The London Hotel is celebrating the biggest ever William Street Festival, taking it to the streets with entertainment, Chinese food and gallons of Pimms.
The annual William Street Festival is billed as Sydney’s first fashion laneway celebration, the myriad of boutique fashion and art businesses joining hospitality in a tribute to “one of the most vibrant and successful commercial, residential, cultural and tourist areas in Australia”.
The 2017 instalment last Saturday was the ninth for the successful festival and the “busiest, biggest and craziest of them all” as locals and visitors browsed through the street installations on a sunny Spring afternoon.
Natasha Stanley’s London Hotel, on the corner of Underwood and William Streets, saw the bulk of the action and 2,000 revellers file past, the attentions largely courtesy of its DJ percussionist, food stall dishing out popular Dim Sims and Baos, and a mobile Pimms bar, serving ready-made aperitifs.
“It was a really good day,” restaurant manager Taylor Jones told PubTIC.
“It was a record-breaking William Street Festival for us. The busiest part of the street was out the front of our pub; I think the DJ drew a big crowd, playing perfect music for the demographic.
“The Chinese food was selling like crazy, and we had a line all day for the Pimms stand, going through seven kegs and selling around 1,500 drinks. It was sold out by 6:30.”
“I’ve been working here four years, and I know almost everyone in every shop. The Festival is about celebrating a street.”
