Holiday weekend at Victoria Park

Victoria Park in East London is hosting a special Bank Holiday event called Paradise Gardens, two days of live music, street theatre, circus performances, a designer village fete, dance groups and food and crafts stalls. Victoria Park is on the border of Hackney and Tower Hamlets and is a popular venue for gigs.

Paradise Gardens, on from 26-27 May, features the Paradise Stage with live music from 1-10pm each day including the best in Jazz, Hip-Hop, Ska, Latin, Rockabilly, and Folk. There are two After Dark Performances, one each night featuring two newly commissioned works. On the Saturday night at 10pm The Dhol Academy and Walk the Plank ‘Dhol Drums in the Dark’, is a processional music piece that has drummers, stiltwalkers and a giant mobile drum which will all be lit. On Sunday at 9.45pm the festival finale ‘I too will be free’ has spectacular fireworks and pyrotechnic effects.

Bassline Circus has a show called Advertigo that has a great mix of high wire antics, magic, high energy physical circus skills and hiphop, dubstep, breaks and drum and bass music and a story that demolishes the culture of commercial advertising. Shows at 3.30pm and 7pm, tickets cost £5.

The food stalls will be selling food from many cuisines including French, Argentinean, Caribbean, Indian, Mexican, South East Asian and Moroccan and there’s a large arts and craft market nearby. There’s a big programme of street arts, a steam fair and two shows from east London Dance. Paradise Gardens is a free event, open from 1pm-10.30pm and Mile End on the Central Line is the nearest Tube.