Hampstead Summer Festival kicks off with Big Fair this weekend

The annual Hampstead Summer Festival (HSF) returns for a week of art, culture and community celebrations.

Opening with the much-loved Big Fair on Sunday (11am to 5pm), Heath Street will be transformed into a colourful carnival street party with bustling stalls selling artisan food, drink and crafts.

Family entertainment includes fairground rides, a street circus, dance performances, donkey rides and falconry - all to a backdrop of live music.

Also making an appearance will be the interactive SportZone, offering mini-tennis competitions, penalty shoot-outs and live martial arts demonstrations.

From Monday until the following Saturday the festivities continue with daily celebrations of Hampstead’s historic houses, restaurants and shops.

This includes an international chess tournament at Henderson Court Resource Centre in Fitzjohns Avenue, a musical audiovisual installation at Fenton House in Hampstead Grove, and a play at Pentameters Theatre in Heath Street.

Poetry workshops at Keats House and special tours of the Freud Museum will also be put on by organisers while The Flask and King William IV pubs will be holding HSF pub quizzes.

For more information on the week’s events and how to enter the HSF raffle, visit hampsteadsummerfestival.com.

All funds raised this year will be donated to Age UK Camden’s Henderson Court Resource Centre and Keats Community Library.