An afternoon of slow but very skilled river activity, as the world’s slowest river races re-enact the way that watermen manoeuvred their barges on the Thames in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first event is the Dave Pope Challenge (noon-12.30pm), in which modern-day watermen and lightermen compete. This is followed at 2pm by the Steve Faldo Memorial Barge Drive, in memory of the captain who died along with 50 others when the pleasure boat The Marchioness sank after being run down by a dredger on August 20 1989. The races begin at Waterloo Bridge and end at Tower Bridge.
For more Thames Festival highlights see our feature.