Space hoppers, bicycles of all shapes and sizes and prams were used to negotiate the crowds who crammed into Canbury Gardens on Monday for this year's Green Fair, writes Helen Barnes.

The bank holiday sunshine drew visitors of all ages down to the riverside. Some were curious about what they would see, others were old hands, but everyone got fully behind the spirit of the event which celebrates everything green.

Adults showed they had not lost the knack of riding a space hopper as they raced the giant rubber balls around the park.

Face painters, puppeteers, clowns and jugglers amused the children and they also had a chance to develop their circus and trampolining skills.

An array of two, three and four-wheeled vehicles stopped visitors in their tracks as they admired the display of bicycles and alternative vehicles.

And Kingston was also the site for the launch of a new plastic-like substance made naturally from hemp which has been used to make CDs and the world's first hempstone didgeridoo.

More than 15,000 people are thought to have attended Kingston's 16th Green Fair, which is one of the largest environmental events in the UK and is run entirely by renewable energy.

Des Kay, who sits on the fair's organising committee, said: "It was a magnificent day. We were extremely fortunate with the weather we arranged for the sun to shine all day.

"It was packed out with people. The highlights for me were the amount of people at the event and the general feeling of the day, which was very relaxed and very happy.

"There was also a huge variety of activities and lots of hands-on activities for the kids, from learning gymnastics to being able to draw murals on a special vehicle which was painted black especially for that purpose."

Additional activities this year included a specially created relaxation and healing area where people could chill out listening to live music or watching sacred dance routines or even testing sound healing.

There was also a chance for people to try the technique of falun dafa, similar to the ancient art of tai chi. Or for those looking for something even more exotic there were Brazilian belly dancers.

And as the sun started to go down the entertainment continued. Fans lined the three world music stages which had performances by bands including Machine Man, Kangaroo Moon and the internationally-renowned Jambience.

The fair's organising committee is hoping to break even this year to cover the overheads in running the fair, which costs around £51,000 to stage. Any profits that are made will be donated to environmental causes.

May 30, 2003 10:00