By Elisa Freeling
If saying goodbye to summer makes you sad, cheer yourself up with a celebration of autumn. We’ve got a bumper crop of harvest and apple festivals in and near London, big and small, wacky and traditional. Bob for apples, carve a pumpkin, enter a pie-eating contest, or take a scything workshop—but above all enjoy the delectable delights of locally and lovingly grown food. We’re all for fall!
What: City Harvest Festival London
When: Saturday 19 September 2015
Where: Capel Manor College, Enfield, EN1 4RQ
Cost: £6.50 adult / £3.50 child
Dubbing itself ‘a country show with an urban twist’, this annual festival celebrates city farms and community gardens across London with a local preserve competition, animals, crafts, bees, falconry, and a tug-of-war finale.
What: Harvest Moon Festival
When: Saturday 26 September 2015
Where: Norwich Puppet Theatre, NR3 1TN
Cost: £15
Go back to the harvest festival’s pagan roots at the Harvest Moon Festival up in Norwich. Expect traditional witchcraft, druidry, a chanting workshop, and a family zone.
What: Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festival
When: Sunday 27 September 2015
Where: Guildhall Yard, EC2V 5AE
Cost: FREE
See the Pearly Kings and Queens parade from the Guildhall Yard to St Mary-le-Bow church. The event starts at midday and features music, dancing, and donkeys. Look closely at the pearly patterns of the costermongers’ costumes to discern their meanings: a heart for charity, horseshoe for luck, wheel for the circle of life.
What: Alternative E1 Harvest Festival
When: Sunday 27 September 2015
Where: Spitalfields City Farm, E1 5AR
Cost: £1 to enter a competition
Compete for Best Chilli Display, Best Garden for Fairies, or So Wrong It’s Right Cake, or just enjoy the live music, cooking demos, and donkey rides at the first Alternative E1 Harvest Festival.
What: Apple Day Brighton
When: Sunday 27 September 2015
Where: Stanmer Park, Brighton
Cost: FREE
The emphasis is on local here, with Sussex fruit tasting and a volunteer-run café serving food made with locally foraged fruit. Enjoy apple-inspired cocktails (or mocktails) plus music and dance, funfair rides, crafts for kids (including felting and t-shirt design), have a go at pressing apple juice, and check out the scything workshop.
What: Fenton House and Garden Apple Weekend
When: weekend of 3–4 October 2015
Where: Fenton House and Garden, Hampstead, NW3 6SP
Cost: £2 (National Trust member) / £8.50 adult / £3 child (over age 5)
Held in the lovely walled garden of Fenton House, the annual Apple Weekend features apple tasting, cake stalls, and kids’ activities including badge-making (a big hit with my kids last year).
What: RHS London Harvest Festival Show
When: weekend of 6–7 October 2015
Where: RHS Lindley Halls, SW1P 2QW
Cost: £5 (plus fee) in advance / £8 on the day
The Royal Horticultural Society Harvest Festival is a good one for keen gardeners. Enter their fruit and vegetable competition, learn how to brew your own cider, sample apples from Wisley, or carve a pumpkin.
What: Brogdale National Apple Festival
When: weekend of 17¬–18 October 2015
Where: Faversham, Kent, ME13 8XZ
Cost: £8 adult / £4 child / £20 family
Claiming to be the biggest and best (well, it is home to the National Fruit Collection), the Brogdale event displays some 500 apple varieties for your viewing pleasure. Appetite suitably whetted, you can then head to the tasting and take home your favourites, whether Red Granny Smith or Rank Thorn. There are also pie-eating competitions, falconry displays, archery, kids’ crafts, face painting, miniature train rides, and more.
What: October Plenty
When: Sunday 25 October 2015
Where: Bankside, Southwark, by Shakespeare’s Globe
Cost: FREE
Organised by local theatre group the Lions part, this festival features a huge Corn Queene effigy, the Berry Man, and a procession from Bankside to Borough Market’s Apple Day (see below).
What: Borough Market Apple Day
When: Sunday 25 October 2015
Where: Borough Market, SE1 1TL
Cost: FREE
Visit the magical Story Orchard, bob for apples, watch a performance of The Pregnant Farmer by local theatre group the Lions part. (See their October Plenty, above.)
