Yesterday, despite feeling grim with a sore throat, I wandered down to the Thames Festival on and around the South Bank.

Specifically, I wanted to see Southwark Bridge, which had been closed to traffic for the first time, in order to create a festival of food and music in different zones across its span. Another draw was to see Scottish bagpipe/samba fusion band Mac Umba, who have been a guilty pleasure of mine for over a decade now.

(I know it seems like the most unlikely mix of musical styles, but if you think about it, what better accompaniment for something as loud as bagpipes? And, indeed, vice versa. It shouldn’t work, but it does.)

Turning the bridge into a pedestrian feast was a lovely idea, and one which seemed to make perfect sense in the late afternoon sunshine. People sat around at long feasting tables adorned with candelabras, or lounged on sofas listening to old gramaphones, or reclined on cushions in a berber tent, or slumped contentedly in deckchairs with sand between their toes, or pulled up a painted toadstool and watched their kids decorate (and consume, in equal measure) a shed-sized gingerbread house.

The whole thing had a friendly, easy-going vibe to it, which was brilliant, while all around the scents of different cuisines mixed in the air. Really different and special, and very London.