October Plenty
View our October Plenty photo gallery
Visit external galleries: October Plenty 2007 (Facebook), October Plenty 2006 (Wyrdness), October Plenty 2006 (Memories), October Plenty 2005, October Plenty 2004, October Plenty 2003, October Plenty at Flickr.
October Plenty is an Autumn harvest celebration held annually in Southwark. Beginning on the Bankside, by Shakespeare's Globe, October Plenty mixes ancient seasonal customs and theatre with contemporary festivity, joining with historic Borough Market, Southwark.
October Plenty is a collective celebration of the seasons, weather and food, in a public place, with access to everyone. The event is free, and happens whatever the weather.
The October Plenty programme:
The Corn Queene
A huge Corn Queene effigy heavy with 'Plenty' - wheat, barley and other grains, and apples, root vegetables and foliage from the Borough Market - appears in a procession around the front of the Globe, Bankside, with the Company of actors and the time-honoured Hobby Horse in attendance, strung with cakes and loaves and led by the Berry Man.
The Berry Man
The Berry Man - our Autumn incarnation of the original Green Man - decked with wild fruits and foliage, leads the company. He carries an Apple Tree to where it will be placed within the Bankside area, with general songs and music on the street for all.
The Procession
We then move through the streets to the Borough Market. There in the Green market there is time to savour the delights on offer: soul cakes, conker fights, cider from the New Forest, apple bobbing, a great beer selection and the wonderful market stalls and more dancing.
The Play
The Company perform The Pregnant Farmer or The Cuckfold Basket.
The text is taken from several original Fastnachtsspiele or Nonsensenightplays. Vibrant old tales of pastoral life, these ebullient 16th Century verse plays by Hans Sachs and contemporaries are rarely performed. Spiced with present day festive spirit and song, today's play is newly translated and adapted for October Plenty.
The Story Orchard
A glade of young English apple trees creates a space for children to gather. There they can re-clothe the trees with green wishes (paper apples) and listen to stories about apples, markets, harvest time and London sparrows!
There is a tasting table of old apple types from London by Brogdale Horticultural Trust with decorations created at Roots and Shoots, the Lambeth community gardens environment project where the Corn Queene is created.
We are pleased to be supported by the Pool of London Partnership (PLP) Small Grants Fund in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
