Longest-running gurning world championships

The Egremont Crab Fair in Cumbria, UK, has been held annually – barring hiatuses for world wars and COVID-19 – since 1267 (or 1297), and since at least 1852, a major part of the Fair has been a gurning contest. To gurn is to "snarl like a dog, look savage, distort the countenance", so entrants compete by pulling the ugliest possible face and pushing their heads through a horse collar/brace or "braffin".

In 1267, King Henry III granted a Royal Charter for the holding of a harvest festival in honour of the Nativity of St Mary the Virgin. Among the festivities was the handing out of sour crab apples to the townsfolk by the lord of the manor – hence the modern name of the fair. The origins of the gurning contest that formed part of the festival are lost in the mists of history, but in 1852, the Cumberland Paquet, a local newspaper, described the event as an "ancient tradition". It may have evolved from the custom of crowning a village idiot at the Crab Fair by placing a horse collar over their head, but historians are unable to confirm the veracity of this rather cruel ritual.

At some point in its long history, the event became competitive, with entrants "grinning for bacca [tobacco]", according an 1884 account. This would typically involve, in the most impressive examples, stretching the lower lip up and over the nostrils.

The tradition was not exclusive to Egremont, but their annual event is certainly the longest and most established, and today hundreds of people flock to the town to see competitive gurning in three classes: men, women and juniors.