The Thames Festival and the Proms in the Park

Extremely busy weekend this one, as it was the Last night of the Proms on Saturday as well as being the weekend of the Thames Festival. There seems to be quite a bit happening in the City of London of late! Good thing I haven't headed offshore yet - fills up the weekends :).

After getting up in the morning it was off to the Thames Festival - one of the bigger arts festivals in the UK... presumably to pay tribute to the importance of the River Thames. Funnily enough, I only really came across this event after walking through the London Information Centre one week prior! Knowing my luck, i'm sure i'll have a full annual calendar packed with things to do and see... upon the eve of my departure back home to Australia. Haha.

So the Festival itself was sprawled over four zones, along both banks of the River Thames - from Embankment to the west all the way out to Tower Bridge in the east. On the Saturday I began under the Huntingdon Bridge, traced my way through the southbank underneath the Oxo Tower, along the Jubliee walk and finally across Southbank Bridge. Not too many highlights on the first day - just the sand sculpture work and the Rivers of the World gallery making it into the mildly-interesting book. Clearly the first day of the Thames festival was not the best planned by me.


One of the reasons why the first day of the Thames festival was somewhat uneventful, was due to the fact that there was something planned for the Saturday evening - Proms in the Park. I delieberately cut the day short. Now, for those that are unaware of what the Proms are - it's effectively a two month long series of shows that features mostly classical orchestral music. The highlight of the Proms would be the Last Night of the Proms - which features some very patriotic British songs... some of which include Rule Brittania, Jerusalem, and Land of Hope and Glory.

Interestingly enough, some last-minute discounted tickets appeared and it was off to Hyde Park to see Proms in the Park! Arrived reasonably early, approximately 5pm, to get a good spot. Managed to find a good spot close up to the left tv screen, in front of the front left lighting tower. Some tips for those who want to get a good show is to get there early, bring a portable chair, bring a jumper, and bring a flag to wave.

Funnily enough, I would have thought that there would be more classical music playing at Proms in the Park given that the Proms itself is somewhat of a spotlight on classical music. However, Proms in the Park had a lot more variety. Proms in the Park ended up being a bit of a mini-ABBA songfest and a mini-Neil Sedaka featurette. Very fun given that everyone in the crowd was getting into it. Plenty of sing-a-longs and much dancing.

After the warm-up acts mentioned above, along with a few others, it was time for the main Park event - which included singing from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, singing from José Carreras, and a neat little percussionst duo act. Once the entertaining live show in the Park concluded, it was time for the patriotic part on the big screens - straight from the Royal Albert Hall. Although I didn't know all of the words to the British tunes - they did have karaoke style text overlaying on the live feed into the Hall. Phew. Overall a great night, will have to go again next year!


Why not fill up an already busy Saturday with a Sunday filled with just as much. After a bit of a sleep in on Sunday morning, and following some domestic chores, it was off to the second day of the Thames festival. As I wasn't really all that interested in the going-ons in Zones 3 and 4, I decided to explore the key areas that I somehow missed on the Saturday - Jubilee Park.

There was much more happening at Jubilee Park, and good thing too - as I needed to do something before the Night Parade and the Fireworks. Jubilee Park was the home of the Freedom Stage, the Freedom Space and the Focus on Korea Stage. The definite highlights of the afternoon were the Taekwondo show (i.e. kicking blocks of wood) and the breakdancing shows in the Freedom Space.

Once the afternoon passed by it was time to get into a good position in preparation for the Night Parade. Only really got back just in time as the celebrants were already lining up along Victoria Embankment! Jogging down the street I found a nice place to set up shop, standing on the rails along the median strip some way down Victoria Embankment, nice and high above the crowds below.

Just prior to the commencement of the Night Parade the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, wandered up Victoria Embankment to meet the crowd and get the parade started. Something I unexpected. The parade lasted for a good hour or so, and by the end of the parade itself my feet were absolutely wrecked! The parade was entertaining, and I felt that it was better than the one held earlier at Notting Hill. Having said that, many of the participants of the Notting Hill Festival were back once more to participate in the Thames festival. One of the highlights that I clearly remember was the robot - interacting with the crowd with its booming metallic voice!





The last spectacle of the night, following the Night Parade, was the Fireworks. The fireworks were scheduled for 9:45pm between Waterloo and Southwark bridges. As I was towards the head of the Night Parade proceedings I arrived early at Waterloo Bridge at approximately 8:30pm. Having said that... by the time I got to Waterloo Bridge it was already packed, thankfully I managed to slip into a spot approximately one third the way down from the north bank.

The hour or so long wait wasn't exactly exciting, however it's easy to be observant when there's not much going on. A couple wandered past and hovered around me as there was a small sliver of a spot next to me. Strange couple. Looked like a foreign lass of european descent and a local British lad. Much awkward conversation - perhaps it was the language barrier. Over the course of the time that they stood waiting there I found out that they had brought nothing to eat or drink, and they both were out of cash. After approximately half an hour of waiting and a bit of pressure by the lad to head back home, they were gone.

Onto the fireworks - they started on time, and all of us that were watching got a bit of a heads up prior to the main event with the release of some test fireworks going off along the south bank. To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much of the fireworks. In the end, they were quite reasonable. The fireworks lasted about ten minutes, and there was a good mixture of colour, size, and type of firework. A good way to finish off my post - with one of the happy snaps of the evening.