River Thames Festival, London
The 10th Anniversary of London's Thames Festival will be spectacular
On the week-end of September 15th - 16th, the Mayor’s River Thames Festival celebrates its 10th Anniversary when the area from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge will be turned into one big party venue. This popular Festival of the River Thames in London attracts, in equal measure, both visitors to the capital city and Londoners themselves.
Many of London's open spaces will be transformed and it is hoped that visitors to the festival will participate in the fun. People will be encouraged to take part in the spectacular parades, open air arts events and river events, and to enjoy the street theatre, massed choirs and the many bands that will be performing. This year being the Festival’s 10th Anniversary, London plans to celebrate in style from Al Fresco Ballrooms in unique riverside settings, to Feast on the Bridge, a celebratory harvest event with fabulous food, drink and dancing on Southwark Bridge.
Among the world music and sounds, London welcomes the fantastic French group Transe Express. The group will be creating stunning sounds and images from a human bell suspended high up in the air in Jubilee Gardens by the London Eye. Running them a close second will be the 600-voice children’s and 600 voice adults’ Sing for Water choirs..
Expect the tension to rise when the Orkestra del Sol takes to the stage with all the swagger of a Balkan wedding band; when the Brazilian Samba and Scottish Bagpipe fusion band MacUmba get going; when Japanese taiko drumming group Akatsuki Daiko start their mesmerizing drumming; and when dynamic and unique Korean percussion group Dulsori, gypsy Japanese street band Cicala Mvta, and Festival favourites The Bikini Beach Band start up.
Dancing, both watching and taking part, is well to the fore at all three unique Al Fresco Ballrooms which will offer opportunities for dressing up and dancing tango, jive and country The Jive Aces and acts from Lady Luck perform on the Jive stage, Buenos Aires Orchestra and Guillermo Rozentuler play at the UK’s biggest open-air milonga by Tate Modern (see last year‘s photograph of Tango at the Tate below). You can also Strip the Willow with Britain’s best, The Committee Band, on Southwark Bridge.
Demonstrations and displays on the river called Stirring the Waters lends the chance to take a ride on traditional Thames sailing vessels. London Afloat on the Saturday includes a pageant of river vessels both old and new. Thames Day on the Sunday includes traditional rowing, canoeing, the Faldo Barge Driving Race and a new wherry and skiff race called the Watermen's Backboard Wager.
Linking the Thames, Ganges, Liesbeek, Nile and Yangtze in Rivers of the World, will be sixty huge artworks displayed along the river bank and at the Oxo Gallery.
There are film shows, road shows, music and crafts from the Baltic, Eastern Europe and Japan, with a lantern-making workshop at the South Korean village. The Thames Refuse Service gives a display alongside the Dunkirk Little Ships. You can even take a once in a lifetime trip on a beautiful traditional sailing barge and sail underneath Tower Bridge as it opens.
Expect to find the banks of the river packed as the four hour parade gets underway from the Greenwich O2 Dome and proceeds up river to Westminster, where it will turn and head down river to finish at 'The O2' Arena.
This is a celebration for London and its river, fittingly climaxed by a spectacular Night Carnival and gigantic firework display on the Sunday.
Further information: www.thamesfestival.org
Tango at the Tate (2006)
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Festival Fireworks
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Masked figures
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Skeletons at Night
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