TV comic Jo Brand made a joke of having to cut the ribbon in the rain when she opened a new East End community food garden and kids’ playground.

She huddled under an umbrella at a fete on Bethnal Green’s Approach Estate near Victoria Park where the rain was good for the garden—but not much fun for the kids in their new playground.

The drizzle was short-lived, however, and wasn’t enough to spoil the fun after the veteran comedienne opened the new space.

Tower Hamlets Homes which runs the estate laid on live entertainment, family events and children’s activities.

Highlights included live art by Lock Up Performance Art which stages free events every month at a lock-up garage on the estate for tenants to watch from their balconies.

They are “a mix of the surreal, the poetic and the down right ridiculous.”

Organiser Jordan McKenzie explained: “We perform in the community spaces to turn them into what families want them to be, not what others tell them what they should be.”

The families have played a part in developing the food garden and play area themselves by recycling what were unused spaces.