The Thames Festival: Splashing colour on those September blues

2009's Mayor's Thames Festival featured fabulous weather and even more fabulous costumes, including hats made of salad. Photo Credit: Allie Suwanrumpha

For visitors and citizens alike, the River Thames is London. As the city’s iconic centrepiece, it is perhaps the perfect place to celebrate the city’s famously vibrant cultural life. No surprise then that providing a testament to the thriving arts scene on the river’s banks is precisely the challenge which the Mayor’s Thames Festival undertakes on an annual basis.

It would appear to have proven a resounding success, too. Last year, over 800,000 people turned out, making it one of Europe’s largest street festivals. One reason for its popularity is that in a city filled with free entertainment, the Thames Festival boasts the accolade of being London’s largest free arts festival. Featuring all manner of performance arts, exhibitions, music and dance, it aims to offer a mixed bag of events with something for everyone.

The Mayor’s Thames Festival takes place annually and will happen this Saturday the 11th and Sunday 12thof September, with celebrations lasting from noon until 10pm each day. Sunday night’s closing ceremony is marked by an illuminated ‘Night Procession’ that will weave along the banks of the Thames from north to south, culminating in a fireworks display.

Fireworks at the Mayor's Thames Festival. Photo Credit: Dave Wilcox

Four end-of-summer parties along the Thames

The festival is split into four ‘zones’ running along the length of the river: Westminster Bridge to Waterloo Bridge; Waterloo Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge; Blackfriars Bridge to London Bridge and finally London Bridge to Tower Bridge and Beyond. Each has a separate programme of events, so if you have time on your hands and a hankering for the arts, it’s worth checking out them all.

The press has been quick to pile the praise on the Mayor’s Thames Festival. The Evening Standard has declared it “London’s biggest end-of-summer party”, while Time Out Magazine describes it as “a contender for London’s best annual event”.

This year’s highlights include eclectic arts and crafts on sale at the Thames market, a ‘21st century hoedown’ combining good old fashioned line dancing with cutting edge DJs, interactive activities for children at the House of Fairy Tales, and a celebratory harvest feast on the temporarily pedestrianised Southwark Bridge.

For all its mists and mellow fruitfulness, September is a depressing time of year. An all-singing, all-dancing festival weekender might just be the perfect way to recapture a little summer spirit before the trees go bare and the winter wardrobe goes on.

For further details and the official programme, see http://www.thamesfestival.org/