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Carve out a crackin' weekend with a pumpkin lantern show in Dalston's Curve Garden, work your way through top-notch booze at a birthday Brewers' Market or dance until the early hours at an all-night set from Theo Parrish. Step this way for a mighty fine few days!
Things to do
Deep Trash from Outer Space, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, Sat, from £6. An out of this world evening packed with live performances, installations, artworks and films from over 40 contributing artists.
RA Lates: Manhattan Swing, Royal Academy, Sat, £35. Transport yourself back to the ‘40s and ‘50s in Manhattan, at this late event inspired by the ‘Abstract Expressionism’ exhibition.
A Weekend of Hygge, The London Edition Hotel, Sat-Sun, prices vary. This weekend of events hosted by The London Edition and presented by Signe Johansen, author of 'How to Hygge', is all about comfort. Book in advance for cinnamon buns, soft homewares, heartwarming films and Finnish music.
London Local Autumn Market, Crate Brewery, Sun, free. Crate Brewery will be crammed full of beautiful handmade products at this one-day market.
Dalston Pumpkin Lantern Show, Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, Sun, free. Carve a pumpkin for free over the weekend then return to see your handiwork lit up with all the other fabulous creations in the garden.
The Paper Cinema: Ghost Stories, Studio 3 Arts, Sun, £8. Plucking inspiration from ghost stories that are said to have taken place across the country, this performance from a pair of puppeteers armed with a projector retells the spooky tales using pen and ink drawings brought to life through animation.
Dean Strang and Jerry Buting: Making A Murderer, London Palladium, Sun, prices vary. Steven Avery's defence attorneys, Dean Strang and Jerry Buting are touching down in London for an evening of conversation surrounding the case and USA's criminal justice system as a whole.
Apple Day, Kentish Town City Farm, Sun, £1, 30p children. Kentish Town City Farm has been celebrating this juicy fruit festival since 1992, and this year apple fans will have the chance to taste and buy a variety of British apples including the brilliantly named Frogmore, Burr Knot and Hoary Morning.
Bloomsbury Festival, various Locations in Bloomsbury, all weekend, prices vary. Bloomsbury Festival returns in 2016 with a packed line-up featuring performances, live music and events celebrating the rich heritage of the area.
The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined, Barbican Centre, all weekend, £14.50. What makes something vulgar? This exhibition on the question of taste asks why vulgarity is such a sensitive and controversial issue with the help of archive fashion from over 120 exhibits from over 500 years of fashion.
…or check out more events happening in London this weekend.
Eating and drinking
Hoxtoberfest, Hoxton Docks, Fri-Sat, £30. Sausages, music and beer make the perfect trio at east London's version of Oktoberfest.
Morito Seafood Festival, Morito, Fri-Sun, £55. The fourth instalment of Morito’s seafood sensation brings a celebration of the sea to London’s landlubbers.
Vinery London, Lumberjack, Sat, £5.90. Similar to a Weinerei in Berlin, this new monthly drinks evening invites wine lovers to enjoy a glass in a candlelit setting.
London Brewers' Market, Venn Street Market, Sat, free. Help celebrate Venn Street Market's fifth birthday at this boozy bash with the likes of Orbit Beers, The Five Points Brewing Company and Gipsy Hill Brewing Company.
Vegfest, Olympia London, Sat-Sun, £15 (£12 adv). Check your tofu stocks and get ready for some meat-free magic, Europe's biggest vegetarian event is back for 2016 at Olympia Central.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Live music
Matthew Herbert, Brixton Jamm, TONIGHT, £5-£20. Producer, conceptual auteur and mult-instrumentalist performer Herbert rolls out his high-minded house and electronica.
MØ, Roundhouse, Sat, £17.50. MØ pairs shimmering synths and erratic beats with laconic vocals.
