The first Plumstead Make Merry took place on Saturday 21 June 1975 on Plumstead Common. It was organised by members of the community and featured local people and organisations that volunteered their time.
Since the first festival in 1975, the Plumstead Make Merry has grown in size, amenities and diversity. It has been held every year, with one exception, in 2011 when due to a lack of funding from the Royal Borough of Greenwich as a result of central government cuts, the festival was replaced with a scaled-down event called ‘Not the Plumstead Make Merry’.
Today, the festival is still run on a voluntary basis by members of the local community who form the Plumstead Make Merry Committee.
The Bandstand, the main performance area, gets its name from the bandstand which used to exist on Plumstead Common.
Plumstead Make Merry 