Hampstead Christmas Festival 2017

On Sunday our local Village of Hampstead put on their annual Christmas Festival
after taking a year off after no one was prepared to take on the event in 2016. And yet
upon it's welcomed return we were promised a bigger and better event with more performers
and not only one but, as 'The Ham & High' announced, at least four or five performances
stages dotted around the Street venue. In fact visitors to the event were quite shocked
to discover no stages at all. And there was no visiting local celebrities there to switch
on the Christmas lights. It really was quite a small affair despite the promise of
it being bigger and better than ever. It was as though the event had gone back to
it's roots when it was just a small affair. One wonders what the letters in this week's
Ham & High are going to say having been promised so much. There was also no
Fun Fair with the Big Wheel. And the entire length of the event stretched down
Hampstead High street to half the length it normally took up.

The one street performer we saw had the whole Village High Street to himself.
But I couldn't help noticing that in the local media that the build up to the event
was very low key. Nowhere could we find any news of who the visiting local
celebrity would be that would come and switch on the lights which lead me to
believe that things were going to be different.
The central main Stage area was badly missing. So there was no event announcers,
no performers and no rock and pop groups to keep the crowds entertained.
The very things that previously drew in the crowds from all over London.

But still, the event is back even if it was in a small way. Perhaps from here it will
grow again.

The Hampstead & Highgate local newspaper also announced last week that
the Summer outdoor Concerts at Kenwood will be returning at long last after
a three year gap. So that's good news for locals.

Above: Now here's a novel idea. It's actually a former London Telephone kiosk that is now
a coffee shop right in the middle of Hampstead High Street. And it was the idea
of Umar Khalid. Understandably he has been having problems with the local
Council over having to pay for a new street licence rather than a regular retail
Kiosk licence which would apparently increase his costs to extortionate levels.

I briefly stopped by to say hello and congratulate him on still hanging on there
having followed his story in our local newspaper THE HAM & HIGH. But silly ol' me
I forgot to take Umar's picture along with his partner Alona.
Amazingly the couple recently won a London Time Out Award for their unusual
coffee bar. And they've certainly had a lot of support from Hampstead locals.