Sparks Fly At The Thames Festival's Night Carnival 2012

Over the weekend the Mayor of London’s Thames Festival took place at various spots along the river in central London, marking the closure of London 2012. One of the events was a Night Carnival which commenced just after sunset on Sunday and involved over 2000 performers taking to the streets, starting at the southern end of Blackfriars Bridge, crossing the river and then heading west along the Victoria Embankment towards central London.

The Night Carnival was a spectacular affair – there were huge mannequins and puppets alongside hundreds of colourful dancers dancing to beats from reggae to samba, some of whom were even on unicycles and stilts! There was a particularly large South American contingent, including lots of Bolivian women in sumptuous traditional dress and men wearing the most incredibly ornate costumes which were covered in braid and sequins. I was also quite taken with the funerial group of performers who turned up looking like an extended Addams family – they danced around around strange gas-light lampposts gliding along beside them, which was very spooky indeed! Taking advantage of the dark conditions, many performers had lights sewn into their costumes so it was quite dazzling to watch them all process past. Great fun!

Here’s a selection from the photographs that I took of the Thames Festival’s Night Carnival – you’ll find a larger album online at the following Google+ link.