The
Thames Festival is like a fine wine - it improves with age. It was pretty darn good when the inaugural festival took place in 1997, but each year since then the organisers have simply excelled themselves.
The 2011 festival, taking place on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of September, is promising to be bigger than ever, with fabulous entertainment being flown in from around the world.
The gargantuan event takes place mainly along the banks of the River Thames, from Westminster Bridge in the west to Tower Bridge in the east.
Rather than list everything that's going on (have you got an hour?), I'll list a few events to whet your appetite. To see the full line-up of this year's extravaganza, click
here.
Running both days, the
Festival Market is a chance to enjoy the work of independent designers and artists, displaying their wares alongside some outstanding food and drink producers.
One of the most popular events of the Thames Festival is the
Feast on the Bridge event. Southwark Bridge will be cleverly transformed into a banqueting space quite unlike any dining area you've ever seen before.
Taking place above a river, it makes perfect sense that the theme of this year's feast relates to those slippery creatures that swim about in it - there'll be a four-metre-long fish cake, mullet hair cuts (have you still got one?), kipper ties (check the back of your wardrobe), and plenty of fish and chips.
The
Thames Parade is an entertaining river procession taking place on the Saturday. The barges, boats and luxury yachts depart Battersea Bridge at 2.30pm and reach Tower Bridge about an hour later, so catch the vessels somewhere in between.
Sunday's
Sing for Water event brings together around 50 choirs and 850 singers from across the country for a unique and memorable (and very large) choral event.
From 6.45pm to 9.30pm on the Sunday, be sure to check out the colourful
Night Carnival, featuring some 2,000 dancers, drummers, lantern-carriers and a lot more besides.
Besides the aforementioned events, you've also got the
Blue Ribbon Village,
Photography Masterclasses,
Alfresco Tango, the
New European Village, the
Firework Finale, and loads more on top of all that.
Fireworks image: Angell
