This August Bank Holiday Sunday (25 Aug), Culture Mile presents Smithfield Street Party: A Beastly Adventure, a fantastical free street party where the animals top the bill, that marks the culmination of #PlayTheMile.
Learn how to dance like a bee, look up and watch extraordinary aerialists fly through the sky, transform your perspectives with free-running classes and animal amusements and learn how to care for the animals that live alongside us.
In this year’s take on Culture Mile’s annual festival, all London’s animals – past, present or future, large and small, rare and familiar – will be taking over the streets around Smithfield Market for one day only to teach humans the secret ways of their world.
Imagined, visible or overlooked, larger than life or minuscule, all the animals will make an appearance at an unmissable party full of music, performances, workshops, games and play with 10,000 human party animals in one of Smithfield’s wildest events of the year. Inspired by the original Bartholomew’s Fair and the Museum of London and Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Beasts of London experience, Smithfield Street Party invites all of London’s families, including their four legged canine members, to come and take part in a day full of free beastly fun.
Highlights include:
Grand Avenue
Welcome to the Soaring Smithfield Canopy where an exciting line up of aerialists swing from the rafters creating a dazzling spectacle in the Victorian iron structures of the Central markets. Expect performances from brilliant companies such as Extraordinary Bodies and Upswing with more to be announced soon.
Audiences can create their own winged creations with Scribble and Smudge and watch giant bird puppets from Artillery.
Transform yourself into a magical creature with masks, face painting and headdresses
Change your perspectives through a series of interactive wild installations.
Rotunda Garden
This is the magical Beastly Den. Be sure to bring your wild ideas to create mythical creatures and habitats and add them to the House of Wayward Plants and watch it grow as the day passes.
Get a wiggle on and do as the bees do with a waggle dance workshop.
Get up close and personal with the mini-beasts including some not-so-mini Giant Snails and hissing cockroaches from Sun Trap.
Learn about the different habitats animals live in and how to care for the world around us.
Coney’s young change-makers, The Young Coneys, want to talk to you about the animals of our world. They’ll take to the streets at Smithfield Market with their uniquely designed puppets to spark a conversation on animal conservation. Will you make a change to help save them?
Long Lane
Visit the Watering Hole for a bevy of refreshments, world foods and local delicacies. Or bring a picnic and grab a seat.
Round the West Smithfield Rotunda
Wild Rotunda Plains offers a whole host of free activities including London’s Biggest Play Street – where you can go wild, build a den or run through the urban world as never seen before:
Learn to look at the world through the eyes of a cat with beginner’s parkour classes.
Hear the stories of some of London’s young women created with artist Jenny Moore.
Have a go on The Rig and make the sounds of the beasts around us.
Visit the Tall Tails Tent to take some time out from all the fun.This is a space to relax and unwind for the littlest party animals with storytelling and chill-out zones. Sit and devour a book or listen to storytellers tell winding tales.
A host of other activities for all ages will animate the ancient streets throughout the day including bands, choirs, craft market stalls, zine-making workshops, history tours with The City Guides, dog shows, fun fair rides and lots of surprises.
