Tooting Town Centre Manager, Brian Albuquerque, reflects on 3 acts of neighbourly kindness that made his job as party organiser that much easier.......

Whilst it rained for about 15 minutes earlier on in the event, we had cover by way of a marquee which I had ordered to go in front of the stage. However, thankfully, the rain stopped and the weather improved and all was remarkably well! 

Huge thanks to all who helped make this event a success and especially to our sponsors Wandsworth Council, Tooting Partnership, Pearl Chemist Group, Minar Jewellers, Patel Brothers, McDonalds, Tooting Market and Wandsworth Radio (who sourced most of the acts for me). 

The traders who had stalls at the event as well as the performers were all amazing as were our contractors / partners but what really struck me most of all was the great sense of community spirit I encountered first hand in terms of neighbourly kindness and help shown on 3 occasions before the party even started! 

1) a resident called John who lives on Ruislip Road offered me and all the staff / contractors working on the event the use of his loo should we need it (we had 2 portable toilets on Cowick but this kind man didn't know this). 

2) myself, Lorinda, the security person had been on site from 6.30am for the road closure and a resident of Cowick Rd (who also runs a business in Tooting) came out and made some coffees for us and lent us his ladder to put the bunting up.

3) when I desperately needed a portable loud speaker for the Havana Londres salsa group I walked over to The Sound Lounge and asked Keiron (who was right in the middle of preparing a Sunday roast for his patrons due to his chef being absent) and he kindly obliged with no hesitation.

Of course when these 3 nice things happened, despite the depressing forecasts of bad weather that disturbed me, my mood began to lift and then later the rain stopped and the sun came out to shine on our party!