Join us on Saturday, July 26, 12-5pm in Wray Crescent park.
Volunteers from the Friends of Wray Crescent working with Islington North’s park team are thrilled and proud to announce the third ever Love Our Park Wray Crescent Festival, a fabulous family day out with plenty to see and do.
We have vast quantities of music, entertainment, and stalls. It’s all for free, though we do ask everyone please to donate generously to help meet festival costs. Anything we don’t spend on the event will support the work of The Friends of Wray Crescent across the rest of the year.
This page will be regularly updated in advance of the event.
Music and entertainment
Hosted by Tony and his brilliant team, please join us at the N19 stage, featuring amazing talent from the regular talent nights. At the stage and around the event you’ll find all this and more…
Bunny Nightingale:
With an alluring voice, a beautiful smile and a cheeky wink, step back in time with vintage style entertainer Bunny Nightingale. Singing golden classics from the bygone era, and modern songs with a jazz and swing twist… from Glen Miller to The Killers there is something for everyone to enjoy so get ready to dance and sing along!
Don’t miss these four hand-picked, fantastic artists from the N19’s incredibly high-quality open mic nights.
Eden Taylor
Don’t miss our first act today. Eden has been performing all over the local circuit, with her awesome mix of covers and self created material. It will be a treat!
John Arter
John is a thoughtful performer of finely-tuned acoustic melody, equipped with classic song-writing skill – don’t miss his performance today.
Tottenham Community Choir:
The incredibly diverse choir got together in 2009 when locals decided to set the choir up so they could meet their neighbours and sing together. The choir will perform for all of us at about 4pm on the day.
STAGE AND PERFORMANCE TIMES
N19 Stage
| 4:45 | Raffle and close |
| 4 | Tottenham Community Choir |
| 3 | Bunny Nightingale |
| 2 | Lydia Hale |
| 1:30 | John Arter |
| 1 | Maria Monroy |
| 12:30 | Eden Taylor |
The Tree Stage
- African drum workshops from 1-2
- Ukulele from 2:30
Punch and Judy:
- 12:45 (30 minutes)
- 2:30 (30 minutes)
Sports School
In the activity area, sports and activities with Sports School
Yoga
30 minute taster class at 1pm, 2:30 and 4pm.
Walkabout entertainers across the site throughout the day include:
Andy Hamilton: (AKA Dandy Andy) is a local Children’s Entertainer with a twist! His high energy, engaging slap stick style, keeps children and adults engaged throughout his shows! Expect Magic Shows, Dance competition with 90’s club classics, Comedy shows where the children make up jokes, Balloon shows and more! Dandy Andy is driven by a desire to awaken souls to the wonder of life, and who better to start with than children of North London!
Bird of Paradise: Prepare for a show-stopping splash of colour with our Bird of Paradise Stilt Walker. She’ll float across the crowd with radiant wings in electric pinks, purples, and blues, and a costume that shimmers in the light.
Nick Putz: The multi-talented and versatile Nick Putz – a local entertainer bringing clown and circus skills, juggling, unicycling, and more. Nick is completely dedicated to bringing smiles and laughter to everybody’s face!
African Drumming with Amberliegh:
An amazing local charity who believe in empowering children and young people through creative and performing arts. They offer weekly classes in African drumming, dance, vocal training, and creative arts for children and young people. They will be offering a drum workshop and performance from around 1pm, at the tree stage.
Ukulele by the trees
The combined forces of two Ukulele bands join us today to perform under the lovely tree just outside the circle. Both led by Geoff Stilwell, Tunes on Tap grew out of the Third Age Project and regularly performs at sheltered housing and community events, while Sidings Ukulele Band (above) emerged from Sidings Community Centre and perform at all over the place, including at the British Library!
Together you may have seen them at the Broadstairs Folk Festival, busking in a garden area between the Bandstand and the Pavilion– Ukuleles by the sea! Today the combined Ukulele Special Forces bring us Ukulele by the Trees!
We want to thank Vinci Construction for providing the generator to power the stage, and once again thank the N19 for everything they do to make this happen.
Yummy, Scrummy Food!!
All this and food from Pickle Pockle (vegan food), Master’s Home Touch (Caribbean food), Joyland Catering (Indian food), and coffee/tea, cakes and buns from Mr Sicilian.
Win Something Absolutely Fabulous in the Raffle
Every year Stroud Green Traders and the wonderful Pretty Shiny Shop get together to create the always amazing Wray Crescent raffle. Over the last two years people have walked away with fantastic prizes, including meals, toys, gifts and more. The raffle is really important to the festival – it is a big part of how we pay for the event, so please buy tickets on the day.
