Ten days, hundreds of flavours: Tower Hamlets’ 2025 Power of Food festival
A 10-day borough-wide celebration of food, culture, and community in Tower Hamlets highlights our local heritage and shared meals.
A 10-day borough-wide festival is taking place next week to celebrate the diverse food cultures in Tower Hamlets and local projects promoting a more sustainable food system.
The Power of Food Festival, organised by the local charity Just Food and the Climate Transition Programme (Just FACT), is packed with a range of free events, including community meals, cookery classes, and panel discussions. They aim to invite the public to reflect on a food system that prioritises community and environmental wellbeing, and recognises the work done by local groups.
The events are all free of charge, but some of them require booking.
Whether you are a foodie, professional chef, or cultural enthusiast looking for intellectual inspiration, here are the highlights of the festival.
Celebrations of food and culture
With almost one-third of the population being Bangladeshi, Tower Hamlets is the home of some of the best South Asian restaurants in London. Therefore, the festival features several workshops that explore food as an expression of identity and heritage. For example, Swadhinta Trust, based at Queen Mary University, will host a Chanachur making and Masala chai tasting class on 20 September.
During the drop-in ‘Recipes of Life’ workshop on the 23rd, you can hear women from the Somali and Bangladeshi communities sharing the stories behind their secret recipes. On the 25th, The Scene, a South Asian collective, will also offer a thought-provoking evening exploring the regional variation and history of biryani.
If you are interested in other food cultures, ‘Boodle Karaoke’ on 21 September is for you. Inspired by the Filipino Kamayan tradition where people eat with their hands and banana leaf plates, it showcases the most authentic Filipino food with karaoke.
Art exhibitions
The cultural depths of food can be recorded in different art forms. Between 15 September and 5 October, the photography exhibition ‘The Full English’ will be hosted at Poplar Union. Curated by Nurull Islam, an Honorary Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, it explores how the iconic Full English breakfast evolved into a staple in Muslim households. You can also appreciate the local food heroes in city farms and food co-ops at the ‘Power of Food portrait exhibition’, from 12 September to 14 October.
As one of the most important local art venues, the Whitechapel Gallery will screen five short films that examine food and climate issues on 21 September. They are all produced by British filmmakers with an ethnic minority background, and the screening will be followed by a discussion.
Panel discussions
The festival features numerous panel discussions about food justice, and the highlight is the ‘Perpetual Stew’ series. It takes place at the House of Annetta, an eighteenth-century house on Princelet Street. One social issue is explored each day, followed by a community feast where the volunteers cook a meal with the ingredients participants bring along.
Additionally, you can discuss food-related social welfare like school meals and community kitchens on 24 September; the food politics of capitalism and land ownership on the 25th; and fair food policy-making on the 26th. Booking is required for all of them.
Family activities
There are plenty of activities for your little ones. For example, Poplar’s Teviot Centre will host three after-school cooking workshops. Parents and children can make delicious dishes using surplus produce from the Bowden Primary School’s community garden.
You can also join the family-friendly stop-motion workshop on 26 September. It teaches you and your children to make videos using recycled and natural materials, and they will be screened the next day. ‘StoryPlay’, where children can nurture summer harvests at Rich Mix, is perfect for a family weekend half-day out too.
Community events
Food is undeniably a social tie, and the festival encourages local residents to connect with each other through food. In the ‘Stone Soup’ evening, you can bring along an ingredient that has a personal story, prepare a feast with other participants, and discuss the future of food in Poplar. You can also meet other Poplar’s residents in the plastic-free picnic on 26 September, when everyone brings their own home dishes and learn to make bread from scratch.
City farm opening
Over the ten days, the Mudchute Farm, Stepney City Farm, Bethnal Green Ecology Garden, Folx Farm, Spitalfields City Farm, and Swedenborg Square Orchard will open on different days for free tours, workshops, talks, and volunteering sessions. You can visit the one in your neighbourhood to learn about the crucial role city farms play in environmental education and sustainable food provisions.
More details can be found on Just FACT’s website and Instagram page.
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