Cally Festival 2025 was another great day celebrating the Cally

This year’s Cally Festival was another fantastic day for our community. On Sunday 6th July, over 10,000 people came to celebrate “The Cally” – a distinctive place with a strong sense of community and renewed optimism. Now into its 15th year, the Festival has become the largest community event in Islington.

We closed a stretch of Caledonian Road from Offord Rd to Cally Pool to accommodate the festival. We had 3 music stages, performance areas, numerous activities for children and young people, sports, arts and crafts and a large street market. This year, all the traders were local businesses from the Cally and nearby in Islington.

Local Councillors were there all day on a stall near Bridgeman Road meeting residents, listening, talking and spotlighting our campaign alongside BetKnowMore to stop betting shops and 24 hr slots shops on high streets like Cally.

Speaking on the main stage with local Cllrs, the Leader of Islington and MP Emily Thornberry, we had pride of place for this year’s Mayor of Islington, Cllr Jason Jackson. He said: “In a time of increasing division and conflict across the world, what we have in Cally is all about different people getting on, living together in harmony.”

The Caledonian Ward Councillors, Una O’Halloran, Sarah Hyde and Paul Convery, are the ‘custodians’ of the Festival.

Cally Councillor and Leader of the Council, Una O’ Halloran, said: “We are proud to ensure the Cally Festival happens every year and is run to an amazing standard by our production team and accountable body, Copenhagen Youth Project. In Cally we’re a community that’s pulling together. The Festival saw thousands of local people enjoying the best we have to offer in Cally.“

Cllr Sara Hyde added “A huge number of people and organisations contributed to this year’s Festival. I particularly want to thank the scores of volunteers who helped alongside the many Council staff from the highways, refuse, licensing, community development and local economy teams. We could not run the Festival without its production team of Joana, Russell and Simon led by Barry Causton, and the support of the accountable body, Copenhagen Youth Project. We are so lucky in Cally to have a wonderful community group, the Al-Asharaf Community Welfare Association, who cooked over 300 hot meals at the Jean Stokes Centre serving all the festival performers and volunteers. Sandwiches were also kindly provided by Sunflour Bakery.”

If you attended the Festival, please let the organisers know what you thought. This will help plan for the next year’s festival which will be held on Sunday 5th July 2026. There’s a simple online survey of just 9 questions that takes about 45 seconds to complete. It’s at: http://thecallyfestival.co.uk/survey

The Cally Festival is financially supported by Islington Council and other sponsors. Income and expenditure is published in the Festival’s most recent annual evaluation report.

Here’s a gallery of pictures showing the great diversity of culture, science, dance, play, food and exercise showcased by the Cally Festival (main credit: Susannah Fields and others).