The Runaway Fair is the smaller fair, with children’s rides, on the Monday one week after the Michaelmas Fair.

The fair looked fairly busy today when children had finished school (see picture above).

It is called the runaway fair because:
a) children often runaway from school to go to the runaway fair.
b) adults used to runaway from employment taken at the Michaelmas hiring Fair and found new employment at the Runaway hiring fair.
c) a few childrens’ rides runaway from the main Michaelmas fair and come back to Abingdon.