Blimey, it’s May already, and the Chelsea Fringe will be with us in just over 2 weeks! This is its 7th year and it will be running for nine days, from Saturday May 19th until Sunday May 27th. What is the Chelsea Fringe I hear (some of you) ask? Well, it’s a fabulous alternative festival wrapped around the same dates of the Chelsea Flower Show, with hundreds of horticulturally related events happening in every corner of London, other cities in the UK and even in countries further away (yes indeed!).
Above is the wonderful Paul Wood, a great tree expert and author of ‘London’s Street Trees’. Our local community veg growing project has asked him to give a tree walk on Sunday 27th May at 10.30am in Finsbury Park. Paul is a hugely enthusiastic and entertaining guide, full of information about which trees have been planted and why. You’ll see some rare birches and a Mongolian lime..and many more, so do join us if you can. Tickets can be booked on Evenbrite.
What’s great about the Chelsea Fringe is that it takes you to parts of the capital that you wouldn’t necessarily go to and I’m very excited about all the different events and happenings this year. Here’s some more that may may tickle your fancy!
On Saturday 26th May at the Horniman Museum in S. London you can see an installation of hundreds of paper poppies (above) and then have a go at making your own.
The intriguing Omved Gardens in Highgate in N.London invite you to join them for a whole series of events throughout the Fringe, with food courses, music afternoons, Japanese Flower arranging, herbs walks and much more. Booking is essential here.
Open afternoons in the walled kitchen gardens at Chiswick House in West London is definitely one I don’t want to miss (Monday 21st May-Thursday 24th May).
And Walthamstow Wetlands (over 200 hectares of urban wetlands) in East London is somewhere I’ve been meaning to visit for a while now. There’s a sculpture trail to follow throughout the whole Fringe, allowing you to see a POP-UP collection of creations by local artisans. Collaborators include Borrowed Light Floral Studio, The Local Honey Man, Willow Weavers and Jacques Nimki, who will be repurposing locally sourced materials to create fantastic displays of the resident flora and fauna.
The London Vegetable Orchestra (LVO) can be found at Tottenham Green Market on Sunday 20 May from 11-30am – 4pm and will be making some swede sounds. I saw them last year and they were very entertaining!
LVO will host one of their creative making stall where you can watch them hand-craft local vegetable produce into instruments that sound as incredible as they look. Chopin boards will be provided…and some of you will be able to put a finishing touch to your very own “home grown” vegetable masterpiece.
Throughout the day the LVO will be giving some performances on their amazing instruments and showing you how to play along.
There are so many more events to tempt you (many for free), so do go the Chelsea Fringe Website and have a look at what’s on. I’ve always hugely enjoyed the events/gardens/exhibitions/courses I’ve been to over the last seven years, and it looks like this year will be better than ever!
Out of my shed 
What a splendidly timely reminder, full of reasons why one should look out for chances to see this year’s events. Rather a shame, though, that so few non-London events appear to have been registered in time to be on the world map – which gives the unfortunate impression that the Chelsea Fringe phenomenon may not still be expanding outside London as fast as it did in the first few years since it began.
I’ve used your post as a way to spread the word around via Kahuti and Facebook, though.
Hi Diana, more events are being posted on the website daily, so do keep on looking for other events. Hope you enjoy the Fringe this year. V.best Naomi
Here’s hoping that that happens soon – and that the events are easy to find online as well as in real life.
Hey Naomi- hope you are well- long time no speak- am a west Londoner now- but occasionally pop back north to Finsbury Park (I do miss it!). We have worked on Omved the past couple of years- it has been amazing to see the transformation from an abandoned garden centre to the green space it is now. Its not always open to the public so if you are passing worth popping in.
Hi Owen, Lovely to hear from you. Do come on our tree walk on the 27th if you feel you need a N. London fix for an hour or two!
Have booked onto 3 events at Omved. I am really intrigued to what it’s like there (I work on a garden just around the corner from there in Highgate) and the food courses look amazing! Hopefully catch up soon. Naomi x
Hi Naomi, I always mean to go to Chelsea Fringe, it always looks so much fun, but never quite make it. This year it will be Chelsea on Thursday, and Chelsea Fringe on the Fri, before leaping back on the train to Shropshire. I am seriously looking forward to both. Sally
Hope you enjoy both the Fringe and the CFS! Naomi
Love the sound of the events that you’ve highlighted, Naomi. Will definitely be booking for an Omved event. I used to go to the site years ago when it was still a garden centre, very sad that it closed down (great sell off though!) so intrigued to see what’s been made of the site. It’s behind my opticians so I know where to go! 😀 Also have long wanted to visit Chiswick House Kitchen garden since it was transformed. Must have a look at the Fringe website to see what else is on offer, although so little time at the moment! x
Hi Caro, hope you get to go to some of the Fringe events this year. Must say, really looking forward to it all starting on Saturday, just not sure how I’m going to squeeze it all in, but doing some Fringe activity most days. N xx