Bankside Open Spaces Festival

A celebration of Bankside’s green spaces and the community who loves them!

Bankside Open Spaces Festival is our huge community celebration. Every year we throw open our parks and gardens and invite thousands of people to join us for an afternoon of music, dance, sport, food and fun.

The festival features four stages of music, over 50 stalls and 40 performance acts. We also host a series of free craft, sport and dance workshops alongside food, drink and market stalls. In 2024 over 15,000 people visited the festival with 94% of those surveyed saying it was good or excellent. 80% felt it showcased what’s good about the local area.

Our festival takes place in June. You can find all the fun down Union Street from Southwark Bridge Road to Borough High Street and on Redcross Way. Our main stage can be found on Flat Iron Square.

We also fill our parks with activity:

• In Red Cross Garden you’ll find a bandstand with folksy music, craft stalls, maypole dancing and refreshments

• Crossbones Graveyard hosts historical and cultural garden tours.

• Marlborough Sports Garden becomes our community stage with sports and dance workshops, community choirs and hands on activities all afternoon. Plus bars, food and a beach!

Everyone is welcome at Bankside Open Spaces Festival

Bankside Open Spaces Festival is a celebration for our Bankside community. We work hard to make sure everyone is welcome. We invite community groups to perform or host activities and stalls. We welcome older people’s sports and choirs. We ensure there is plenty for families to enjoy and the performance line up represents a wide genre of music and dance.

Bankside Open Spaces Festival is busy and fun, but we understand that some visitors might like quieter activities or a place to escape the noise. This is why we host yoga, massage and hands on crafts. In 20204 we added a neurodiversity zone away from the main festival site with quieter craft activities and a shady seating area. If you have feedback about how to make our event even more welcoming, do let us know by emailing festival@bost.org.uk or by calling 0202 7403 3393.

You can be part of our festival

• You can help us put on our Bankside Open Spaces Festival by joining us as a volunteer. To find out more email our Volunteer Coordinator via volunteer@bost.org.uk or call 020 7403 3393

• If you are part of a performance group, band or choir - why not talk to us about performing on the day? Email festival@bost.org.uk

• Are you a local small business, charity or community group? Our festival stalls are a fantastic way of sharing your work or services with our community. Email festival@bost.org.uk

• You can support this free festival through sponsorship, donations or gifts-in-kind. Email maryt@bost.org.uk to find out more.

Developers at Bankside Open Spaces Festival

At Bankside Open Spaces Festival, we invite developers with projects in the area to display these schemes and engage with the locals who attend the festival.

This is often the only opportunity that the community has to see these developments together in one place. This is beneficial for the community and helps the developers with their Community Consultation. In return the Developers contribute to the cost of organising the Festival. Enabling this platform does not constitute/signify Bankside Open Spaces Trust’s support for individual schemes.