Thames Festival

Well it has been a busier than expected weekend for me this weekend, unfortunately it did have to start with working on Saturday, but I thought I'd keep it a little more interesting than just work. Erin, a friend that I went to high school with back in Christchurch, invited me to come alone with her to the Thames Festival for the Saturday afternoon/evening. So I made the short 15 minute walk from work to Southbank on the Thames to start a wee adventure.

I remember the Thames Festival being on last year but never really knew how massive it was, so I never went. It basically starts by where the London Eye is and follows the Thames all the way up past Tate Modern, and goes all the way up to the area where the Gherkin is (London is too big for me to know all the areas and streets so I'm using famous building locations). Spread out alone the river is Market stalls, food stalls, arts and crafts, and there are 4 stages with live bands. This was most definitely a good late afternoon out.

It's a fabulous set up there, we walked all the way to the top and on the last bridge, there was a big set up of all these amazing looking food stalls then across the bridge they had a massive dinner table, complete with table cloth, old fashioned chairs and sunflower pot plants! Hanging along the side of the bridge was coloured fairy lights. We decided to stop, grab some food and sit here for dinner. Sitting in amongst this set up was so unreal, at one point I turned to Erin and said "this is amazing, you could never do anything like this at home, and I never thought you could do anything like his in London".



Dining table on the bridge

We stayed out until just after 9, we had to be up for an early start to Oxford the next day so we couldn't be out all night. We ended the evening by doing the Helter Skelter ride, which was a lot scarier than I thought it would be, and for a ride that has probably been around for 100 years, it was extremely fun and I will be doing that again. After the Helter Skelter we headed for the Jazz stage, drinking Pimms and having a bit of a dance seemed like a great way to end the evening. The Thames Festival had been a fab way to spend the Saturday afternoon/evening, and for those of you who will be around for it next year, I would definitely recommend it for a day or night out.

Helter Skelter