In 1987, a small group of protesters held a demonstration in Canbury Park in support of nuclear disarmament and environmental sustainability.

Little could they imagine that that demo would snowball into one of the borough’s biggest annual events – the Kingston Green Fair.

But now, 26 years on, some of the fair’s original founders are helping a project that will see the first event commemorated with an exhibition at Kingston Museum.

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The project, led by Simon Tyrrell and the Community Brain, will see an archive of pictures and memorabilia created with the help of a Heritage Lottery Grant.

Organisers will also be working with pupils to compose folk songs that will help tell the stories.

Mr Tyrrell said: “The aim of the project is to capture and celebrate the legacy of the Green Fair.

“By the end of it all we want to have a clear picture of how it came about, when it did and who the key characters were.

“So many people have been influenced by it, including some of the International Youth Arts Festival artists and quite a lot of bands.

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“A woman from Circus Suburbia even learned to stilt-walk at the fair and went on to do that with her career.”

Jean Vilder, a member of the original fair, is acting as key adviser to the project.

She said: “It began partly as a bit of a protest. There was a fair on the Fairfield and it had Army recruiting people in it, but the local Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was not allowed to have a stall there.

“If you think back to the 1980s, we were still in a Cold War situation. It seemed quite important to have something that was more angled towards peace and sustainability.”

The exhibition at Kingston Museum will run from June 14 to July 6.

The Community Brain is hoping to commemorate the fair with a celebration at Canbury Garden in September.

For more information visit thegreenfairkingston.org.