The Highams Park Spring Festival is on Sunday 8th May from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm in The Highams Park IG8 9RB (by the Lake)

The Highams Park Spring Festival is on Sunday 8th May from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm in The Highams Park IG8 9RB (by the Lake)

THE VIKINGS ARE COMING TO THE SPRING FESTIVAL IN THE HIGHAMS PARK !
We have been working with the Friends of The Highams Park to present a Spring Festival on Sunday 8th May in The Highams Park, IG8 9RB (the park by Highams Park Lake) from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm.
There will be lots of things going on including:

  • Role play and mock battles by the Ulflag Viking Re-Enactment group
  • A Falconry display by Coda Falconry
  • Folk Music and Singing
  • The Tower Ravens Sword Dancers
  • A Traditional Story Teller
  • A Craft Tent
  • Balloon modelling
  • Face Painting

There will also be a small market of around 20-30 stalls including

  • Hot and cold food stalls (why not have your lunch in the park)
  • Alcoholic and non-alcoholic refreshments
  • Crafts and other stalls

Toilet facilities will be available in the nearby Mallinson Scout building.

The festival will be centred around a Viking encampment of the Ulflag Viking Re-enactment group. The encampment will be made up of traditional Viking tents, trading stations where you can watch them preparing for battle, in battle and crafting.

We don’t know much about the Vikings in Highams Park but London was ceded to Guthrum under the Danelaw (a pact with Alfred the Great), so there would have been Vikings around the area. We have put up a Viking display in the window of Hale End Library; if one of your children wants to draw a longship and add it to the fleet please drop the drawing off at the reception in the library.

To make things more interesting Gill Poulter has made up a tongue in cheek story about a skirmish between two local Vikings: Thane Haldan of Hale End and Thane Seward of Sewardstonebury and you can find out more in the attached story. Better still come along on the 8th May and see how the battle turns out..

You can find out more in the attached poster or from the Facebook events page at : The Highams Park Spring Festival Events Page

It is free entry to the event and most of the activities are free but there are some things you will have to pay for. If you enjoy the event please feel free to make a voluntary contribution at the Friends of The Highams Park/HPPG Tent during the day and all funds used will be used to fund future events and to improve facilities in the park.

Last but not least we should like to thank the people who helped sponsor this event:

  • The Hatch Lane Councillors for providing funding through the Hatch Lane Community Ward Forum.
  • Salt Design for the beautiful posters and leaflets
  • McRae’s Property Services (The Falconry)
  • The Function Room (the Story Teller)
  • The Royal Oak Pub
  • HSS for lending us lots of equipment
  • TSS for security
  • Hobbycraft Chingford and Crafty Kilner for materials
  • And lots of other people who have provided their time for free to put this together and those who are performing for free.

We hope to see you there.

CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO READ THE STORY OF:   The Haldans and The Sewards
The Highams Park Spring Festival