Mos Def (Yasiin Bey), The Forum (O2 Forum Kentish Town), Sat, £23.50 & £26.50. Yasiin Bey, the conscious MC formerly known as Mos Def (and born Dante Terrell Smith) plays his extensive back catalogue of funk-and-soul-soaked hip hop anthems to get the place jumping.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this weekend.
Nightlife
Gorgon City, O2 Academy Brixton, TONIGHT, £18. Production duo Kye Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott make some of the sharpest, most on-point club music around.
Scared To Dance: Girls To The Front Special, The Victoria, TONIGHT, £6. Scared To Dance and Girls To The Front are teaming up for a night of riot grrrl, post-punk and new wave by female-fronted bands.
Oval Space Music, Oval Space, TONIGHT, £10. The Oval Space Music series continues to power on with tons of stellar, bleeding-edge DJs supplying the soundtracks. Dive in and get dancing.
Supa Dupa Fly x Drizzy Takeover, Trapeze, TONIGHT, £6. A celebration of all things Drake, with DJs supplying hip hop, R&B and garage classics from the 90s and 00s.
Electric Minds 10: Theo Parrish (All Night), Studio Spaces E1, Sat, from £12.50. House deity Theo Parrish has nearly 30 years’ experience of throwing a good party, so expect a big one at Wapping’s Studio Spaces.
…or see all the parties planned this weekend.
Film
The Nomad & Time Out present ‘The Fly’, Farmopolis, TONIGHT, £15. Another classic screening themed around nature’s wrath, Time Out presents this horror classic in conjunction with outdoor cinema experts The Nomad, in the tropical paradise of Farmopolis.
Classic Cinema Club: ‘Anna Karenina’, Ealing Town Hall, TONIGHT, £7, £6 concs. This blend of old-Hollywood gloss, Greta Garbo’s aloof charm and the labyrinthine Tolstoy novel works like a charm.
Black Star: ‘Imitation of Life’, Deptford Cinema, Sat, £5, £3.50 concs. Another in the BFI’s season celebrating black performers, this one screening off-site at the Deptford Cinema.
Or at the cinema...
Queen of Katwe ★★★★☆ The young cast light up Mira Nair's uplifting, sympathetic story of a Ugandan chess champion born into poverty.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back ★★★☆☆ Tom Cruise returns as Jack Reacher in the follow-up to the 2012 original.
…or see all of the latest releases.
Theatre
The Red Barn, National Theatre, Lyttelton, Fri-Sat, £18-£65. Mark Strong is excellent as a man doubting his entire life in this stylish new production from Robert Icke.
A Man of Good Hope, Young Vic, Fri-Sat, £10-£35. A heartbreaking opera set in a South African township.
The Mountaintop, Young Vic, Fri-Sat, £10-£20. A superb mini-revival of Katori Hall's Olivier-winning Martin Luther King drama.
One Night In Miami…, Donmar Warehouse, Fri-Sat, £10-£40. Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown 'enjoy' a night in.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
Auguste Rodin, courtesy the Courtauld Gallery and Musée Rodin
This week's best new art
Rodin And Dance: The Essence Of Movement, Courtauld Institute, all weekend, £8.50. This show pulls together a bunch of rude drawings and sculptures that Rodin never showed publicly and largely didn’t even finish. They’re based on dance and largely use one single model in just two acrobatic poses as their inspiration.
Feminist Avant-Garde Of The 1970s, Photographers' Gallery, all weekend, £3, concs £2.50. It’s a big one, this new exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery: 200-plus works by 48 artists from 20 countries.
Affordable Art Fair Battersea, Battersea Evolution, all weekend, £8-£15. The AAF does exactly what it says on the tin. Since its launch in 2008, it’s made buying art a far less exclusive affair – works are priced at a maximum of £5,000, and tips for buying are listed on the website.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win... tickets for an exclusive skate at the Natural History Museum or a VIP night at English National Opera to see Tosca
Grab... tickets to see the Royal Shakespeare Company's multi-award winning show 'Matilda The Musical'
Book… these gigs while you still can
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