Walthamstow Garden Party 2017 photos

Words and pho­tos by Aaron Lee

The Waltham­stow Gar­den Par­ty took place last week­end. For the fourth con­sec­u­tive year, musi­cians, poets, dancers, cir­cus per­form­ers, and com­mu­ni­ty groups put on a splen­did show for the thou­sands of rev­ellers who’d turned out to enjoy the fes­tiv­i­ties in Lloyd Park.

Per­form­ers this year includ­ed Toots and the May­tals, Tinari­wen, mem­bers of The Orches­tra of Syr­i­an Musi­cians, Jan­ka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, The Helio­centrics, BNe­gão & Sele­tores de Fre­quên­cia, Doug Hream Blunt and the Mes­sen­gers, and The Ska Vengers.

There were also per­for­mances by award-win­ning poet Kaya Chin­gonyi, mem­bers of the Bar­bi­can Young Poets, local poet­ry groups, dance group Blue Boy Enter­tain­ment, cir­cus team Alu­la Cyr, and others.

Here are some of our favourite moments we captured.

BNe­gão & Sele­tores de Fre­quên­cia bring­ing their Brazil­ian heat to London.

Sier­ra Leone’s Jan­ka Nabay and his inter­na­tion­al band, The Bubu Gang.

Toots and the May­tals head­lined Sat­ur­day shar­ing their root­sy reg­gae with phe­nom­e­nal energy.

Cyr wheel per­former Lil Rice: she sings, she twirls.

Poet Malakai Sargeant go plen­ty of laughs from the audi­ence with his wry humour and tales of gentrification.

Poets Jere­mi­ah Brown and Vic­to­ria Aduk­wei Bul­ley.

Poet Cameron Holler­an bold­ly took his pas­sages direct­ly to the people.

Tyrone Lewis pon­dered what would hap­pen if Luke Sky­walk­er was black, things that remind him he is black, and why his mum has “a TARDIS heart”.

Eslam Jawaad and mem­bers of The Orches­tra of Syr­i­an Musi­cians.

Barbo­ra Patko­va with jazz-psych ensem­ble The Helio­centrics.

Young come­di­ans Hol­ly Nor­ring­ton and Ted­dy Lamb.

Tinari­wen, award-win­ning Malian musi­cians and grass­roots activists, closed the fes­ti­val on Sun­day evening.

A record 19,000 peo­ple vis­it­ed the fes­ti­val, and near­ly 35,000 across the week­end. There were over 1,300 par­tic­i­pants, includ­ing 450 young people.

Find out more about the Waltham­stow Gar­den Par­ty here.

The above pho­tos remain prop­er­ty of their respec­tive owner(s). Any repro­duc­tion or copy­ing is pro­hib­it­ed, unless pre­vi­ous­ly agreed with the pho­tog­ra­ph­er. Please con­tact the pho­tog­ra­ph­er direct­ly or email us here.