Roman Road Festival 2014 Closing Sunday [Photoessay]

On the Closing Sunday of Roman Road Festival we shut off the roads, rolled out the artificial grass and turned Roman Road into a village green. With a music stage, a big screen showing the Wimbledon tennis finals, over thirty market stalls, as well as food and drink, and a creative corner to fire up the imagination, we had all the ingredients for a bit of magic. (And don’t miss the photos of Roman Road Festival Opening Sunday and Roman Road Festival Evening Meets including Sarah Ainslie Pooch Portrait’s at Gina’s Closet).

Roman Road Festival stalls

All the stalls on the Closing Sunday were brought to you by local people and businesses. There was a wide range of market merchandise on offer from baby and children’s wear  from Viv and Joe’s and Flossie Kids; to vintage furniture from Johns London; books about the East End at the Brick Lane Book Shop stall, and vintage fashion accessories and jewellery from Bromley-by-Bow duo the Hostess Hotties.

Roman Road Festival food

As will everything else at the Roman Road Festival, we kept it local with all our food suppliers. Normally feeding the 5,000 at Roman Road Market every Saturday, it was great to have the ever-popular SuperChefCaribbean selling ‘chicken, rice and peas’ to hungry revellers on the Closing Sunday – the queue never seemed to go down. If you haven’t tried their dumplings yet you might find it tops your comfort food favourites. Nelly and Omer from Bow Belly served falafel platters as well as freshly baked scones with homemade jam; The Almond Kitchen brought her unbeatable gooey brownies, and Dhaba Lane served up – and sold out of – healthy Indian fare.

Roman Road Festival music

The day started with a rousing parade from the local kids of Barbican Drum Works, following by some spirit-lifting songs from Chisenhale Primary School Choir, Victoria Park Singers, the local EEC Gospel Choir singing Happy. Later on we had Swing Patrol getting the crowd dancing, and music from The Hobos, Ma Poleine’s Great Decline, Sunshine Mae, Shona and Bro, as well as an unforgettable psychedelic dance performance from Bethnal Green’s The Action Men.