Queen’s Park Day: ‘Amazing day’ could have seen record 18,000 people at community festival

Fine weather on Sunday may well have seen Queen’s Park Day smash its attendance record, organisers believe, after thousands flocked to the annual community festival.

Chief organiser Helen Durnford was delighted with how things had gone.

The former teacher told the Brent & Kilburn Times: "It was amazing, a really fun day.

"We don't have the official count yet, but we think we probably had more people than ever before because of the weather - maybe 18,000 people.

"And we even had sheep racing - I imagine we were the only place in London last weekend to have the Lamb National!"

For Helen, a particular highlight had been the dancing on show at the park's bandstand.

She said: "I loved the dancing - the Elites London Greek dancers were fantastic. They're young people who want to keep their cultural roots alive.

"We also had a Cuban band playing Cuban music. There were so many people dancing to them - more than I can ever remember, and we have been doing this so many years!"

Helen also praised the "truly local" nature of the festival's stallholders, paying tribute to the "incredible community spirit" it shows off.

She added: "People come and stay with family specifically around this weekend, and visitors always pay tribute to the community here. The vast majority of the stalls are local, and that's what we're about."

One such stallholder was Michael Stuart, from the Kensal to Kilburn Fruit Harvesters.

The group, which is part of Transition Kensal to Kilburn, works to minimise food waste, increase sustainability, and improve food knowledge in the area.

At Queen's Park Day, Michael said his stall "got through a quarter of a tonne of apples" by selling more than 400 glasses of juice to visitors.

He added: "It went brilliantly for us. It was a lovely day and people really appreciated the refreshment.

"It's our big fundraiser for the year - we sell glasses of juice for £1 to help keep us going."

This year, Michael said, the apples used had been foraged by a group of young people from a Kenton branch of the beavers and cub scouts.