I have never been one to follow the crowd, but that doesn't mean I don't like watching it. Especially when the people are wearing funny hats. As I headed into central London on a recent weekend, I got to gawk at all the fans heading to the Royal Ascot races, a world-class horse race more famous than the Kentucky Derby. I'm no Tim Gunn, but from what I could tell, the spectators out in full force at Waterloo station were adhering to the strict dress code.
Me being without a proper hat -- and race tickets -- I headed, as per my plan, to Picadilly Circus, the Times Square of London. Apparently, I beat the rush, as the sidewalks were relatively empty, compared to train platforms (left). But as I walked to Trafalgar Square, my actual destination, I encountered people lining the streets. They were gathered at the starting line of the Modball Rally Europe, a race from London to Barcelona through Paris, Milan, Rome, and Monaco (right).
I'm more a fan of cabaret than cars, so I walked on past to West End Live, an annaul event that features sneak peeks of shows currently playing in London theatres. (Yeah, that's right theatres with an R then E.) Sticking with the "mod" theme, I showed up just as the band from Sunny Afternoon was performing; the musical details the rise to fame of The Kinks, one of the early leaders of the mod movement in Britain (left). Trafalgar Square was packed, so I watched snippets of Memphis the Musical, Matilda the Musical, Miss Saigon, and Phantom of the Opera on a huge TV screen next to the actual stage (right).
Appropriately enough, it started to sprinkle during the Les Misérables set (left), so I decided to call it quits with the showtunes. The songs were great, but actually, my favorite performance was by the puppeteers who play Joey, the star of War Horse; I couldn't believe how convincing they made his equine movements. It was almost more shocking than the fact that Bradley Cooper can convincingly play the lead in Elephant Man (right). Stage magic, I tell you.
By the time I left, there was a line waiting to get into West End Live, and it was difficult to walk through the throngs around Picadilly Circus, so I was happy to escape to Pimlico, the district known for the former home to Winston Churchill and its Regency architecture. To the south across the Thames from Pimlico Gardens, I saw a drastically different type of architecture: the new U.S. embassy, whose scheduled opening in 2017 has not been well-received by everyone.
Across the street to the north, in St. George's Square, there was a very welcoming atmosphere at SouthWestFest, where a person dressed in a rabbit or chipmunk or rat costume was greeting people (top). I was expecting a larger community festival, but the Gala Day was more like the lawn fetes of my younger days, except with trampoline-bungee jumping (bottom left) and a slide as tall as a cathedral (bottom right).
There were no schweddy balls on offer at the festival food stands, so I headed to Pimlico's main drag looking for sustenance. During a previous day out, I didn't order any pub food because I didn't want to seem out a place, so I was happy to see plenty of people dining when I walked into the White Swan. I doubled down on pubbiness with a steak and ale pie with a Frontier, a "new wave craft lager" from Fuller's, on the side. With my belly full and skies gray -- and no more funny hats in sight -- I called it a day.
The festival offerings were a bit different, too. I wore lots of sequins when I twirled baton at some school fairs, but my costumes had nothing on some of these main-stage acts. I should probably know what country these people are from because of the flag, but I'm not going to lie, I don't (left). (A free place to stay in London is up for grabs for anyone who figures it out.) When I was a kid, if I was lucky, my parents would let me bring home the goldfish that I won in the fishbowl toss, but I'm not sure they would've let me buy a "smelly ball" (right). A schweddy ball for 3 pounds maybe, but a "smelly ball" for 3 pounds is simply highway robbery.
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