The Greening of the Telegraph Hill Festival
The festival's 'green strand' brings together a wide range of events, including guest chefs, upcycling, repair and gardening workshops, with an opening address from XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook.
The Telegraph Hill Festival is gearing up for another year. One of the largest independently run festivals in London, the festival has been running for over 25 years with an eye-boggling array of things to watch, learn and do.
Last year it introduced a green element of ecologically-themed activities that has grown back even stronger this year. Fuelled by the activism and passion of local people the ‘green strand’ offers a mix workshops and events on a donation basis to entice everyone – with a big emphasis on skills learning and sharing, and community resilience.
“The festival gives us the ideal opportunity to bring the community together, raise awareness, teach skills and test out ideas for a more resilient future,” says Jacqui Teggin, a local architect whose vision to build community sustainability in Lewisham first inspired the green strand idea.
Extinction Rebellion co-founder, Dr Gail Bradbrook, will give the opening address on 14 March to discuss community resilience and the Lifehouse project, followed by a home-grown Green Networking event later that evening.
Breaking bread together is one of the most enjoyable ways of getting to know your neighbours and food is a strong focus. Over the two weeks of the Festival there will be ‘Guest Chefs’ preparing evening dinners from Wednesday to Saturday offering a tantalising choice of international cuisines, Caribbean, Palestinian, Sudanese, Italian, and Indian among them.
Most are attached to cooking workshops like the Haybox Cooking Workshop to make Black Bean Chilli. Does it require bringing your own hay bale? You’ll have to find out. The Felix project is donating surplus vegetables.
Gardening, composting, DIY, bike repair, mending and upcycling workshops are staples of the green offering alongside gatherings for larger audiences like the film screening of Power Station (21 March), the story of how a community-driven solar energy project transformed a London neighbourhood.
Green strand programme
The activities related to the green strand will take place at The Somerville on 260 Queens Road, a fitting venue as a community space and adventure playground which has been a beacon of support and recreation for generations of local children and their families since the 1970s.
This year Somerville received funding from the London Mayor’s office to be registered as a Community Resilience Hub in recognition of its deep roots and the trust it enjoys in the local community.
Book your tickets. We look forward to seeing you there!
Jo Bedingfield is a local resident and committee member of The Telegraph Hill Festival green strand.
The festival runs from 14 - 29 March. Key dates and programme for the green strand are featured on Salamander's new community events page.
Full festival information: telegraph hill festival.
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