London

Notting Hill Carnival

Highlights of this year’s Coin Street Festival on the South Bank include an English ceilidh (June 2), Pulse 2007, celebrating the cultural influence of central and eastern European communities in the UK (June 16), Celebrating Sanctuary, which marks the contribution that refugee communities make to the capital (June 17), Turkish Fest (July 14 & 15) and Capital Age, London’s biggest festival for older people, now in its fifth year (Aug 19).
Coin Street Festival, Bernie Spain Gardens adjacent to Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank, SE1 (020 7401 2255/www.coinstreetfestival.org) Waterloo or Blackfriars tube/rail. Feature continues

Watch This Space Festival
If you’ve never seen comedy matadors, pigs on stilts, or at least one apocalyptic vision on the South Bank, then you’ve obviously never experienced the National Theatre’s annual Watch This Space Festival. This year, the daily programme of free entertainment on the National Theatre Square runs from July 6 to September 16, and includes Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ presented by the visually astonishing Polish company Teatr Biuro Podrózy. Marvel at the elaborate waterworks in Avanti Display’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’.
Watch This Space Festival, National Theatre Square, South Bank, SE1 (020 7452 3400/www.nationaltheatre.org.uk) Waterloo tube/rail. July 6-Sept 17; ‘Heart of Darkness’, July 25-28, Aug 1-3; ‘Storm Bringer’, presented by Avanti Display, July 12-14



Notting Hill Carnival
The August bank holiday in W11 is given over to the Notting Hill Carnival. A crowd of more than a million party like there’s no tomorrow, enjoying the spectacle of the floats and soaking up the music of steel bands, reggae and the many soundsystems along the three-mile route. Sunday is Children’s Day, with an emphasis on younger festival goers.
Notting Hill Carnival, Notting Hill, W11 (www.rbkc.gov.uk/nottinghill) Notting Hill Gate tube. Aug 26-27

Nitin Sawhney
Enjoy the silent Indian film ‘A Throw of Dice’ (1929) with a new, live score performed by Nitin Sawhney and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Nitin Sawhney, Trafalgar Square, WC2 (www.london.gov.uk) Charing Cross tube/rail. Aug 30

Regent Street Festival
The summer shopping spree takes place on a Sunday in early September and sees the street pedestrianised for the day. Shops offer free food and wine tastings, as well as exhibitions and makeovers.
(www.regentstreetonline.com)

Thames Festival
The annual Thames Festival transforms the South Bank between Westminster and Tower bridges with world food stalls, street theatre and live music. Highlights are the magical lantern festival and the closing fireworks.
(www.thamesfestival.org) Sept 15-16

London Design Week
Trafalgar Square will host an exhibition featuring Lomography, a form of photography, and a new installation by maverick British designer Tom Dixon.
London Design Week, Trafalgar Square, WC2 (www.londondesignfestival.com) Charing Cross tube/rail. Sept 17-22

Lord Mayor's Show
Every year the new Lord Mayor of London is presented to the monarch for approval. The three-mile-long parade leaves Mansion House at 11am arriving at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand before returning to Mansion house for 2.30pm. The parade involves thousands of people, hundreds of horses and scores of floats. A fireworks display from a barge moored between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges rounds the whole thing off.
Lord Mayor’s Show, through the streets of the City (www.lordmayorshow.org) St Paul’s tube. Nov 10