World's Biggest Liar Competition

by © Paul Dodson 2008

Festival Location: Wasdale, England

Festival Type: Bizarre Festivals

If we're honest, we've all bent the truth at least once or twice. Just some of us do it with a little more flair and cunning than others. But only a very select group of men and women have ever been crowned, The World's Biggest Liar.

Each year the Bridge Inn in the Cumbrian town of Wasdale plays host to a competition to find that very person. The whole shebang held in memory of one very special liar indeed.

Will Ritson was the popular Landlord of the Wasdale Head Inn for a period during the nineteenth century. Something of a local celebrity, Will's name even gained mention in a Victorian travel guide to the Lake District.

He was reputed to have owned a Fox Hound, Golden Eagle crossbreed which could bound over even the tallest dry stone walls - no doubt a desirable feature for a dog/bird that lived in the region at the time. Another of his yarns - no doubt told to the very city folk who'd have need for a guidebook - assured all within earshot that the local turnips grew so big they were hollowed out and used for sheep sheds. These are but two examples of the cornucopia of lies that spilled from Auld Will's mouth.

Such was his reputation for bending the truth that the World's Biggest Liar Competition was born in his memory.

Now each year in the very premises where wily Will pulled a pint and puzzled the punters, entrants are granted between two and five minutes to stake their claim to the title.

Past winners have enlightened all with tall tales of building a cable car to service the local hills, mermaid farming and even holidaying with the Pope.

So if you think you've got the goods to mix it with the best liars in the world why not make your way to the Santon Bridge Inn in Cumbria. I would but I've got this wound from a tiger bite on my left leg that just won't heal. Honest!