The legendary Bermondsey Carnival is back this year in a slightly smaller form after a year off during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Anyone can come down to Southwark Park on Saturday August 14 from 12pm-6pm for free to enjoy music, a funfair, food, drink, family activities and other stalls at Bermondsey Bitesize, which organiser Russell Dryden says strips back the carnival to its essential parts.
Music will be provided by reggae band Indika, fronted by Bermondsey man Phillip Poleon, local rock covers group Redriffe, and Unity Music Arts Team, a collection of student and graduate musicians from top London performing arts schools who play a range of different styles and genres.
Russell, a musician himself, runs the Blue Bermondsey business improvement district (BID), which recently led the refurbishment of the Blue market, so is well established in the local area. He has been involved in the Carnival for years, but this year the Blue Bermondsey BID took over the organisation of the event from Southwark Council.
“We’re going to run it as a community event led by the community, obviously still with support from the council. It was meant to happen last year but obviously the Carnival was cancelled.
“With us in charge, hopefully we can grow the event in the future. With the growth in population, with developments like the Biscuit Factory and Canada Water, there’s a real opportunity there to make this into something really big, while still keeping that community feel.”
With ‘Freedom Day’ and the end of legal Covid restrictions only confirmed last month, this year’s Carnival could only be announced at a relatively late date. Russell said he had worked hard to pull the event together, as it is important to the local community.
“We’re looking forward to having it back on,” he said. “We feel it’s so important that it goes ahead in the spirit of community, reconciliation and togetherness. Some people can’t afford to go on holiday, but people deserve to have something they can do to get away from the day-to-day. It’s a shared experience, people from all kinds of background get involved.”
The Carnival has a history stretching back to 1900, during the second Boer War, when the Daily Telegraph launched a charitable fund to support the wives and orphans of soldiers killed in battle. The Bermondsey Carnival was set up to raise money for this fund and soon became an annual event.
It continued through World Wars, the Great Depression, and different generations of Bermondsey residents coming and going – before petering out in the 1980s.
But, on a late summer’s evening at Southwark Park Road’s the Ancient Foresters pub in 1996, two local residents, Mick Wilmer and Mac Clague, reminisced about the good old days of the Carnival. And, after receiving support from The Friends of Southwark Park, local councillors and later Russell’s organisation Bermondsey Beat, the Carnival was back on the agenda. It relaunched in 1997 and has been an annual event again ever since, until 2020.
Russell said the event was now perhaps even more important than ever and has a role to play in reuniting the community, and neighbours who may not have seen each other for a long time.
“Come along and support the Carnival – it’s our event,” he said. “The more people come to the event, the more of these we can have and the more fun it will be.”
“In the wake of everything that went on last year, not just Covid, but the protests and the riots too, we need this.”
Bermondsey Carnival programme
When
Saturday August 14, 12pm-6pm
Where
Southwark Park (Jamaica Road entrance)
Free entry and all ages are welcome.
The Carnival is taking place in a new format this year to reflect the current situation and safety concerns, organisers have said. Appropriate Covid-19 safety measures will be in place.
Playing at Bermondsey Carnival
Indika
Indika have played with a host of legendary reggae artists, most notably being the backing band for Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Now they have teamed up with well-known reggae singer Winston Reedy, who in the 1980s was named Britain’s best male reggae vocalist three years in a row by the listeners of BBC Radio London.
Redriffe
Locally based band Redriffe provide main support with classic hits songs from the history of British rock music, featuring songs from the likes of Bad Company, The Beatles, David Bowie, Free, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and The Who.
Unity Music Arts Team
Kicking off the day are Unity Music Arts Team (UMAT), a grassroots community musical organisation led by singer Stephen Pierre. Featuring student and graduate musicians from leading London music conservatoires, the group will showcase a repertoire of music from many diverse genres.
Schedule
12.00 – 15.30: UMAT Community Showcase
15.45 – 16.30: Redriffe
16.45 – 18.00: Indika featuring Winston Reedy