About the Festival

What we do

Telegraph Hill Festival is a two week long festival celebrating local talent that takes place in and around Telegraph Hill in South East London.  We are a local Festival. Events are drawn from people’s ideas and it is their energy which sustains the events.  We promote artists, makers, creators and community groups. We invest in experiences that enrich our community. In recent years we’ve started to see all aspects of the community better represented, and that’s something we’d like to continue.

We are run on a voluntary, collaborative basis. We operate on not-for-profit principles and are unique in that we are self-funding. This voluntary ethos extends to everyone involved with the Festival.  The Festival is only made possible by the amazing talent, commitment and hard work of all the local artists, performers, groups, organisations and volunteers that get involved, donating their time and talents for free.

We want to see all parts of the community represented and we want to engage and collaborate with as many potential hosting venues and community groups as we can. If you or your group could contribute an event or if you run a space and would like to work with us to become a host please get in touch!

Who we are

The Festival is organised by the Festival Group which is open to everyone willing to make the time to collaborate voluntarily.

For 2024 the core team is Gill Holmes, Tamsin Bacchus, Mark Martynski, Peter Challis, Rima Bray, Katie Spires, Mary Mcinerney, Vanessa Slade and Graeme Wheatley.

How We Operate

The Festival Group is a sub committee of St Catherine’s Parochial Church Council.  The Telegraph Hill Festival was formally set up in the mid 1990s by members of the local community and a previous Vicar of St Catherine’s following previous years of existence as a “Day in the Park” and over the decades has grown from an extended weekend to the present 16 days crammed with well over 100 events.

St Catherine’s Church and the Telegraph Hill Centre are the primary in kind sponsors of the Telegraph Hill Festival, giving us space free of charge ahead of and during the Festival fortnight and always going the extra mile to accommodate us.  We really couldn’t do it without their continued generosity.

Our Supporters

We receive no public funding but are grateful for the support of the following in-kind supporters:

St Catherine’s Church Hatcham

The Telegraph Hill Centre

The Hill Station

Hatcham House

Deptford Cinema

Earl of Derby