Kindival - First Ever Annual Kindness Festival Hits London

Last autumn Londonist interviewed Tom Robbins about his eye-catching campaign to encourage Random Acts of Kindness. Since then we've seen the campaign accelerate with Tom taking over a stadium in Milton Keynes for 1,000 people to hug each other (in an attempt to break a world record). He's also spent a day on a frenzied mission to give out free pancakes outside Ed's Diner.

Beside being big fans of pancakes, we're pleased to hear about the next stage in this worthy crusade - behold, the rather marvellous-looking 'Kindival'. We love the Kindival logo - designed by so-now-it-hurts creative duo Jana and Rich dontchaknow - which is now promoting the first annual kindness event that London or the the UK has seen.

The event is at the prestigious and lovely Chelsea College of Art and Design from 11am-4pm next Saturday - 25th April - and is, of course, free to attend. There'll be debates, workshops, all sorts of contemporary art, talks from luminaries, massage, yoga, magicians, jugglers, puppeteers, performance artists and all sorts of other nonsense for adults and kids. And it'll be filmed for Channel 4.

In the current economic dip, there's surely no better time for a dose of niceness. We'll certainly be making an effort to give up our seat on the tube and hold doors open for strangers. Nice IS the new black. Register for free tickets here.

Image provided by Tom Robbins