Mayor's Thames Festival

The Mayor's Thames Festival is an annual carnival and spectacle which takes place over two days on the banks of the River Thames between Tower Bridge and Westminster Bridge. Over half a million visitors usually attend while hundreds of artists and dancers taking part. The festival climaxes on Sunday with the Night Procession, featuring 2000 costumed performers travelling from Victoria Embankment via Blackfriars Bridge and finishing behind the National Theatre. The evening ends with a final massive fireworks display over the river as the pyrotechnics are set off from two barges between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridge. There's more fire themed displays courtesy of Compagnie Carabosse who put on a spectacular Installation of Fire in the gardens of Tate Modern. During the daytime wonderful street theatre displays, food stalls and a craft market take place as well as scores of activities for kids. Head to More London for free entertainment and carnival shows including an all-day street theatre cabaret and choirs of over 750 people singing including a kids' choir. There are all kinds of boats on display and in action at the River Pageant, sailing from The O2 to Westminster Pier, and a Classic Rally river race turning St Katherine Docks into a hive of boating activities. The hugely popular Feast on the Bridge returns to Southwark Bridge, when this Thames crossing is closed to traffic, a huge dinner party taking place of the cars with grape treading and apple-bobbing to be done, and Konditor & Cook providing a monster six-metre iced cake.