Huge thanks to Pretty Shiny Shop, who kindly organise the raffle every year, we are so grateful for your support.
Tickets are only £2 each, or 3 for £5, 10 for a tenner, or get 40 for £20. Draw at about 4:45ish. Every penny raised helps keep the festival afloat, so please dig deep and please also donate.
Thanks also to all the local businesses who are contributing prizes to this year’s raffle, so far including: Common Ground, Osteria Tufo, Pretty Shiny Shop, Tollington’s, F45, Bud Flowers, Mento Flowers and Coffee, HIDEN, Eva, Top Secret Comedy Club, Butlers, Sadlers Wells, Hello Yoga Studio, Fair-Well, N4 Coffee Fruit, Sandscape Kids Play & Cafe, Waggy Den, Ivory Boutique, Finsbury Bites, Oak N4, Astral Eternal, Clapton Craft, Deli at 80, Stephen Alexander, FS8 Finsbury Park and The Front Room. You are all heroes and making a huge difference — thank you.
So many stalls to explore
Everyone likes to explore all the interesting stalls at a festival. The Wray Crescent Festival is no exception. You’ll find lots of different stalls, including lots of delightful and unique things made with love from across the local area. We also urge you to try your luck with our coconut shy (and donate deeply to help keep this event alive). Some of what’s coming includes:
- Dr Bike, want some cycle maintenance? Come and chat with Dr Bike.
- Local honey – if you suffer hay fever eating a spoonful of this every day will help. Also it’s organic and quite delicious.
- Hand-made clocks
- Mayaroma Oils: Handmade essential oil blends for the home.
- Jewellery
- Sea moss products
- Unique work from a local artist
- Kids toys and more
- Coconut shy – and a chance to buy the Made in N4 cups!
- Wray Crescent History Exhibition.
- Even a little fortune telling.
More stalls are signing up all the time, so if you would like to set up your own stall, or run a blanket stall at the event, please get in touch.
Your kids will be utterly spoilt for choice
There really is so much for kids to see and do at the festival this year, there’s all the other stuff going on during the day, and brilliant sports and games to choose from too. Along with everything else on this page, your kids can look forward to:
- Free face painting with the wonderful Mia.
- Bobby Bubbles – he’s blown bubbles for royalty – check his Insta here.
- Free Bouncy Castle.
- Punch and Judy with the phenomenal David Wilde. As seen at the V&A Museum, Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, Sothebys, BBC TV, and on July 26 in Wray Crescent. There will be two 30-minute shows during the day.
- Drumming workshops with Amberliegh, a community-based charity dedicated to empowering children and young people through creative arts and cultural programmes. (1pm at the Tree).
- Crafts and stories with Islington Libraries – support your local library!
- The Incredibly Chaotic Parents Versus Kids Tug of War (if we get it together).
Working for our community
We are a local community group. We believe in the power of communities, so we are delighted to invite groups active in our community to join us at the festival every year. Come and meet all of these community champions at this year’s event.
- Cycle Islington, a volunteer group that campaigns to improve facilities for cyclists and encourage more people to take up cycling.
- Whittington Community Centre, Find out what’s happening at the fantastic community centre in Whittington Park.
- Kick Back, Reducing violence, providing positive activities, and increasing opportunities for young people.
- Mary’s Youth Club, A powerful organisation providing open-access youth work.
- Gamcare, Founders of the national gambling helpline.
- Amberliegh. Empowering children and young people through creative and performing arts.
- Shine. Free energy advice and home visiting service to assist people in fuel poverty.
- Wildlife Trust.
Update: Minority Matters and Switchboard have had to withdraw from the event.
You want more? We’ve got more — activities!
We are so grateful that sports and games will be handled by the lovely people from SportSchool. They specialise in using physical education as a tool to create varied, fun and interactive opportunities to teach physical, cognitive, social and emotional skills.
Yoga:
We’re also pleased to host Ana Moldavsky from SouthView Yoga who will be offering free 30-minute yoga sessions during the day. 1pm, 2:30 and 4pm.
We are adding more stalls and other entertainment all the time. If you want to perform, would like to sponsor the event, or run a stall, please make contact.
See you on July 26 at midday.
And please, please donate toward this free community event. All the money we raise goes toward the event or to help pay for the work we do across the park throughout the year.
