On the rainiest possible Saturday, our fantastic Festival Swimmers showed up and swam their races - and what a joy it was to have you all along! We are so proud of everyone who participated, and we hope you are proud of yourselves too. As we sign off for this year, read on for some highlights, the Official Results, and Festival of Swimming 2026...

Race Results

The Official Results for the Festival of Swimming 2025 are here. Please find your event attached to this article. You will be able to view your results by overall position and by heat.

This year, our timekeeping volunteers had the additional challenge of working through the rain from start to finish. Unfortunately, this has meant that collecting and processing the results has been difficult and some sheets have suffered significant water damage. Although the accuracy of the recording may have taken a blow, we hope that the spirit of the event has still come across - swimming is for everyone and racing can be fun, regardless of your ability.

A huge well done to all participants! 

All our participants received a limited-edition Festival of Swimming hat for their participation, and some were even lucky to cop some spot prizes for their races. Picked randomly with a spinning wheel, irrespective of whether they are first, second or last, some happy participants became the recipients of gifts like London Fields Lido mugs, bottles, and, most excitingly, some limited artwork prints by Claire from Park Prints

Highlights of the day

Kicking off the day to an upbeat soundtrack by Tony, our brave swimmers gathered up for a warm-up and a ponder around the User Group Cake Sale and stalls. The bakes seem to go down a treat, as the sale managed to raise a whopping £836 for Project Indigo, with donations still trickling in throughout the week. Project Indigo support young LGBT+ people in Hackney - and we hope to see them coming to use the Lido during the summer! Despite the rain, we had a fantastic turnout of swimmers and a seriously impressive display of individual races, including:

• 400m freestyle
• 100m breast and free
• 50m back, fly, breast and free

Following the individual events, we saw some brilliant relays too… including a staff medley relay by the London Fields Lido Management, wearing their winter uniform. For those who watched, no need to be concerned – we can assure you that we don’t pick butterfly and backstroke as the quickest ways to reach our casualties! It happened to be the last shift for one of our Duty Managers, Ivan, so it was only right to give him a challenge for his send off.

To round off the day, the rain which had started right at the beginning of the swimmers’ briefing, of course, decided to stop as soon as the event was over – so all’s well that ends well! If you want to see more, head over to the London Fields Lido Instagram for a highlights video and more snaps of the event.

Festival of Swimming 2026

Ready to join us for 2026? We would love to hear your feedback! If you could spare a few minutes to fill out our feedback form, we would really appreciate it.

Thank yous and acknowledgements

This event would not have been possible without the hard work of so many on the Festival of Swimming Team. We would like to say a huge thank you to:

Hackney Aquatics Club for their support, swim meet expertise and representation, with a special thank you to Chris and Stephen who have worked so hard this year and last to bring this event across the finish line

London Fields User Group for their delicious bakes and unending generosity with their time and effort

Festival of Swimming Volunteers for their infectious positivity and support – the event couldn’t happen without you!

Thank you to Gayle, Sara, Beatrice, Marc, Vicky, Amy, Anna, Hester, Rachel, Danique, Del and everyone else who helped on the day.

For their support and participation in the event, we are also grateful to:

• Out To Swim
• AC Aquatics
• Mamma Swim
• St Joseph’s Hospice
• Josephine Bacon
• Stella Sparkle
• Annie Rice
• Melanie Tea and Tarot
• Tony with the Musical Accompaniment
• And the London Fields Lido team!

Thank you all and see you again next year!

- Festival of Swimming Team