Illuminate Rotherhithe 2017

 Home Port of the Mayflower

Free local festivities | Thursday 23rd  – Monday 27th November

In parallel with the international build-up to the 400th anniversary commemorations of the sailing of the Mayflower in 1620 to the New World, Illuminate Rotherhithe is a free local five day event which aims to involve and include our diverse communities

The themes of Migration and our Local Histories run through the festival, beginning on Thursday 23rd November with a Lantern Procession, followed by a Mayflower Concert at St Mary the Virgin. With folk duo Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith, local people will participate in the concert, sharing music, song, poetry and discourse, with commemorations of the sailing of the Mayflower in 1620 at its heart.

Open lantern-making workshops for all are taking place now. Folk dance and song workshops, rope-handling demonstrations, and workshops delivered by the Museum of London Docklands are about to start in all seven primary schools on the peninsula. The folk dance workshops will culminate in a Schools’ Grand Ceilidh at Bacon’s College when 450 children from different schools will meet for the first time and dance together.

On the 24th of November, the Citizens of the World Choir will be singing songs of Migration, sharing the stage with local people who will describe how they, their families, even their ancestors ‘landed’ in Rotherhithe. There will be a Free Family Ceilidh for all to have fun on Saturday 25th November; a free screening of ‘The Pilgrims’ film followed by a discussion chaired by the local history society on the 26th November; and an exhibition about ‘Rotherhithe Delft’ tin ware pottery manufactured here by a Flemish potter in the 1630’s.

This series of free events is supported by local TRA’s, businesses, charities, philanthropists, and Southwark council: the Illuminate

Committee says a huge thank you!