Top Hat 2022 winners announced!
This year’s Hat Fair saw the return of Playmakers Top Hat competition – where past and present University of Winchester students perform for the chance to return the following year as an official act.
The competition took place on the Saturday on Parchment Street – with festival-goers and families and friends coming out to support and enjoy the shows.
The acts were:
Spoken word artist Harry Corrie with Certain Uncertainty – a collection of poetry inspired by lockdown, with the emotion of that time feeding into it.
Singer songwriter Joel Stobbs with Originals – a catalogue of songs about activism and political issues, performed on the acoustic guitar and in a style inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan.
Holly Foskett was Hat Fair’s Resident Constipation Relief Expert – with Hat Fair asking audience members to ‘say farewell to faecal frustration for we might know someone with a cure’ (Holly)!
While Georgina Willis brought How to Disappear – an autobiographical, interactive Escape Room, with her asking festival-goers to join her in her world and explore disability and chronic illness.
And the winners were… (drum roll please)
Holly Foskett and Georgina Willis – who will now be added to the Hat Fair 2023 programme and receive mentoring from the Playmakers team to support the development of an existing or new show that they’ll perform next year! Congratulations to them, we look forward to what they have in store!
While the runners up, Harry and Joel, will be added to the line-up for the Playmakers Local Talent Night later this year, in September. Well done guys!
The acts performed to the public and industry professionals Bill Palmer from Avanti Display, who performed Full Circle on the Sunday; and Fiona Curtis from Wiltshire Creative, responsible for Salisbury International Arts Festival.
Final note – if you’re a soon-to-be, current or recent student of the university and have an idea for new work or a piece already created that you would like to develop and share at Hat Fair 2023, please contact playmakers@playtothecrowd.co.uk
