TV programme will reveal all about Bo’ness Fair

Hidden Lives begins this Thursday, October 17 at 8.30pm on BBC Scotland and in six programmes will look at local passions and pastimes that rarely hit the headlines yet give communities a strong sense of identity and belonging.

On October 24 the spotlight falls on the Fair when journalist Peter Ross arrives in town to find out what Europe’s biggest children’s festival is all about.

Each year since 1897 a local schoolgirl has been crowned Fair Queen, in a ceremony which, arguably, means more to the town than a real coronation would to the nation.

Viewers will see Deanburn Primary pupil Kennedi Mann crowned the 2019 Queen with all the pomp and ceremony that the Fair bestows.

Everything from the huge arches around the town – plywood constructions bigger than houses, custom-made dresses, and a grand procession feature in the programme.

Peter recounts: “Each year for the last Friday in June, the town is transformed into a spectacle of pomp and pageantry ...

“Believe me you will not see anything else quite like this in the whole of Scotland.”