Shaking off the old feel of lawn bowls being only for those advancing towards retirement age and played in a plain white uniform, Festibowl with it’s more relaxed and social approach has rolled back into Finsbury Square for 2019 and better yet, they’ll have another location in London Bridge too.
So with no uniforms (unless you really want to!), and mixed crowds of friends, families and colleagues, Festibowl is a modern spin on the traditional game of lawn bowls played in a relaxed festival party atmosphere with music, drinks and street food to enjoy before, during or after the game.
Finsbury Square is apparently one of London’s oldest bowling green so it make perfect sense that Festibowl chose this location and it sits perfectly in central London with many options to get there. With the main bowling green set in the middle, there are loads of picnic tables and green space to sit and socialise in.
The rules were explained to us by the out lovely resident experts.
The main blowing green is divided into 8 rinks (i.e lanes), separated by long ropes. Bowls is played in teams of 8 (4 vs 4), every players gets a bowl.
The aim is to roll the bowl as close to the jack as possible.
If you’re ball hits the rope or the sandbags at the end it’s considered ‘dead’ and doesn’t count (we saw this alot :-(). Once all bowls are rolled, the team with the closest bowl to the jack is declared the winner for that round.
Play goes on until time is up.
It’s a relaxed, yet competitively social atmosphere with entertaining running commentary delivered by the rink-master (aka emcee for the day).
Just before our time was up the best bowlers from each rink (sadly not me) during the session (judged by the emcees and resident experts) are invited to a final round – the Bowl Off. This is an opportunity to not just be the best in your group but to be declared amongst everyone playing, get on the top step of the podium the prize of some free drinks!
Once you’ve finished playing there are a few food stalls including The Bowler Meatballs (aptly named!) and Mama Jerk and others varying by day catering for a range of tastes and the bar has some good drink and cocktail options as well.
I absolutely loved the Festibowl personalised bowls and would have tried to snag it, but they are quite heavy and I think people would notice if they disappeared, but I walked away with a winners rosette!
For the 2019 season, Festibowl takes place at Finsbury Square, EC2A. and Potters Field Park, SE1. For more information and to book your tickets visit: https://www.festibowl.co.uk/
