A lovely sunny weekend for Green Days 2026

Green Days, Acton Green, Saturday 13 June 2026; photograph Jim Cox

Sunshine and fun, courtesy of St Michael & All Angels Church

It was a lovely weekend of sunshine for the 60th anniversary Green Days in Chiswick – the two-day mega-fete organised by St Michael & All Angels Church on Acton Green which marks the start of the Bedford Park Festival.

Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who lives in Bedford Park, opened the event on Saturday morning, telling the crowd:

Sophie Ellis-Bextor talking to Torin Douglas; photograph Jim Cox

“Chiswick is such a big part of our lives, and it is such a brilliant thing that we have such an incredible community. It is absolutely my pleasure to declare the Bedford Park Festival open.”

All her “babies” had grown up here, she said, and she had launched her Four Leaf Coffee stall just across the road at Wheelers garden centre.

READ ALSO: Sophie Ellis-Bextor on pop, podcasts and why she loves living in Chiswick

Sophie also launched a new art competition for children as part of the Bedford Park Festival.

READ ALSO: Bedford Park Festival launches World Cup themed Young Art Competition

Lord Chartres, the former Bishop of London, also stressed the value of community in his address during the Mass on the Green on Sunday morning – a hard-hitting sermon on the downsides of AI, echoing what he has said in debates in Parliament, likening the pervasiveness of AI to “a transformation in human affairs every bit as momentous as the beginning of the nuclear age.

“The speed of innovation makes a reconsideration of the kind of society we wish to inhabit very urgent.”

Maybe we should be reassured that moments later the fun fair crew demonstrated the endearing fallibility of human nature by blasting out JLo’s Jenny from the Block (still on the theme of community) just as Fr Kevin Morris was giving communion, and advertising rides on the Dodgems very loudly on the PA system, clearly not having received the memo that there would be a live church service going on at the bandstand on Sunday morning.

A relaxed Fr Kevin, with general manager of the Tabard pub Jon Higginson

“I didn’t make any comment about it as I thought that would send people scurrying over to shut them down”, the ever-tolerant Fr Kevin told The Chiswick Calendar.

Scurried they did to hush the Dodgems – far too tempting as an alternative to communion.

Also on the bandstand over the weekend were performers from ArtsEd, Orchard House School, Ballet4Life, Stagecoach, Zoku belly dancers, Steve Harris and his band, The BATS of Ealing, West London Singers, The Emma Kersey Dance School and No Refund from Chiswick School, finishing up with the ever popular Creak.

The Chiswick Calendar had a stall just behind the bandstand, with our usual neighbours who we have come to know over the years – John Chapple, the bee keeper from Ealing on one side and the Bedford Park Society on the other.

The Chiswick Calendar team at Green Days L to R: Nick Raikes, Jo Raikes, George Westwood, Tom Apperley, Bridget Osborne, Juliet McDonald

We were there promoting the Club Card businesses with a raffle – six sides of A4 of lovely prizes from local businesses, everything from a £150 voucher for sunglasses from Maverick and Wolf to an olive tree from W6 garden centre in Ravenscourt Park.

We are making the draw today and the winners will be notified by email so they can pick their prizes from the list here:

READ ALSO: The Chiswick Calendar’s Green Days raffle prizes 2026

It was great to meet so many of our readers, and thank you for your lovely comments about the newsletter and the website. Now we’ve been doing this for eleven years it’s more like having a weekend long party, chatting to friends made over the years who drop by for a natter.

Left: Rupa Huq MP with Hilary Benn MP; Top right: Andy Slaugher MP with Denny Anthony from the Hogarth Youth & Community Centre; Bottom right: Comedian Al Murray also stopped by for a chat 

Bottom: Tug of war teams put their back into it; photograph Jim Cox

I’m sure many of the stallholders feel the same. There were many returnees at Children’s Corner, the Beer Tent, run by the Tabard pub, BBQ provided by Mackens, Bric-A-Brac, High Roller Tombola, Books, Plants, Cakes, Champagne Lottery, Family Cycle Zone, Electric Vehicle Zone.

READ ALSO: Al Murray leads 20 mile walk around London for nephew Finley’s charity

The Tabard pub team beat the church team at the Tug of War, and Macken Brothers were doing a brisk trade in burgers.

Top: The plant stall

Bottom: Macken Brothers burgers and the queue for them; photographs Jim Cox

Jeremy Cuss, the cane and rush craftsman, was demonstrating his skills; Felicity Gail were there with their lovely jewellery which will also be available to buy at next weekend’s Artists At Home open studios; Stephanie Legard was selling scarves; Vanessa Mills gifts made from postage stamps; Charlotte Berridge and Lorna Kyle were there again with their local prints and cards …

If you want to find any of the traders whose work you would like to go back and have a second look at, you will find them all listed here:

Craft Fair: 2026 Exhibitors

Top: The Summer Exhibition of paintings 
Bottom: The Photography exhibition / competition in the church

Summer Exhibition and Photography Competition

The Summer Exhibition of paintings and the Photography exhibition and competition were both on in the church and will be on display until Friday 19 June, when we will be announcing the winners of Photography competition at 2pm.

You can see all the photography entries here on The Chiswick Calendar website as well:

READ ALSO: Photography Competition 2026

You can vote for a winner in each category at the physical exhibition in St Michael & All Angels Church on Bath Road, which will be open this week from 12 noon to 6pm.

This is just the start of the Bedford Park Festival – a fortnight of music, theatre, walks and talks. See the full programme here:

Bedford Park Festival events

Chiswick Cinema & Tabard Theatre stalls; the bandstand, the beer tent, the craft village and the funfair; photographs Chris Parker, The Chiswick Cinema