Festival fun in the sun 2014

Windmill parade 2014

It's not often you see 10-foot poppies waving in the breeze on Brixton Hill.

But this was the scene at yesterday's annual Brixton Windmill parade and festival, whose theme of "Poppies and prams" resulted in an abundance of flowers.

As usual, sponsor Veolia came up trumps, providing vehicles to transport the cake, pie (from which real pigeons emerged), and Obama the horse, who was also decked out in poppies for the occasion. The troop of roadsweepers even wore flower-decorated masks to go with the poppies in their carts.

Mills from flower shop Vessel on Atlantic Road pushed a pram of beautiful flowers, and the June Queens looked stunning in their red and black dresses made from fabric donated by Simply Fabrics.

Music is a vital part of any parade, and samba band Triba and Sudbourne School steel band did us proud, getting the crowds on Brixton Road dancing in the street.

Once at the park, the music and fun continued. Performers included new acts such as the Pram Chorus and some cossack dancers as well as perennial favourites The Hobos, The No Frills Band, and flamenco dancers.

Brixton City Farm provided turkeys, ducks, sheep and goats, there were stalls, races and competitions. The Brixton Windmill Theatre Company re-enacted the history of the Ashby family who once owned Brixton Windmill, helped hugely by some magnificent props loaned by WBC

Perhaps the spirit of the day was best summed up by the comment of one visitor who turned up on inline skates: "I was told there was this really crazy festival going on at Brixton Windmill. I came expecting to find a lot of drugs being passed around, but instead it's full of families having a really great time!"

We can confirm that the poppies were only paper!

Many thanks to Lambeth Events for all their help in organising the festival, and to everyone who volunteered to make it such a success.

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