Tonight:
5°c
Eat, drink and make merry by the Thames
Mark Blunden, Evening Standard8 Aug 2008
A spectacular Thames Festival will round off summer next month.
More than 750,000 enjoyed the free festival in 2007 and this year it will include nine music stages, two open-air ballrooms and dance workshops stretching from Westminster to Tower Bridge.
Southwark Bridge will be closed to traffic on Saturday 13 September, as it becomes a giant al fresco banqueting hall. The two-day festival, now in its 11th year, will see two 150-metre long feast tables to encourage 2,500 strangers to become dining companions.
Festivalgoers can buy their dinner from a variety of stalls and kitchens, or bring their own packed lunch. Clare Patey, feast curator, said: "It's about getting people to sit down together, share a meal together and chat with each other, which doesn't happen often these days."
Organisers are encouraging diners to take pictures of their neighbour at the table to contribute to a giant collage and a screen-printed tablecloth by artist Sophie Herxheimer will depict more than 1,500 London scenes.
On Sunday, 2,500 people will take part in a night carnival on Victoria Embankment, led by a Chinese dragon.
More than 300 boats will compete in The Great River Race on Saturday and younger festivalgoers can join in CBBC fun or help complete the Wishing Tree, a sculpture made from recycled material by more than 5,000 children.
Mayor Boris Johnson called the festival "a lively and magical celebration".
The world's biggest open-air art project will run along more than two miles of the riverside and the grand finale will see barges on the Thames explode fireworks in the night sky.
