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Diamond Jubilee Festival, Battersea Park

Diamond Jubilee Festival, Battersea Park

Tickets are now available for The Diamond Jubilee Festival, Battersea Park, which will celebrate design, music, art, film, fashion and food from the past 60 years and provide an ideal vantage point to watch the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

A line up of top DJs headlined by Norman Jay and the Good Times Sound System will be appearing at the festival and on The Crown Stage acts include The Noisettes, The Selecter, Fairey Acid Brass Band, Urban Soul Orchestra, The Boxettes, and Brassroots. And appearing at the 1952 Bandstand, hosted by Viv the Spiv, are: The Bombshellettes, Paul Taylor’s Vintage Teadance Orchestra, The John Miller Orchestra, Paul Casper’s George Formby tribute and DJ Jeff Two-Tone Boogie.

From a portrait of The Queen made out of 3,120 cakes to a knees-up featuring Pearly Kings and Queens, the event, which is being curated by Hemingway Design (Vintage Festival) and Clare Patey (Feast on the Bridge) will mark The Queen’s reign in a wonderfully eccentric, inimitable style.

Tickets can be purchased from Ticketmaster http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/ with a charge of £5 per person to cover administration costs. Tickets for children aged 12 and under, who will need to be accompanied by an adult, are free.

Wayne Hemingway, festival co-curator, said: “We’ll be creating a completely immersive environment – a timeline through the 60 years of our Queen’s reign. This will be a proper knees-up with dancing and plenty of activities – it’s a chance for people to put their glad rags on, polish their dancing shoes and take a sideways, creative and uplifting look at British eccentricity.”

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Clare Patey, festival co-curator, added: “The Diamond Jubilee Festival will be a celebration
fit for The Queen and a party which will hopefully remain in the collective public memory for many years to come. Artists, designers, film-makers, chefs and bakers have all been brought together to create a spectacular celebration for everyone.”

The festival will provide a truly creative day for the whole family to get involved in. Festival-goers will get the chance to play traditional British games with a Jubilee twist, listen to historic fairy-tales, feast on cake made by London’s hip new wave of Women’s Institute members and create their very own souvenirs of the day. They can also enjoy a ride on the vintage steam fair, shop in the Right Royal Department Store, watch films in the open air cinema and learn to dance 1952 style.

In The Diamond Geezer pop up pub, the knees up begins with a Punk Choir (made up of elderly ex-punks) joining forces with London’s Pearly Kings and Queens to perform Sex Pistols covers. Hosts Sink The Pink will be leading a conga of mega proportions, Daz n Chave, the original Chas n Dave tribute band, will perform along with appearances from Elton John and Dame Shirley Bassey tribute acts.

Bringing the Music Hall era alive to The Diamond Geezer pop up pub are The Dead Victorians and it’s eyes down ears open for Musical Bingo who will provide a journey through The Queen’s reign (via the obligatory Freddie Mercury tribute).

Bringing proceedings up to date will be the talented 16-25-year-olds from Battersea Arts Centre with their beat boxing brilliance. The Queens of Noize will bring the day at The Diamond Geezer to a crescendo.

The park will be divided into zones to include:

·      The Diamond Geezer pop up pub, with Pearly Kings and Queens, sing-a-longs and traditional pub games.
·      Pageant Viewing + Thames bars - watch the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and toast The Queen and 1,000 magnificent vessels from here.
·      A Coronation bandstand tea dance with live big bands swing, jive and lindyhop open dance classes, 1952-themed bars and the food flavours of the Coronation Year.
·      The Crowning Glory- The Main Stage. Six concerts for six decades of The Queen’s reign.
·      A Tea Garden featuring; Cake in the Clouds – world renowned engineers and architects including Arups and AECON will team up with bakers to construct towers of confectionary with prizes for the tallest cake and most daring creation. A Portrait of The Queen. Bakers Konditor and Cook will construct a three metre high portrait of The Queen out of 3,120 cakes, one for each week of her reign.  The WI. The Women’s Institute will present more than 500 specially designed Jubilee cakes to be displayed on a giant diamond encrusted cake stand and eaten throughout the afternoon.
·      The Salons Hair & Beauty Booths – from 50s and 60s makeovers to 70s Summer of Love flower headpieces, an 80s blow dry bar and a 00s nail art salon.
·      The Style Spotter’s Best Dressed Catwalk
·      Public Toasting - a mobile toasting trolley complete with regal hats and drinks giving people the chance to publically toast whoever or whatever deserves it!
·      Mass Kazoo play along - God Save The Queen played by 1,000 plus festival goers and led by a marching kazoo band, followed by a mass toast to The Queen.
·      Souvenir Making - crown making, knitting, customised headscarves, medals – a chance to make and wear a souvenir, complete with knitted crown jewels.
·      Once upon a Time there was a Queen… featuring authors, storytellers and singers telling tales of Queens including myths, fairytales, historic stories and contemporary writing commissioned for the day and performed by White Rabbit.
·      Home live art’s Alternative Village Fete - a sideways look at the traditional family day out with a jamboree of artists’ stalls, craft, dance and performance that everyone can join in with.
·      The Village Green, showcasing British folk traditions at their finest, curated by Sam Lee, new folk pioneer and founder of London’s Magpies Nest collective.
·      The Royalty Picture House - an outdoor cinema, showing Pathé footage from the Coronation and other significant televised royal events plus live footage of The Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant.
·      A mini-museum and public memory bank exhibiting royal memorabilia collected by the public through the decades, curated by Josh Knowles. This will be a month long exhibition at Battersea Park’s Pump House Gallery.
·      The Classic Car Boot Sale -  vintage royal memorabilia and more all sold from classic cars from the last 60 years .
·      The Great British Seaside Craft Workshops - with The Seaside Sisters and a fancy dress flotilla on the boating lake.
·      Carter’s Steam Fair - a collection of nostalgic fairground rides, carousels, swing boats, chair’o’ planes and dodgems.
·      A themed festival market - with food and drink celebrating all things British as well as food and drink from across the Commonwealth.
·      A Right Royal Department Store - presented by Anita’s Vintage Fashion Fair and bursting full of vintage clothing and accessories.
·      The Etsy Marketplace - a veritable cornucopia of royal collectibles and handmade memorabilia.
·      A Right Royal Art School - your chance to paint a ‘poortrait’ of The Queen .
·      The Good Times Bus - have a boogie with one of the world’s finest DJs, Norman Jay MBE.