All the fun of the Fete

Although Sarah and I are always "celebrating Fulham" (it's part of the job description!), last weekend gave us even more reason to shout it from the rooftops as the Hammersmith and Fulham Council's "Celebrating Fulham" initiative kicked off with the Wandsworth Bridge Road Fun Day.

The Wandsworth Bridge Road is our local high street, as it is for hordes of young Fulhamites who live in the Sands End area. However, amongst our age group I think sometimes the road's popularity suffers from its proximity to the bigger hubs of the Kings Road and Fulham Road. And it's a shame, because it's crammed full of great little restaurants, coffee shops and retailers (most of whom are independent) and this event was a fantastic idea to stir up some footfall and reintroduce Fulham to what a brilliant road it really is.

The event was organised by a newly formed retailers association (Cameronesque Big Society in action!) and a host of local volunteers, who donated their time and money to put on a whole day's programme of street performers, dance acts, kids activities and massive discounts across food, drink, beauty treatments and the majority of the local shops. 

Sarah and I spent a very happy day - in the sunshine no less! - flitting between the amazing paella and sangria deal at Lola Rojo, the fantastic music acts outside Greedy Buddha, and chilling out with a San Miguel and Sangria whilst the flamenco and guitar act got the crowds clapping at La Cuenta. We booked in some half price beauty treatments at Era, picked up balloon animals from Circus Circus and spied the Mayor of Fulham sampling the raclette outside Pret A Vivre. Even Elen Rivas made a little appearance. Unfortunately, she wasn't dancing, but she looked like she was having a great time with her kids and a group of friends enjoying the music in La Cuenta. 

Unfortunately we won nothing on the raffle but some lucky sods have won a free dinner at The Sands End and others have won race day tickets to Ascot! Still, since all the proceeds went to Help A Capital Child I suppose I can't feel too badly about it!

All in all, a fab day out, and a great way of reconnecting with the local community. I'll definitely be keeping it local more often in the future, and look forward to some of the other Celebrating Fulham events. You can see the full programme here.