind and open, he had an incredible face and piercing eyes and I told him what I was doing – it wasn’t that you need permission to take photographs, but his encouragement gave me a lot of confidence. After that. I just spoke to people and approached them for portraits. Mostly I got a very encouraging response, more than most places, and often with requests from mothers to photograph their son or daughter, my favourite picture from the project happened like that.

Also, in the queue at the shop, there was this young lad, probably fourteen, with his arm at a right angle for an unusual almost bicep-flex handshake. He asked my name as we shook hands. He’s called Yoi, and next he asks if I’m a traveller? “No,” I said. Then he says, “Can you fight, Jack?”, “Not anymore,” I said, and he laughed. Later I see him on the street, we exchange a few friendly words and his mates ask him what he’s doing, “Sizing up the passengers” he said. I loved that analogy of a passenger. So true, and I was grateful to be allowed on for the ride.

AJT: How did the landscape influence your imagery – a lot of the images embrace nature, fields and woodlands.
JT: I think often I’m just looking for backgrounds that aren’t distracting. I really like shooting against walls because it simplifies things and allows the viewer to focus on the person. But you make a good point about the relationship with the landscape. Appleby is kind of in a valley, so I think the interaction with nature is probably unavoidable. I actually shot some still-life photographs of wildflowers I collected, however none of it quite worked in the final edit, so I’m pleased that the landscape shows up in the pictures in another way.


AJT: I always associate woodlands and fields with youth. Being from the North, me and my friends used to spend most of our time outside, in random woods, hanging out away from adults, I suppose. There’s an innocence and youthfulness in nature.

JT: Definitely, me too. It makes you wonder what it’s like to grow up somewhere super urban – do you have the same feeling of teenage life?

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