Yesterday was an exciting day in Kennington Village (as it was introduced at Cleaver Square fete). (This, after all, is Old North Surrey dahling, and not South London). Anyhow, what with the frivolities of the Cleaver Square Fete and the celebration of Portugal Day in Kennington Park (photos will go up tomorrow), it was hard to know where to go (or what to eat) first, but help was at hand:
You can't beat a good Kennington cupcake:
Apologies to the headless people, but I was focusing on the cakes:
Manning the tombola...
Did I mention that I love cake...?
The raspberry sponges at the bottom were incredible:
I counted three cake stalls. Yum.
(The Punch and Judy show was very good, and the adults seemed to enjoy it just as much as the children).
That's the way to do it...
Oh, Mr Punch. Didn't they warn you never to smile at a crocodile?
Too late. Mr Punch was eaten for lunch :-(
Beautiful fabrics on sale, and a lovely smile:
Kate Hoey, MP, opened the fete in a rather special summer boater.
A summer fete is just not a summer fete without a pensive looking vicar. In the event, it didn't rain.
Special thanks should go to Winkworth, who sponsored the fete to the tune of £4000 and ran the raffle.
Well Done chaps.
Kate Hoey is proud to have been re-elected to serve the residents of the constituency, and here she is again, enjoying herself in style.
Kennington Tandoori (KT) cooked up some superb chicken biryani:
We were entertained by a variety of acts. Firstly, a little light jazz...
Followed by some popular tunes...
And topped-off by this rather powerful opera singer!
The Kennington Association had a little help from their friends, the Kennington Bookshop, who kindly donated unsaleable stock, to raise money for local projects.
This lead to a rush, as the SE11 literati mafia stormed in.
The Kennington Association were not the only people present in spiffing outfits...
You'd never, in a million years, guess that this photo was taken in inner-city London, would you?
Another general crowd shot that demonstrates how well attended this event was... The organisers did a fantastic job, as usual...
You guessed right. It's another cake stall!
These chaps (working for Tomorrow's People, a charity that enables young people to find worthwhile employment) are usually present, come rain or shine, outside St Anselm's Church on a Saturday, selling flowers and plants. Business looked brisk today...
The only summer fete in England that can boast real French lobster!
Workers and volunteers from the Parish of North Lambeth, enjoying the fete and furthering consultation on the St Anselm's project (more on that this week...)
A bee-autiful mosaic, and some Lambeth honey:
The worker bees, keeping bee-sy at the Fete...
A fantastic day that attracts people from Kennington and beyond. It's fair to say that a good time was had by all. (However, if you happen to see yourself (or somebody you know) in one of the photographs, and wish me to remove it, please drop me an email.)
Posts
8 comments:
It really was the biggest and best fete yet. A brilliant day, and an institution in itself after only 5 years. The organisers did a wonderful job once again, especially:
-Kowsar from the Kennington Tandoori
-Margot from the Kennington Association
-Nigel & the Winkworths team
-Hervé from the Lobster Pot
-all the performers from Toulouse Lautrec
-Houman from Amici on the BBQ
-Ruth and Dan for the Kennington cupcakes
-Angus the vicar, and his 'hunky' (apparently) new deputy, who seemed to be attracting quite a lot of female interest
-and many many others...
It says a great deal about the strength and warmth of the local community in Kennington that so many people give up several days of their lives, and spend a fair bit of their own money, to make this event such a success. Well done all.
It was great to see such a diverse and cross cultural mix of people from all of kennington...... NOT
The fete is disgusting, and non inclusive.
I'm delighted that 'anonymous' won't be attending next year. Don't be a hater.
The fete is great. Maybe next year we could add a booth to buy knives?
Lurker, did you see this? http://kenningtonnews.blogspot.com/2010/06/consultation-invitation-st-anselms-and.html
Perhaps we could encourage them to consider expanding to the Beaufroy Institute.
Yes, I've got all the info. on the St Anselm's consultation, and it is being publicised through KA and RCDT as we speak. I'll do a quick post just to share the text more widely. It's in the pipeline.
I need to finish a post on the rest of the KOV meeting, which (as well as the Nick Ephgrave slot) generated a couple of new pieces of info. re. the Vauxhall Island Site.
There's also some interesting figures on Lambeth's unemployment rate, and even more dates for the diary. I can barely keep up, especially since I have a day job!
@Simon
No hating going on, fact: at the fete where was the representation for the large black community in Kennington?
I suspect that this "anonymous commentator" is actually the same person who keeps posting provocative and somewhat rude questions on the blog. I'm currently tolerating it because I don't want to close the ability to post anonymously.
However, the question of black representation and participation at events is one that needs to keep being raised. It was raised by a black woman who attended the KOV meeting the other day, and who asked the same question rather angrily. KOV meetings are also open to all, but I worry that all of these meetings and events might be getting something wrong, and I don't know what that thing is. Another black woman stood up at the KOV meeting (in response) and said that she found it hard to increase involvement at committee level on her residents association, from all colours of people, and that often committees and events are just run by the same old 5 people (which is often true, and doesn't really relate to issues of colour).
Cleaver Square fete is open to all, regardless of colour or creed. There was no entrance fee. I believe that anybody passing through the square could attend, and anybody related to the area could request a stall, and indeed, a number of stall-holders (as well as organisers) were black or brown.
So the question is, why don't the black residents come to the event? Do black residents feel unwelcome? Is the event not culturally relevant? Did the event clash with anything else that black residents might have preferred to attend? (Well, yes, there was Portuguese day, but it's hardly fair to say that all black residents are of the same mind set, and going to choose to go to the same event). Did the publicity fail? Not really. The event posters were pasted up all over Kennington.
I don't have an answer, but I wish I did, since I'd like to see greater community participation by all members of the community in all events and on all committees in Kennington. I want to see black, brown, white, gay, bi, straight, young, middle aged, old, elderly, working class, middle class, upper class, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, over-educated and under-educated people work together to create a society in which everybody can belong and have a say. Right now, barely anybody even responds to the blog posts I write on how to encourage greater citizen participation in order to prevent knife crime!
Anonymous, have you any ideas? Do you feel that black people in Kennington and surrounds are marginalised? How can we work to address that, if so? (And I'm hugely aware that when I speak of "black people", I'm not really speaking of one entity, since black people hold as many different views as others in society, and I don't want to make assumptions of interests based on skin colour.
Hi Lurker, just to clarify, i have only posted on the thread about the two timing local politician - and i was forceful in my comments as i feel the person didn't stand tall and be contrite as he ought to have been...no matter how much work he does locally it was not well played when he stood elsewhere.
With regards representation: You made some real good points, things which I hadn't thought about. Thanks.
My main thinking is this:
The fete is rooted in provincial white middle class culture, and so (I suspect) is not relevant or attractive to the black and minority population of kennington.
Sure, Portuguese day is as the name suggests....and a farmers' market likewise, but the fete is billed as Kennington fete, so can it be more inclusive.
For the forcefulness of my comments, I apologise to those who arrange the fete - it is a positive part of the community.
I just think it might be good idea to get this topic on the agenda and look to add some cultural diversity to the programme next year. Or go the other way, and declare if "england day" - either way works for me!
Post a Comment