Cooper Hill's Cheese Rolling Festival | 27th May 2024 | History | Images, pictures

Cooper Hill's Cheese Rolling Festival 2024

Do you love cheese? Do you want to chase a cheese ball and win a competition? If yes, read this article to learn how it can be done. The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is a kind of festival or event which takes place annually at Cooper's hill, Gloucester in England.

This festival gets its name from the hill where it takes place. Traditionally, this event was conducted for the people who lived in the local village of Brockworth, Gloucestershire, but today people from many parts of the world participate in the event. And it is named as "World-famous event" by Guardian newspaper and this is because, this event’s winners were from Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, and the United States.

What happens in the event?

A round ball of double Gloucester cheese weighing around 3 to 4 kgs is rolled from the top of Cooper's hill and the competitors will start chasing after it down the hill. The first person who finishes the line at the bottom of the hills wins the cheese. But the fact is that it is not that easy to run down the hill.

The cheese ball is rolled down the hill and it speeds up to 70 miles per hour which is enough to knock or injure an audience. That’s why in the 2013 event, the cheese ball was replaced by a foam replica for safety reasons so that no one gets hurt. But the winner of the competition was awarded the actual cheese ball.

History

Digging a little into the history of this event, this Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake have been taking place since 1826. This event initially took place in Whit Monday in the United Kingdom, then the date was changed to Spring Bank Holiday.

There are two possible origins for this event, one is that this event is conducted to maintain the rights on the common and the second possible reason is that the pagan origins followed a custom where they would roll objects down the hill.

They rolled down burning brushwood down the hill as a sign of welcoming the new year. They also threw bundles of biscuits, buns, and sweets at the hilltop as they believed that it would encourage the fruits of the harvest.

In 1993, more than fifteen people were injured, and four has serious injuries after chasing the cheeses down the hill. In 2009, the event was canceled due to concerns over health and safety. But in 2011, some people organized this event unofficially because they didn't want to stop this tradition. And more than 500 people took part in the event.

Controversy

The major controversy which stopped conducting this event was the injuries caused to the participants. The steepness and uneven surface of the Cooper's hills cause a lot of injuries to people every year.

A first-aid service is provided for this event by St. John Ambulance at the bottom of the hill. Many people including the farmers and local rugby club members volunteer to catch hold of the people who are rolling down the hill and also help in assisting the injured people.

This event is also accompanied by several ambulances since people who get severe injuries require immediate treatment at the hospital.

Stephen Gyde is the only participant who has completed the event successfully and has won more cheese than anybody else and currently he has a total of 21 pieces of cheese under his belt. This guy also holds the record to have won all three cheese in a single year, twice in his journey on this event.

Wrapping up

This was all about the Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake event and if you are a person who loves attending crazy events happening across the world then you must have this event in your bucket list. We hope you find this event interesting.

Cooper hill's cheese rolling festival Images 2024