The Mayor's Thames Festival
Sunday, September 12, 2010
I've been feeling a little home-sick when thinking about the Maynardville Carnival, the Charity Book Sale and other fun annual events. So, imagine my delight when we happened upon the Thames Festival this weekend! Books aplenty, cultural activities and stalls to delight, and plentiful performers to entertain. Huzzah!
We caught a train to Southwark and G was, of course, naturally drawn towards the beer stalls. I've caught him in the act here.
This is the pier leading off from all the crowds, opposite the Oxo Tower. We escaped for a few minutes - - it really was very crowded!
The festival took place all along the banks of the Thames with various "sites" set up by different groups of people. This particular site was maintained by The House of Fairy Tales. Everybody taking part in the festival was all dressed up, and loads of people in the crowds were wearing funny hats, tutus and other garb.
Isn't it lovely? This "housey" bit is on top of a caravan, but I like how it looks like a treehouse here.
We ambled along the riverside towards Westminster Abbey. I took this picture in Gabriel's Wharf, just after the House of Fairy Tales. This wooden furniture is all for sale, and it is being particularly well-used by all of the nearby children! I particularly like the budding interior-designer on the far left.
I always have to have a good laugh when we look through our photographs after a day out - - they all look the same! Ah, the perils of self-photography. Must. Get. Extension. Tripod. Thingy.
:)
Doesn't this look like fun?! It's like a magic carpet ride, only less flying and more carpet burn. Kids and adults alike were grabbing their straw mats and running up the steps to the top.
There were hundreds of different food stalls but the one that really caught my eye was this: The Coconut King. This guy was hacking at coconuts with a machete to remove the top, then he popped two straws into the "coconut water" and sold each to the long queue of customers waiting for their coconutty fix. The machete was really unsettling.
I love this photo! Southwark bank is the perfect place for a festival like this - it's so friendly and vibrant. We were walking past here just after 6.30pm, so you can see that it's definitely getting closer to winter time with early sunsets!
This photograph could easily be in our Prague collections. Spires, peaks and oh-so-cold waters ... brr!
There is usually somebody making bubbles at Southwark as part of the general entertainment displays that go on there. This guy was making enormous bubbles - backed up by a constant stream of teeny-tiny bubbles coming from the very effective bubble machine behind him!
This is one of the grand clearings with a live band stage. Just behind us, here, was a stall dedicated to showcasing the new XBox Kinect which looks amazing! Mewantee.
The London Eye is very prominent in the skyline behind the humorous "Garlicking" stall.
We carried on towards Westminster, but we had to stop for quite a while as the sun set over the Thames riverline. It was spectacular! This is the first time that I have genuinely appreciated London's perpetual cloud-cover.
Everything looks so pretty in the twilight pinks.
Okay, so, I took about 400 photographs. It takes a lot of self-restraint to only show you a few!
And then all the lights switched on!
The rest of the skyline (to the right).
With the dark came the cold, so we packed up and walked towards Westminster station. Here's the London Eye, all lit up, from the side of the bridge alongside the Houses of Parliament.
Big Ben! And crowds.
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