2026 Community Festival
Community Festival Blog
On 12th September, our doors opened to welcome the community in for an afternoon of celebration, creativity, and connection for our 2026 Community Festival.
This festival celebrated 10 years of community impact and a decade in our building at 67 Plender Street.
We’ve had ups and downs through the years, and this past year was particularly challenging given the flood in January and subsequent closure of the ground floor. Nevertheless, we have continued to support each other and find opportunities to come together until we reopened our doors in July. We are so grateful to be able to reflect on this special occasion in the newly renovated building!
Mayor visited and unveiled our Community Mosaic
The festival was buzzing with community members coming together to support activities and celebrate. At 12:00 PM, the Mayor of Camden, Councillor Leman, joined us at the centre to meet and greet before unveiling the community mosaic!
SPCA Office Manager Sophia and Marketing Lead Sasha came up with the idea for the mosaic as an activity for the Camley Street Festival. Volunteers from QBE helped cut fabric squares, which families visiting our stall decorated with drawings and additional fabrics to create images of their favourite places in Camden.
We asked art teacher Didi to lead another session with her Golden Years class and Community Kitchen coordinator Diana to lead sessions with the families that attend on Thursday evenings.
All of the squares were stitched together by the lovely team at Cleaners and Coffee, and framed in black ribbon by Sophia.
The Mayor unveiled the finished mosaic and spoke warmly about the creativity, dedication and community spirit that helped bring the project to life.
Bric-a-brac stall and face painting
In the café underneath the mosaic, we set up a bric-a-brac stall filled with knickknacks donated by Amanda, who oversaw the table along with Golden Years member Effie.
Throughout the day, Amanda and Effie raised over £70 to donate to SPCA!
We also had a face painting stall led by Jay, who painted beautiful images on children and adults for all to enjoy.
Activities on the pitches
After enjoying the excitement of the Mayor’s visit, perusing the lovely bric-a-brac, and getting a beautiful face painting, visitors moved towards the pitches for drinks, snacks, and activities. Children played with hula hoops, decorated fabric squares for a new community mosaic and learned how to reimagine a t-shirt with Amaya.
The team from Chronically Marvellous also set up a wonderful mindfulness table where visitors could sit and slow down, participating in meditative activities and colouring. Visitors could also enjoy a slushie and learn more about the organisation's mobility equipment.
We also had the crew from Less Wages come in to prepare their delicious BBQ chicken with salad, rice and peas, plus a stall selling children toys.
Time for performances
Once the festival was in full swing, the performers took centre stage! Hosted by comedian Rabiah Coon and singer Milli-Rose, the afternoon's performances brought a collection of talented singers, poets, and dancers.
First, Layla shared spoken word poetry developed in part at Crossword Lyric, a Camden-based poetry and music platform. These personal pieces resonated across the audience.
Our Golden Years singers then took the stage, led by volunteer extraordinaire Kate. She guided the singers through six of their favourite tunes, including You’ve Got a Friend, Country Roads, and Lean on Me. The crowd was singing along to this impassioned performance!
We also enjoyed a powerful spoken word performance from Awa, host of the podcast Diaspora Diaries, who shared moving reflections on her experience in the Caribbean diaspora.
Milli-Rose then switched from hosting duties to performing her gorgeous original songs. She gave an interactive performance and even brought on special guest star, Bella.
Finally, we had Zubaidah, our fabulous belly dance instructor, close out performances with a lovely dance that got audience members on their feet.
Wrapping up the day
By 4:00pm, as the festival drew to a close, there was just enough time for a last bite, drink, and plenty of warm goodbyes.
Thank you to everyone who came along, performed, sang, danced, and shared in the spirit of the day. This festival is, at its heart, a celebration of our community, and it was wonderful to see so many people there enjoying and helping to make the event such a success. It would not have been possible without the help of so many individuals who came together to uplift their community.
We’d also like to extend a warm thank you to the team behind the Camden Community Festival Grant for the generous support they offered to contribute to this event.
We can’t wait to see you at the next one!
