Twelfth Night celebration at Bankside

This Sunday, 6 January, the annual Bankside Twelfth Night festival takes place along the banks of the River Thames close to the Globe Theatre and Tate Modern starting at 12.45pm.

Twelfth Night is the traditional end of the Christmas season and the festival shows how the church adapted existing pagan midwinter festivals to have a Christian meaning. The festival is put on by the Lions part, a group of professional actors who perform in costume while making their way along the embankment.

The programme starts with the Holly Man, a pagan figure familiar in many European countries being brought down the river on a cutter. He’ll be met by the Bankside Mummers who perform the traditional plays and the crowd, and will wassail or toast them. The procession then moves to Bankside Jetty where the Mummers will perform the freestyle Folk Combat Play of St. George.

Cakes are handed out at the end of the play two of which have a bean or pea hidden in them. Who ever finds them will be crowned King and Queen for the day and then lead the people through the streets to the historic George Inn in Borough High Street for storytelling, the Kissing Wishing Tree and dancing.

The event is free to attend and should provide some of the best street theatre you’ll see in London all year. It all takes place just to the west of Southwark Bridge, the nearest Tubes are London Bridge, Borough or Southwark. Map