Tidefest 2026 at Strand on the Green: Sunday 6 September

Tidefest, the family river festival at Strand on the Green, is on Sunday 6 September this year, and the organisers’ listings are now up on the Totally Thames festival programme with times and prices. The headline for most Chiswick households is the free street party the Strand on the Green Association runs on Thames Road, between the Steam Packet and the Bell and Crown, from 1pm to 4pm. Around it, on the water and the foreshore, are ticketed canoe, kayak and paddleboard sessions, a river clean-up, a natural history walk, a youth dance performance under Kew Bridge and the angling championship that started the whole thing in 2014.

Tidefest is part of Totally Thames, the Thames Festival Trust’s month-long September season, and each Tidefest event is listed on the Trust’s what’s-on pages by the group running it. Everything below is taken from those listings; book through the links, because several activities are limited to a handful of slots.

The street party, 1pm to 4pm, free

The Strand on the Green Association’s listing promises stalls with games (“Splat the Rat”, knocking down tins with a bean bag, bouncing a ping pong ball into a jar), a children’s art activity, live music, and a tombola raising money for RIANA, a local charity, with a signed Brentford FC shirt among the prizes. The Brentford and Chiswick History Society will be there with a display about the area. Food and drink come from the two pubs at either end of the pitch, with coffee from Dear Coco and ice cream from Non Solo Gelato. The listing gives the location as Strand on the Green / Thames Road, W4 3PU, nearest station Kew Bridge.

The party sits on Thames Road itself, so expect the stretch between the two pubs to be closed to traffic for the afternoon. The listing does not give a closure time; if you park on Thames Road, plan on moving the car that morning and check for any temporary notice the council posts nearer the day. Our Chiswick roadworks and travel page will note it if one appears.

On the water: what it costs and who can go

• Canoeing with Edge Progressive Paddling, 11am to 5pm, £10 per canoe for 45 minutes. Launches from the arches on the north side of Kew Bridge. Up to four in a canoe, for example two adults and two school-age children, with at least one adult per boat. Fifteen minutes’ set-up is included in the slot. Canoes, paddles and buoyancy aids are provided; bring a full change of clothes because changing facilities are limited.
• Sea kayak beginner sessions with Chelsea Kayak Club, three 90-minute sessions between 1.30pm and 6.30pm, £22.38. From the Brentford Boating Arch, Unit 5 Kew Bridge Arches, W4 3NG. Over-18s only, each session run by two experienced paddlers.
• Intro to paddleboarding with Active 360, 1pm to 4pm, £9 adults and £4 children aged 11 and over. Taster sessions covering SUP safety and the navigation rules of the tidal river.
• Paddle and Pick with Active 360, 1pm to 4pm, £10 adults and £5 children aged 14 and over. A guided paddle around the local islands at low tide, stopping to pick litter from the foreshore, trees and water. The fee is a deposit refunded as an Active 360 credit voucher after you attend.
• Natural history tour with Active 360, 1pm to 4pm, £15 adults and £9 children aged 14 and over. A guided look at the wildlife that has returned to a river the listing describes as “once biologically dead” before the 1970s.

The angling championship, 6am to 6pm, £20

The Tidefest Angling Championship is in its 13th year and is billed as London’s only major river match. Forty pegs are fished over four zones at Strand on the Green, Chiswick and Barnes, for the Mike Martin-Davies Trophy, named after a three-times champion who died during Covid. Tickets are £20 in advance, £5 of which goes to the charity Get Hooked on Fishing, and the sponsored payout gives the top four by zone £400, £250, £250 and £250. Last year’s winner, according to the listing, was Mark Brush of Daiwa Gordon League with 26lb 5oz of roach from the Kew zone; the Chiswick zone was won with just under 11lb 14oz.

The same listing carries the festival’s origin story: Tidefest began in 2014 as a coalition of river organisations including the Angling Trust, growing out of the Thames Tunnel Now campaign for what became the Thames Tideway Tunnel.

Beautiful Future: Thames Tides, 9am to 1pm, free but ticketed

Also on the programme is a youth-led dance workshop and performance at Kew Bridge, run by Sara Macqueen and Christopher Radford with Linden Dance Company. A small group of London young people aged 10 and over spend the morning working up a short piece responding to the river’s tides, histories and ecology, ending in a free outdoor performance for families and a facilitated conversation about the river and climate change. Places on the workshop must be booked in advance through the listing.

What it means for you

• Going with children: the street party is free and unticketed, 1pm to 4pm. If you want them on the water, the £10 canoe (11am to 5pm) takes school-age children with an adult; paddleboarding is 11 and over; Paddle and Pick and the natural history tour are 14 and over; kayaking is adults only. Book the water sessions now rather than on the day.
• Getting there: every listing gives Kew Bridge as the nearest station, and the party pitch is a short walk from the station along Thames Road. Kew Bridge is on the South Western Railway line from Waterloo; see our Chiswick train times page.
• Living on Thames Road or Strand on the Green: the stretch between the Steam Packet and the Bell and Crown is given over to the party from 1pm to 4pm and will be busy before that as stalls set up. The angling match starts at 6am along the bank.
• Tides: Paddle and Pick goes out at low tide. If you are walking the towpath, remember Strand on the Green floods on high spring tides; the Environment Agency’s Tidal Thames at Chiswick flood area covers this stretch.