Urban Village Fete 2024

I had missed the last couple of these fetes, so I did not know what to expect. I thought it would be a small affair on the green. How wrong I was.

The whole thing was five to six times bigger than what I was expecting and covered almost the whole of the Peninsular Central Park.  From small craft merchants and clothes shops to numerous and various, food stalls and workshops of many variations.

There were several bars including two old Red Rover double-decker buses converted into mobile pubs.

For entertainment, there were at least three DJ systems including a big one at the end of the green with a number of DJs, including Jamz Supernova, Millie McKee and Gilles Peterson, with two big display screens to add to the ambience and atmosphere.

There were two smaller sound systems at the other end of the Park that were more family orientated playing music from the 70s, 80s and 90s and some of the music was quite cheesy but fun. The mums, dad’s and kids loved it.

Apart from inclusive talks ranging from “sustainable fashion” the “future of Britain” and “work-life balance there were also various workshops to try your hand at learning and creativity.

Food was provided by numerous stalls selling cuisines for every taste and genre from around the world. Unfortunately, like most of the bars the length of the queues put me off so I didn’t get to try any of them. I only managed to get a couple of beers from a craft beer stall, selling craft lager and cold German beer. If I had waited in the queue for the London red bus bars it would have taken me about 15 to 20 minutes to get served.

The place was very packed, but you could still find somewhere along the grass area in which to set up a mat somewhere for friends and family.

For the kids there was a kids Olympics considering of a ‘tug of war’, a ‘fluffy toy pineapple’ throwing competition amongst many others. They also had a kids circus for the kids to take part in various child safe circus activities.

Another thing that impressed me was the toilet facilities which although crowded was useable and fast. They had forgone the usual easy route of rows and rows of disgusting Port-a-loos and gone for clean mobile toilet trailers with sinks and air dryers. A major plus point in my books.

This is very much an event that I Will be including in next year’s calendar. And to top it all, it was all free.

If you didn’t fancy waiting in line for food and drink almost next door you had the Greenwich Peninsula and the O2, both of which are jam-packed with bars, pubs and restaurants.