The Idler

May Day Riot News

06 May 2008

Thanks to everyone who came to our May Day Riot on Thursday May 1st, during which we managed to roast and eat a pig on a traffic island in central London, without having asked for permission.

We had first attempted to roast the pig in the small park in Clerkenwell Close, behind the church, but the local vicar put a stop to that plan for merriment.

We then carried the hot pig and the two burning log baskets to Clerkenwell Green itself and continued to cook the hog there. We’d like to say “Thanks” to a local council man who could recognise the good spirit behind what we were doing and told us to carry on. At around eight thirty, it was ready, and we gave out hog roast buns with apple sauce to the assembled Idler friends, readers and local residents.

It was interesting to note that of all the authorities, council and police seemed to let us get on with what we were doing, but the church did not.

Anyway, you can read Stevyn Colgan’s blog about the event here.

I think it should become a May Day custom: gangs of rogue hog roasters roaming London and cooking up and doling out on the streets.