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Start the weekend right with a slap-up lunch courtesy of Kerb, watch live music, get hula-hooping or pet cute animals at Lambeth Country Show, or head to the new Citadel Festival on Sunday for great bands, food, talks and more. Enjoy!
Things to do
Hackney Summer Fete, St John-at-Hackney Church, Sat, free. Celebrate east London life at this fete held across nine conjoined sites in the parish grounds of St. John at Hackney Church. Hackney Heart Market have curated a great selection of food and drink stalls including The Pie Chart, Tonkotsu, Dalston Cola and East London Liquor Company.
Whitecross Street Party, Farringdon, Sat, free. Back for 2015, the foodie thoroughfare of Whitecross Street hosts its annual street party plus an exhibition titled 'Rise of the Non Conformists', featuring work by Louis Masai, Linda Florence, Rachel James and Liz Temperley.
Talk To Me Day, various London locations, Sat, free. Talk To Me Day is taking place around the world .Londoners can take part by heading to a 'Talk Bar' (serving conversations instead of drinks), joining workshops on how to talk to strangers, getting involved in the pub quiz (with an unknown team, of course) or just by striking up a convo with a passer by.
Walthamstow Garden Party, Lloyd Park, Sat-Sun, free. Programmed by the Barbican and Create London in partnership with Waltham Forest Council, the Walthamstow Garden Party is a free two-day festival in E17 that combines a cracking music line-up with plenty of family fun: theatre, dancing, comedy, circus, art activities with the William Morris Gallery and a designers' market.
The Greenwich Street Performers Festival On the Gardens, Cutty Sark Gardens, Sat-Sun, free. Enjoy a whole range of performances from musicians, dancers, comedians, jugglers and more on three different stages at this festival celebrating the city's talented street performers.
Lambeth Country Show, Brockwell Park, Sat-Sun, free. For the forty-first time, Brockwell Park is filled with traditional country fayre fare for Lambeth Country Show. As well as the ever-enticing vegetable sculpture competition, the show's vast line-up features live music, sheep shearing, flamenco dance performances, hula hoop workshops, a mini zoo and lots, lots more.
Dishoom’s Eid Al-Fitr Celebration, King's Cross, Sun, free. Dishoom King's Cross celebrates the end of Ramadan's fasting with a traditional party open to all. Chai, mithai (Indian sweets) and fizzy drinks such as Thums Up and Limca will be offered to guests, and activities include Arabic calligraphy, henna designs and a communal tree decorated with Eid messages of peace and compassion.
Camden Beach, Roundhouse, all weekend, free. NW1 isn't usually on the list of coastal getaways but, thanks to the ever-creative team at the Roundhouse, 'Camden Beach' is returning this summer with 900 square metres of pseudo-shoreline consisting of 150 tonnes of sand.
Supper Tub, Number 90, all weekend, £50 for pair, £150 for whole tub (up to eight people). This latest incarnation of a hot tub happening comes complete with a Peruvian inspired menu to dine on after a summer evening soak. Once guests have washed away the stresses of the day in the wood-fired tubs, small dishes range between £4-£6 can be ordered to enjoy overlooking the Hackney canal.
…or check out more events happening in London this weekend.
Eating and drinking
Brunch with Kerb, Cubitt Square, Sat, £12. Join street food collective Kerb as they join forces with daily newsletter Emerald Street to make brunch an even more desirable fixture than usual for one day only. Cocktails, craft beer, soft drinks and coffee will lift you out of any morning stupor you're struggling with before you tuck into as much of the great food on offer as you can manage.
Peckham Market, The Academy at Peckham, Sat, free. This weekly produce and street market sees 20 traders pitch up in the car park of a Peckham school, selling locally sourced produce and brunch to the hungry masses.
Cocktails in the City, Bedford Square Gardens, Sat-Sun, £15. Returning for 2015, this two-day boozy spectacular brings together cocktails from around 20 bars in the capital, so you don't have to waste time travelling to sample the range of delicious drinks London has to offer.
Bellavita Expo, Business Design Centre, Sun, £15. Let Italian food magazine Bellavita wish you buon appetito at this event featuring hundreds of traders, wine tasting sessions and masterclasses from chefs such as Aldo Zilli, Carmelo Carnevale and Lukas Pfaff.
Little Feast, Shepherd's Bush Yard, all weekend, free. Street food festival Feast have produced a younger sibling to bring delicious dishes and drinks to Shepherd's Bush.
No Small Talk Before Breakfast Festival, all weekend, Studio 2, New Inn Yard, prices vary. A celebration of breakfast food and the new breakfast bar from Spoon Cereals. Expect granola bowls with gourmet yoghurt, compotes and seasonal fruit, plus canapés, cold press juices and specialty coffee. A pre-brekkie workout will take place and the shop will be selling kitchenware collections, cookbooks and granola.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Ealing Comedy Festival, Walpole Park (Big Top), Fri-Sat, £20. The Ealing Comedy Festival returns in 2015 for its twenty-second year! The annual Walpole Park bonanza always features spectacular line-ups, and 2015 is no exception.
Puddles Pity Party, Soho Theatre, Fri-Sat, £20, £17.50 concs. A 6' 8" clown croons sad covers of pop songs in this comedy-cabaret show.
BlundaBus @ Croydon Comedy Festival, Croydon, Fri-Sat, £5 per show. Comedy shows all abord a big, red London double-decker, called the BlundaBus. It's currently parked in Croydon, hosting a mix of Edinburgh Fringe previews and line-up shows as part of the Croydon Comedy Festival, before it heads up to Scotland for the Fringe.
