This news piece can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Arts Council England will provide £40,000 to fund Wandsworth Arts Festival, helping to claim back run-down public areas by the river.

The event will run from May 3 – 19, with the official launch taking place on the opening day.
This year, over 40 events are set to feature including a new event called the Festival Fringe – a volunteer organised collection of community-based events as a testing ground for new work.
The festival will close on a large-scale outdoor event called The Shimmy. Lasting all day and free to attend, the public are invited to walk along the riverside between Putney Wharf and Wandsworth Park, filled with art installations, performances and spoken word recitals.

Councillor Jonathan Cook, Wandsworth’s culture spokesman said that the ‘generous’ funding would help the festival to be even better than before.

“For the past two years, the arts festival has given residents and visitors from all over London the chance to discover the enormous wealth of culture and creativity Wandsworth has to offer,” he said.
Details on the acts and events will be released by the Arts Team from April.

To find out more about the festival, event information can be found at http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/artsfestival, on Facebook as ‘WandsworthArtsTeam’ and on Twitter @wandsworth_arts.