At Newent Onion Fayre people talk onions, show onions, eat onions (there's even a raw onion eating competition) and buy onions. And with the main street closed to traffic for the day, they can admire the winning shop window display, browse the crafts, enjoy the street entertainers, take a chance at a fairground stall or hold their breath on the ferris wheel, cleverly squeezed into the bend of the road between two rows of houses.

With cafes, pubs, a real ale festival at the old coaching inn (The George Hotel), teas at the church and the Memorial Hall, and plenty of cake stalls to raise funds for charities, there's no chance of going hungry or thirsty either.

In times past, market gardeners would bring their produce to sell at the various annual fairs here, with onions being the major crop at the September event.

During our day at the 1999 fayre, the Keenes, local commercial growers from Over Farm Market, heaped up over 5 tonnes of freshly lifted Tamrock onions to sell throughout the day. Their 22lb sacks were being snapped up at £1.95 each. Alongside them, 10lb strings of onions were being bought almost as fast as Roger Grimes of Forest Farm Garden could tie them. Additional seasonal produce, such as runner beans, pumpkins, gourds and marrows, were also selling well. As was the onion soup.

So for peeling your way through the layers of onion know-how in addition to an entertaining day out, make a note in your diary to visit the next Newent Onion Fayre. (The Newent Onion Fayre has more photos of previous years' events.)