AGAIN, the sounds, sights and smells of Turkey will float across Hackney when the Anatolian Cultural Fete comes to Clissold Park. Which is pretty well the same intro to Loving Dalston’s preview of the Stoke Newington, London N4 2EY event last year.

Every fair needs new attractions if it is to build a wide following.

The only changes this website has detected, however, since Loving Dalston was the first non-Turkish news outlet to report on the fete is that the availability of free Turkish delight and other nibbles seems  over the  years to have decreased, although the organisers say that “traditional tea, coffee, breads, kebabs, irresistible ice cream and world-famous desserts” will be a prime attraction.

Traditional Anatolian hospitality is, however, likely to come into play. For example, a tent put up by yörüks (travellers) will offer ayran.

And the fete, which is the seventh, is still free and features what outsiders want to see: whirling dervishes. But also great to watch and hear are the Ottoman marching bandsmen, whose pomp – some might say pomposity – knows no bounds.

Oil-wrestling, a chef-led cooking contest, a traditional-costume dress-up, Ottoman marble-painting, calligraphy, pottery, children’s stage fun and henna sessions are also worth catching.

David Altheer 270414

* Anatolian Cultural Fete, SW corner, Clissold Park, Hackney N4 2EY,  for a week. Grand opening Saturday 8 June 2013 at 2pm. Events start around lunchtime and end at 6pm. Weekends are for the public – during the week, the festival, staged by the Anatolia Community Association, will be for  children from selected London schools. 

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.