Innocent Village Fete 2008 Photos

If you've been travelling on the London Underground for the last month or so, you can't have failed to see the ads for the Innocent Village Fete - another of London's summer festivals. Me and some friends went last year on the hottest day of the year, although unfortunately the weather in London wasn't so great this weekend.


When I left Kew on Saturday the sun was shining brilliantly, but it had been drizzling all morning, so I went prepared for rain. I felt bit of a fool twittering at the station in my Converses with an umbrella, plastic ground sheet / poncho, long jeans and more long sleeved things in my bag.

However, with that typical four seasons in one day Englishness, by the time I was walking through Regent's Park, there was a torrential downpour of rain and various peeps I was meeting there were Twittering & texting me stuff about the inclement weather (Rachel Clarke, Niamh, Anna Mondo & Curlyluddite)


I could see why I knew I wouldn't like festival camping as we splattered & sploshed our way across Regent's Park trying to find a dry spot. But as if by magic, within about ten minutes the sky had cleared, the sun came out to the cheers of other Village Fete'ites and the day turned out nice again.

As usual with Festivals I find that photos tell more than I ever could (Lovebox being a good example). But in case you don't know Innocent (they're the guys that make smoothies and other drinks in the UK) try to keep the English Village Fete theme going in a massive park that's filled with thousands of people. Personally, I think that the "stall holders" last year got into the Village Fete feel a bit more. But there was still plenty of Welly Wanging, knitting, paper hat making, music & fringe events to go round:



I'd completely forgotten that James from the Tube Carriage Offices in the Sky was going to be there with his theatre group Nabokov.


So it was lovely to be warmly greeted by him by the Village Voice Tent. He explained that their ideas tree (pictured above) was for people to hang ideas in a tree which would then be performed by them later this year.

We ended the day lazing in the sun drinking frozen Margaritas (like the Emergency Tube Margaritas but frozen) and listening to a guy playing music in the Big Wheel area.


There was a massive farmer's market at the Fete too, so we had plenty of nice food to eat. I even spotted a nod to The Times Food reviewer & TV bloke Giles Coren (who went ballistic about the word "a" being subbed out of his review) as we left:


My full set of photos from the Innocent Village Fete are here. If you went along, I'd love to know what you thought of the days.