London Bankside October Plenty

Where: London - Starting at Bankside near the Globe Theatre and processing to Borough Market
When: Sunday late in October
Time: Noon

 

October Plenty is a harvest festival celebration of the bounty of autumn and is a fusion of old customs with modern street theatre. It’s held each October, starting outside the Globe Theatre on Bankside in London again (after a year beginning outside the Imperial War Museum), and it takes place whatever the weather, free of charge. Traditional figures will be there such as the Corn Queene, Hobby Horse and Berry Man, the autumnal incarnation of the green man complete with an apple tree. The proceedings get underway with  a procession which winds its way to Borough Market followed by dancing, performances of plays and seasonal fare including cider. As the event is organised by professional actors the standard is very high! There are competitions for all ages, a story-telling orchard, singing and dancing and at the end the Corn Queene is dismantled and her many component parts are flung to the crowd (we took home a turnip!).

Helpful Hints

In 2023 the event is took a break but should hopefully return in 2024 (details to be announced). In 2022 it was on Sunday 23rd October from 11 am. Future years may also see different route/s and venues as the previous ones are sometimes restricted or unavailable- full details will appear on the event website link below .

This is a very family friendly event organised by the same team as Twelfth Night Celebrations. In 2012 when we went, it coincided with Apple Day so many of the events followed the theme, such as apple bobbing, competitions for the longest apple peel and apple tasting. There were also displays of bees and conker competitions. Borough Market itself had a very diverse and tempting array of goods on offer.

Click here for the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheLionsPart

Click here for the event website (this was put of action when I last checked but I’m hoping it’ll get fixed) : http://www.thelionspart.co.uk/octoberplenty/index.html

View this location on the map.