IT COULD BE 20 years since council ended the annual Hackney Show. Held on Hackney Downs, the hugely popular event was cancelled when the town hall wanted to make budget cuts.
Hackney Summer Fete has been a worthy substitute, last year attracting, organisers say, 10,000 people to its offerings of refreshments (via Hackney Heart Market and the Five Points Brewing Company), arts, crafts, and music (Hackney Empire, Percolate, Secretsundaze, London Fields Radio and Shoreditch Radio) and other entertainment.
Hackney’s Percolate, DJ Bootsy and daytime rave star Giles Smith, of Secretsundaze will head a DJ stage.
The fete occupies parkland around the church (consecrated 1792), including a large festival field, walled children’s garden (catch the treasure hunt) and woodland areas. Reaching towards the Narrow Way, the event also incorporates a fringe programme in local venues.
The church front garden will include donkey rides, the annual Hackney Dog Show, Hackney Playbus and the main music stage.
St Augustine’s Tower, Hackney’s oldest building, will run visits to the top, where panoramic views give views down to the city and up to the hills of Essex and Hertfordshire.
ANOTHER PROMISING FREE FESTIVAL (writes David Altheer), this one a two-dayer, is being held a few km north of Hackney next month July 2016.
The delightfully named Walthamstow Garden Party (gentrification, anyone?) is said to attract more than 30,000 people. It will feature music, theatre, dance, circus, film, spoken word, arts and crafts, food and family events and stand-up comedy.
Among the musicians are Asian Dub Foundation, Alif, Ana Tijoux, Mo’Kalamity, Sam Lee, Rocket Number Nine and outstanding Romany 12-piece band Fanfare Ciocarlia.
Organisers the Barbican, Create and Waltham Forest council are still adding performers — check the garden party site.
Hamish Scott 140616
* Hackney Summer Fete, St John-at-Hackney, Lower Clapton Road E5 0PD, Saturday 9 July 2016, noon-7pm. Proceeds to Hackney Night Shelter and Hackney Food Bank. Entry free
* Walthamstow Garden Party, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, Walthamstow E17 5JW, Saturday 16 July 2016, noon-9.30pm-Sunday 17 July, noon-8pm. Free.
* All pictures, apart from those supplied, © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com, and all for sale for reproduction. Most photographs are available in bigger formats
* 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. A link in no way expresses support for any site