Hats off! Bridport Hat Festival

Tomorrow is officially ‘Haturday’. To the uninitiated, it’s the start of Bridport’s Hat Festival on Saturday 2 September. The whole town turns out in an array of headgear to rival Ascot or a royal wedding. There are couture hats, homemade hats, hats handed down from loved ones and of course, old favourites discovered last minute at the back of a cupboard.

Bucky Doo Square becomes a sea of hats and even if it rains (this is Dorset), nobody cares because everyone has come prepared. The newly refurbished Bridport Museum is holding a Make Your Own Saxon Crown event so the kids can get stuck in too and learn a little along the way. The Hat Festival has prizes for the best hats and there’s a new category of Best Hatted Family or Group, so don’t forget to call your mum, your mates and maybe your milliner.

If you’re totally hat-less, don’t’ worry just pop in and see us. We’ve got a great cowboy style hat (it’s waterproof too, pardner) and a selection of classic woolly beanies.

Hat Facts

The petasos from ancient Greece was the first hat with a brim.

‘Hat trick’ comes from cricket: three wickets taken in three consecutive balls was rewarded with the presentation of a hat. It later transferred to other sports.

The baseball cap emerged in 1860 when the Brooklyn Excelsiors wore a long peak with a button top.

There are many styles of hat including top hats, bowlers, cloches, boaters, pork pies, fedoras, flat caps, panamas, berets and cowboy hats.

Famous hat wearers include The Queen, Winston Churchill (Homburg hat), Fred Astaire (top hat), Charlie Chaplin, Frank Sinatra, Jackie Kennedy, Indiana Jones and David Beckham.

Hats all folks…