Main Stage – Saturday 5th July, 2025

The garden had a stall at Forest Gate Festival today, held yearly on Osborne Road. Kate brought a bin of soil and showed some soil science. Wooden medallions were painted, many by children and some adults too. And we had a plant sale, mostly with plants donated by Underleaf. The owners of Underleaf, a couple, moved into the new flats above Costa about six months ago. They supply plants for corporate events. Fiona, our outreach worker, met Julia at a local school. Julia told Fiona they always had plants left over after events, and were happy to pass them on. This is the second sale we have had with their plants, and there certainly was a choice lot including bay trees and hostas. They have to be leafy, large and decorative for corporate events, which makes them eminently saleable. Good for us and plenty of bargains to be had on our very busy stall.

All in all, it was the busiest festival I can recall, and I have been to quite a few of them since the first in the year 2000. So many people were there that it took ten minutes to walk from one end of the festival to the other, about 300 yards, and I did that quite a few times, as I watched some of the music on the main stage and the mid stage. How many people came? Well over the day, I estimated 4000 or so. I have been told that’s too little but it is so difficult to count people without having people at all the ways in to the street with counters. And the Festival can’t spare people to do that; there’s too much else to do.

The plastic chairs in the garden belong to the festival. And for one day a year, the festival claims them. They were brought to a garden on Osborne Road on Friday night. One less job to do on the day itself. Eight o’clock in the morning, festival day, I was involved setting them out in front of the main stage. I am on the Festival Committee as well as being a garden volunteer. Today, I was totally festival. After setting out the chairs, I went down to Clapton CFC ground, to get gazebos, which are kept in a container there. Three cars, as arranged, turned up and we loaded them up with seven gazebos, weights and sides, and headed back.

The festival wasn’t yet open when we got back. Stalls were being set up, over a 100 of them. All the residents on the street know they must get their cars off the street by 6 am on the day or risk being towed away. The council has a big part in enforcing this. The festival runs from 11 in the morning to 6 pm. The gazebos brought to the street, I went off to get some breakfast and bring some of my crime series for John the secondhand bookseller to sell. He calls his business Recycled Reads. A couple of years ago, talking about local stalls, someone told me Recycled Reads were there, but I head it as Recycled Reeds, and imaged someone who took old baskets to bits to make new ones. John has a regular spot at Woodgrange Market. He did well at the festival today; which is pleasing, as all his taking go to charities, some African health charities, some educational. My taking weren’t good; it seems new books and secondhand don’t mix

Why did we get so many people this year? Lots of stalls always helps. It’s what I call the nativity play effect. If the school nativity has a big cast, as many kids as you can pack in for the bit parts, all the animals and all the shepherds, it will be guaranteed a large audience. Ditto lots of stalls; Instagram was buzzing with the excitement of stallholders, musicians, and locals who said they were coming, as they always come.

We had 2500 flyers printed and gave them to schools, nurseries and to shops, and put posters around. I pinned flyers on Earlham Grove plane trees, and left some in the community garden. The spares I handed out at Forest Gate station on Friday night. We did publicity on Instagram and Facebook.

An innovation this year was the sleeves round lamp posts. These are around 5 feet high, and enclose the lamp post in a triangular sleeve. They are brightly coloured, beautifully designed and said festival Be There! Not in those terms but that was the impact. We had 10 of them, and many people on social media said how effective they were. We put them up a week before, and were worried, that as they were so attractive, that they’d be taken as souvenirs. We lost two. Most went up on Woodgrange Road. The one outside Bereket was nicked and one on Balmoral Road too.

Our intention is to use the lamp post sleeves again next year, covering this year’s date with a sticker. One of my last jobs of the day was taking them down. The wind whips at them like a sail and I almost got swept into the foad. I only found seven, have we lost another, or did I just miss it? I’ll have a look tomorrow.

The festival received lots of donations on the day via QR codes, around £500, useful cash as the festival spends about £9000 yearly. The lion’s share is for entertainment including the stage and sound, and for children’s art and play. There are 14 of us on the festival committee, and we welcome anyone living in Forest Gate to join us. Though, we won’t get active again until January 2026 to organise the Forest Gate Festival in July next year.