Over the weekend, while the Anniversary Games were taking place in the Olympic Stadium, the newly-opened ‘northern parklands’ section of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park played host to the Open East Festival.
A collaboration between Create London and the Barbican, the whole thing was reminiscent of the way that the areas around the stadia felt during last summer’s London 2012 Olympic Games – there was a really happy party atmosphere, and the entire place was completely thronged with people by mid-afternoon on Sunday, when we visited.
The attractions on offer at the Open East Festival included a main performance big top, the inflatable Stonehenge got another outing and there was also a smaller open-air stage, Caught By The River, down in the area next to the marshlands that have been created along part of the Lea Navigation through the centre of the park. Elsewhere there were wandering performers including brass players, drummers and singers, and apparently the puppetry ‘warhorse’ from the stage play of the same name was also being led around, although we didn’t get to see it. The park’s brand-new Timber Lodge community centre and cafe was also open to visitors for the first time, along with the rather imaginative children’s play area that sits just next door. They’ve sited these rather cleverly – they’re both very close to the East Village development which will be welcoming residents soon, so I imagine that it will be used by people living in E20 as much as by people strolling around the park itself.
We spent most of our time at the Open East Festival lounging around next to the Caught By The River stage, and for good reason – before the music took over in the early evening there was a fascinating series of talks about London, the most impressive of which was by the wonderful Ian Rawes, the man who runs the remarkable London Sound Survey site. Ian treated us to several historic recordings made by the BBC on the streets of London, including an interview with a young lad at London Bridge station about to join his parents on a trip to Kent to go hop-picking, and a charming little piece which involved a young East End girl in a school playground patiently explaining the rules of the ‘Do you know the muffin man’ singing game to a frightfully clipped lady radio presenter. Hilarious!
Now the lovely fact that I can impart to you is that from the beginning of this week, the ‘northern parklands’ section of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is open to the public, free of charge. You can wander over there any time to see what they’ve done to the place, although you’ll have to wait until next summer before the whole area becomes accessible again. The park’s official website sets out all of the dates that you need to know if you want to visit it’s various sections over the next year or so, and the points at which you can enter the park in the meantime.
Although I’ve included the highlights in this post, you’ll find all of the photographs I snapped at the Open East Festival on this Google+ page.
About Pete Stean
