New festival celebrates community

Roman Road will host its inaugural cultural extravaganza next week – the highest-profile activity to be supported by a new Tower Hamlets Council initiative which puts power in the hands of residents. The Roman Road Festival will showcase heritage, entertainment and businesses from the area through eight days of events and activities.

The festival, to be staged in shops and businesses in the Roman Road area, will run from Sunday, 29th June and end with a street party finale on Sunday, 6th July. It is one of the largest projects from Mayor Rahman’s Local Community Ward Forums. Mayor Lutfur Rahman said: “I am delighted to see the Forum funds contributing to making this cultural festival a reality for local people. We launched these Forums to give our residents a chance to improve their areas and to put on events that would celebrate our diverse communities. This festival is the perfect example of this and I congratulate all those involved for their superb efforts in making it happen.”

The Forums initiative was launched in December last year. Each of the wards in the Borough has its own Forum, run by residents, which is tasked with spending up to £10,000 on enhancing the local community. The Bow Forum has part-funded the festival using some of its allocated budget. The festival will feature dozens of events, including a pop-up cinema, art displays, pizza-making, circus skills, music, spa sessions, DJ mixing, and a monologue from renowned local playwright Simon Stephens.

Festival director Tabitha Stapely said the festival wouldn’t be happening without the support of the Mayor’s Local Community Ward Forum. She said: “These things do cost quite a lot of money and it’s fantastic to get this support from your community, and the freedom it gives you is really empowering. This festival is a way to use the Forums to reach out to the community. To be able to make our village a village again is a great way to create a sense of identity and place. For everyone wanting to showcase their skills or talent, we are encouraging the businesses to become a patron of the arts by displaying the artwork or hosting a gig; it’s trying to get everyone aware of the pool of talent and entrepreneurship we have in Bow.”

All events are free, although one or two will ask for a charity donation, and shops and businesses are offering special offers, discounts and rare treats during the festival. The closing street party includes music performances, children’s entertainment, a host of stalls and the men’s Wimbledon final shown live on a big screen.

Some Local Community Ward Forum activities have already been held, including a drug awareness event in Stepney, the first of two intergenerational events in Limehouse and Wapping Business Hub, which offers business skills to locals. Others to be held soon include the start of sessions for people with arthritis in Bethnal Green, financial advice sessions in the Bromley-by-Bow Centre and the Tour de Limehouse, a community festival on 6th July to coincide with the Tour de France coming through the borough the following day.

For full details of the Roman Road Festival visit http://romanroadlondon.com/festival/.