'Well, I've made 12 friends today, that's for sure', laughed Roy Haviland, as those outside the hall began clamouring for entry. He'd just spent one and a half hours judging 125 entries in 12 classes at the onion growers' show at the 1999 Newent Onion Fayre. Not to mention the children's vegetable animal section that attracted 19 imaginative entries, all incorporating at least one onion. 'I'd never seen so many onions in one show until I came to Newent. There's nothing else on this scale anywhere else that I know of.'

The show is only one part of a unique annual celebration of the noble onion by residents and neighbours of this small Gloucestershire town. Masterminded and managed by volunteers and the ever-ebullient town crier, this ancient annual fair (established in the 13th century and surviving until the early 20th century) was revived in 1996 with great success. 2005's event attracted around 12,000 visitors (triple the town's population) who all oohed and aaghed their way around the impressive display of perfect onions.