London 2012 blog

Unseasonally rainy weather couldn't dampen spirits yesterday in Trafalgar Square as Londoners and tourists together celebrated Africa Day.

Food stands selling a range of African cuisines and market stalls with a range of commemorative and traditional goods complemented the entertainment on stage, with music and dance acts from around the continent and the wider diaspora.

The London 2012 information stand was out again, helping visitors to the event to understand the benefits of the 2012 Games for all Londoners.

On this occasion we were able to bring with us a model of the Olympic Park after the Games, helping visitors (including Olaseni, with me in the photo below) to understand also what comes after the Games and how important the planning for the post-Games future is to us all.

We were lucky enough to be in the main tent, so with poor weather outside we were inundated with visitors throughout the day: picking up the material available, looking at the model and asking questions.

There were many more children and young people at this event than at some of the events we go to so we used to chance to speak to everyone and excite them about the Games, including Lesedi, Olwethu and Siyabonga (below) attending the show with their families.



It was great to see so many people out enjoying London and the range of communities present gave me the chance to get in some language practice too, communicating with visitors from Cameroon and France in French.

But the crowd really came into its own in the middle afternoon, when an electrifying performance from Miriam Makeba - 'Mama Africa' - brought thousands of people into the square, bouncing in time to the music under their umbrellas and hundreds more into our tent - a little drier and well positioned to catch a glimpse of such an important artist.



We had a great time at Africa Day, buoyed along by the warmth and positivity of the crowd, entertained by the performers and so busy all day long talking to people about the Games that we managed to give out almost twice as much material as normal - over 2000 pieces of information!