THE HACKNEY SHOW was once one of the greatest family events of the year. Along with the annual free Guy Fawkes Night, also on Hackney Downs and also staged, with brio, by the council, until both became, apparently, too costly.

These days we have St-John-at-Hackney’s Summer Fete on the lawns and gardens around the church. Also free, it has avoided the pleasantly dozy ambiance of the community-minded show on the downs: this lively Clapton affair claims to have attracted 10,000 people last year and even runs an after-party on the Proof roof at Martello Street E8 3QW.

Mini-sites will offer local food, including vegan; beer (NB, prices were high last year); free coffee from Kip, an Amhurst Road hotel; vintage, all-day yoga; zumba classes and child stuff, including Punch and Judy and a treasure hunt and a petting zoo.

A DJ stage will present sets from Visions Festival, Cafe Miami, Kyri and St John’s — a regular music venue when it is not churching.

Pacific Social Club at Clarence Road E5 8HB will host a mobile disco as will London Fields Radio and Shoreditch Radio.

If you’re thin enough to mount narrow and steep staircases, you can pop up to the top of the ancient church tower for views over northeast London.

The dog show is said to be aimed at hipsters, although the only hip thing about the pic in the poster below seems to be the parson jack russell. Warning: that dog is determined to avoid his non-rosetted participation last year.

Hamish Scott 040717

* Entrance: St-John-at-Hackney Summer Fete via St Augustine’s Tower, Narrow Way (Mare Street) E8 4RP, or the church grounds, Lower Clapton Road E5 0PD. On Saturday 8 July 2017, noon to 6pm; after-party near London Fields  6.30pm-11pm: RSVP via hello@suncutrecords.com

* Backstory: Feted to be a huge Hackney hit 

* All pictures © DavidAltheer [at] gmail.com, and all for sale for reproduction. Most are available in bigger formats 

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