The Mayor’s Thames Festival

Posted on July 18, 2012

A summer of celebrations – Olympic, Jubilee, Big Dance and more – comes to an end with London’s largest free festival, held in London the banks of the Thames. This year’s event runs from September 8 to 9 – the closing weekend of the Olympics – from the London Eye to St Katharine Docks.

One of Europe’s most spectacular free festivals, the Thames Festival includes music, dance, river races, feasting and spectacle. On Sunday evening, the illuminated Night Carnival brings together more than 2,000 dancers, drummers and masqueraders along London’s Victoria Embankment. The carnival is followed by a spectacular firework finale, planned to be bigger than ever.

Adrian Evans, the festival director, said: “This year is going to be a true spectacular. The festival brings Londoners together to celebrate the things that make the city great and this year we’re proud to be London’s celebration of an incredible summer.”

Photograph: Matt Farrow

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.