Mullets and mules, tattoos and T-shirt tans, grub, pubs, painted wagons, and blinged-up babies with golden dummies. What else could it be but the annual gathering of gypsies and travellers for Appleby Horse Fair? Chris Pleasance reports.

ALONG the banks of the river Eden tens of thousands of men, women and children – many of whom made the annual pilgrimage from the North-East and North Yorkshire – gathered to celebrate traveller heritage in the glorious Cumbrian sunshine.

At the bottom of Fair Hill, named after the traditional festival, which has been going on at the same site for hundreds of years, bareback riders plunged their horses into the river for a wash before letting them dry in the sun.

Up at the top of hill, past the single-horse carriages trotting up and down, is the plain white caravan of Billy Welch, a Sinti Gypsy whose family has been in charge of organising the festival since they arrived on British soil 150 years ago.

Billy, who lives on a traveller site in Darlington, said: “This is the biggest event in the Gypsy calendar, no doubt about it. This is our equivalent of Mecca.

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"We are a very religious community and I genuinely feel closer to God up here. This is God’s country.

“There used to be a lot of these festivals, but there are less now and this one is definitely the biggest. We have people coming from as far as America and Australia to take part.”

The Appleby festival was officially given over to the Gypsies under Royal Charter in 1685 by King James II. It used to be a cattle market before the Gypsies turned it into a horse-trading fair, although very little horse-buying actually takes place these days.

In another change from tradition, most of the festival is not made up of “proper” Gypsies at all.

“About 70 per cent of the people here are actually from the settled community,” Billy says. “We call them weekend gypsies.

They just like to come down and join in the fun.

“That’s what’s probably changed the most, especially since My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding came and filmed. Ten years ago it was just us, now everybody wants to come along and we welcome that.

“A lot of what people think about us just isn’t true and we want people to come and sit round our campfires and talk to us and learn about our culture.”

Billy has worked hard to keep up a working relationship with the community and police.

Last year, only 20 travellers were arrested, mostly for minor crime and drink-related offences.

However this could be explained by a higher police presence since 2011 when Louis Welch, a relative of Billy, was attacked by men wielding machetes.

Mandy McClean, who has lived in Appleby all her life, said: “The next year the trapping site where they race the horses was just empty.

“There weren’t many people here last year so this will be the first one back in full swing.

“That was the most serious. Normally you do get a little bit of trouble but not much. Most people round here don’t mind, and I quite enjoy it. It’s fun and gives you something to do.”

Back down on the banks of the river, one man who certainly isn’t complaining is Craig Carr, who runs the Grapes Inn. While he normally sells 70 gallons of beer a weekend, for the fair he has ordered 550 gallons and expects to sell the lot.

“I took over the pub last August, so this is my first festival and I have absolutely no regrets. I’m not worried about trouble and I never thought of closing. If you can’t take the festival then you have no business being in Appleby.”

The celebrations will carry on over the weekend and are expected to peak on Saturday with 50,000 visitors.

Billy and a team of helpers will then clean and repair the site for up to three days before packing up, riding home, and starting to plan the festivities for next year.