Illuminate Bermondsey & Rotherhithe 2023

Illuminate Bermondsey & Rotherhithe is a free annual festival for local residents, inspired by the histories of the Thames, the docks, and migration. Local schools and community groups will create their own lanterns at artist-led workshops, and everyone was invited to gather with their illuminated artworks in Blue Bermondsey Market Place at 5 pm on Friday, November 24, 2023. As darkness fell, the parade departed for Southwark Park Bandstand.

The overarching theme for all Illuminate events has been the local history of migration, from the Mayflower to the transient London population of today. This year’s parade theme will be ‘Food and The Blue’. Rotherhithe and Bermondsey has a celebrated history as a bustling dock, where food for the city would arrive by ship for storage and processing in the vast warehouses and factories, Bermondsey became known as London’s Larder. 

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