Luisa Omielan – Am I Right Ladies?, Bloomsbury Theatre, Sat, £17.50. Feelgood comic Luisa Omielan is back with another sass-filled comedy hour. Omielan's previous show, 'What Would Beyoncé Do?' sold out multiple runs at the Soho Theatre and has been a huge hit in the US too.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Live music
Kwabs, Somerset House, TONIGHT, £29.50. Kwabena Adjepong brings his powerful voice and pulsating synths to bear at his biggest home town headline show so far.
Lovebox, Victoria Park, Fri-Sat, £94.59 (Fri and Sat), £54.50 (Fri). The party in Victoria Park returns for 2015, with Snoop Dogg and Rudimental headlining and loads more great live acts and DJs.
Belle And Sebastian, Somerset House, Sat, £29.50. Stuart Murdoch’s bookish indie-pop favourites showcase their new album.
Citadel Festival, Victoria Park, Sun, £45. From the people behind Lovebox and Wilderness festivals comes Citadel – a new one-day event that sets up in Victoria Park this July. Held the day after Lovebox, this new venture aims to be a lot more culturally nourishing and arts-driven than most conventional festivals.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this weekend.
Nightlife
Matthew Dear + Delano Smith + Dauwd, XOYO, TONIGHT, £13.50. Progressive producer, musician and vocalist Matthew Dear can turn his hand to anything from wonky electronica to dark, industrial pop, but since he's playing a DJ set tonight it's a fairly safe bet he'll roll out some pretty banging techno.
Lovebox After Dark, multiple venues, Fri-Sat, from £10. Once again, the shedloads of fun happening at ever-ace London festival Lovebox doesn't stop when it's closing time at Viccie Park. When the daytime action at the main festival finishes on both days (July 17 and 18), Lovebox After Dark kicks off the nocturnal chapter.
Larry Levan Birthday Bash, Ministry of Sound, Sun, £25, £12-£20 adv. An all-day Sunday party celebrating seminal NYC disco DJ Larry Levan, featuring selectors that played at the renowned Paradise Garage club.
…or see all the parties planned this weekend.
Film
Classic Cinema Club: ‘Harold and Maude’, Ealing Town Hall, TONIGHT, £7, £6 concs. ‘Harold and Maude’, the gentle flipside of the revolutionary dream, is every bit as charming, affecting and surprising as it must have been on its first release. Partly this is because none of its themes have gone out of date: we still live in a world of empty privilege and rigid hierarchy, petty authority and relentless conformism.
The Nomad, multiple venues, Fri-Sat, £15-£30. Nomad reaches the places that no other open-air cinema does, with pop-ups in all sorts of kooky London nooks and crannies. Not only do its screenings have the coolest locations – from creepy Bromptom Cemetery to gorgeous Hyde Park Lido – they have the best festival atmosphere of any outdoor cinema.
Shubbak Film Festival: 'Couscous', Ciné Lumière, Sat, £10, £8 concs. This festival of Arab culture features a strong film strand, including ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ director Abdellatif Kechiche’s powerful drama set in the French port of Sète.
Time Out Loves: 'Romeo + Juliet', The Bussey Building, Sun, £14. Another in Time Out’s short run of four films featured in our 100 Best Romantic Movies list, screened in collaboration with Rooftop Film Club. Baz Luhrmann's gleefully cinematic version of the play is so relentlessly inventive, it takes 20 minutes to get a grasp on how appropriate his approach to the material really is.
Or at the cinema...
Ant-Man ★★★☆☆ Based on a comic character that first appeared in 1962, 'Ant-Man' tells the origin story of a sweet-natured thief named Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). Incapable of holding a job but determined to pay child support for his daughter, Lang re-teams with his old crew (a trio fronted by the great Michael Pena).
…or see all of the latest releases.
Theatre
Monument, Central London, Fri-Sat, £10. A gloriously weird open-air audio show from David Rosenberg and Ben and Max Ringham which will result in you seeing London with fresh eyes.
Blind, Soho Theatre, Fri-Sat, £10-£16. Beatboxer Grace Savage impresses in this otherwise uneven show.
What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined, Menier Chocolate Factory, all weekend, £29.50-£35. Young, clean-cut American Kyle Riabko seeks to throw Bacharach back into the spotlight with this new show, where he essentially plays the 87-year-old legend’s classics back to back for an hour and a half.
The Car Man, Sadler's Wells, all weekend, £12-£55. Dance-theatre choreographer superstar Matthew Bourne brings back his critically acclaimed 'The Car Man' to London for the first time in ages. Based loosely on Bizet's opera 'Carmen' (see what he did there?), 'The Car Man' is set in a garage-diner in '60s America, where small town passions are shattered by the arrival of a handsome stranger.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
Shirley Baker: Women, Children and Loitering Men, Photographers' Gallery, all weekend, rfee until noon then £3, £2.50 concs. Retrospective of pioneering female street photographer featuring her honest depictions of impoverished areas of Britain.
Thomas Eggerer: Ozone, Maureen Paley, all weekend, free. Over the last fifteen years, the New York-based German artist has concentrated on his painting practice after leaving the art collective, Group Material in the late 1990s.
Joana Vasconcelos: Material World, Phillips, all weekend, free. This exceptional display of handcrafted objects which are covered in beautifully ornate crochet as well as sculptures made from traditional Portuguese tiles coincides with the forthcoming Thames and Hudson monograph on the Lisbon-based sculptor who came to prominence at the 51st Venice Biennale.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win... one of five pairs of tickets to Festival No. 6 in Portmeririon or tickets to 'Soundscapes' at The National Gallery and a night's stay in a five-star hotel
Grab... £20 tickets to 'One Day' at The Roof Gardens on Sunday July 26
Book... these gigs while you still can
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