Bankside Open Spaces Festival - Activities for Families

Bankside Open Spaces Festival (10 June 2023, 12-9pm) is all about families - the streets are closed so you and your family can enjoy your local area safely. Here are our top picks for families on the day:

Marlborough Sports Garden:

  • SPORTS and DANCE workshops! We’re all about keeping active here at Bankside Open Spaces Trust so you know our sports partners will be on hand to keep you and the kids moving on the festival day! Free sports workshops will be running at Marlborough from Surrey Cricket Foundation and Regan’s Soccer School. We’ve also got samba, Irish dancing, salsa and tango from UDM Samba, Swig and a Jig, Salsatecta and Tango Integral. Plus the ever-brilliant children and young people from SuperArts will take to the stage again.

  • Stories and poems from Fossil Free London

  • The sandcourt becomes Borough Beach full of toys and deck chairs too - the perfect place to play or chill out with a much needed refreshment or two.

  • Let those creative juices flow - encourage your mini sculptors with Mud Gang’s free clay craft, and get stuck yourself too!

  • Facepainting and activities from our friends at Coin Street

  • Fungi Workshop - discover the fascinating world of fungi

  • M.Y.O Tile Workshop - Borough’s own Make Your Own will help you make a beautiful tile.

Flat Iron Square and Union Street

  • Our Main Stage plays host to a whole range of live music

  • Stalls run down Union Street with plenty of opportunities to spend a little pocket money or simply engage with your favourite local groups

  • Watch our for UDM Samba and Brixton Orchestra as they take to the streets!

Red Cross Garden

  • Cake, visiting bee hives, henna and craft too - keeping the little ones busy while you relax to acoustic sounds…

  • Old Operating Theatre’s Herb Garrett will be offering a Medieval herb craft workshop

  • Little Dorrit Dog Show - enjoy pampered pooches big and small, can you decide who should be Lord or Lady of Southwark? Judge Anna Webb of BBC London might need some help from your little judges too. Register your dog from 12 and enjoy the show until 2pm.

Plus - keep a look out for bongos, dancers, sax, bubbles, stilt walkers and fire breathers down Redcross Way as the DJ Stage from Alma Casa entertains you from 2pm!