I can wax lyrically about the virtues of South London. And I pretty much try to convince all other Londoners to give it a shot. Usually, once you’ve lured someone south of the river you’ve got them trapped and tempted. No, you don’t have the hubub of central London, but does anyone really want to deal with that many tourists all the time?
Instead you have the vibrancy of Brixton; the 1000s of acres of green space south of the river (we live with 3 enormous parks within a 10 minute walk); the charm of it’s little villages like Dulwich and the allure of local markets untouched by crowds.
But the biggest perk of all is the sense of community that you get. You have all the benefits of being in London (okay, bar the Tube, I’ll admit that being reliant on Southern and the Overground are less than satisfactory), but still with a sense of the “village” of being in a community and having a shared vested interest. Which brings us to the Crystal Palace summer festival.
It’s grown rapidly over the years and is hovering on the brink of becoming something bigger than it was intended. But for now it’s the perfect size. Big enough that it’s varied with something for everyone, but still retains the sense that it’s for “the locals”.
This group of men saw me with a camera and insisted that I take a photo of them, even though I explained that there’s no way I’d ever figure out their identities to send it to them. My logic was lost on them so I just took the photo.
What’s your local festival like?
