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Head to Hackney for music, food and summery vibes at Visions Festival, get a taste for Latin America at a celebration in south London, or hop on board a boat with Norman Jay who'll be spinning tracks at a day time party on Sunday. Here are all the cool things worth knowing about this weekend!
Things to do
Baila Brazil, Royal Festival Hall, Fri-Sat, £15-£38. Brazilian company Bale de Rua perform their colourful show 'Baila Brazil' over at the Southbank Centre this summer. Armed with influences from capoeira, samba and street dance, the 14-strong company - made up of dancers and percussionists - perform a music-dance mash-up with a carnival atmosphere.
Sweet America, Old Bengal Bar, Fri-Sat. Have a high energy night out at these all-American swing dance evenings at the Old Bengal Bar. Learn all the moves in one of the free lessons led by Swing Patrol's professional dance teachers (6pm-8pm) then tuck into an authentic Philly filler from The Liberty Cheesesteak Company and sip on swing-themed cocktails.
Gladiator Games, Guildhall Yard, Sat, £15, £12.50 concs, £10 children. See professional gladiators (who may well have other jobs too, but they're definitely also very good at pretending to be gladiators) battle it out in Guildhall Yard, the site of London's only Roman amphitheatre.
Plaza Latina, Nursery Row Park, Sat, free. Forget you're in a park in Walworth and let the Plaza Latina festival whisk you away to warmer climates with traditional music, food, dance and craft inspired by Latin America.
Copeland Park Yard Sale, Peckham, Sat, free. Sure, the traditional focus of a yard sale is buying other people's tat and making it your treasure, but this fortnightly market behind the Bussey Building offers so much more than that.
Kit Neale Yard Sale, 31 Waterson Street, Sat-Sun, free. Head down to the designer's showroom to bag great deals on SS15 clothing and deadstock. We've heard there are mega bargains to be had.
The Bridge, Hungerford Bridge, Sun, free. Expect live graffiti, music, MCs and dance performances at this celebration of street culture during Southbank Centre's Urban Weekend.
NoFit State's Open House, multiple venues, all weekend, free. Marvel at the acrobatics and daredevil stunts of contemporary circus company NoFit State, who will be wowing crowds for free in Stratford for their three-day open house.
Nine Worlds Geekfest, Radisson Blu Edwardian, all weekend, £110, £55 children. The fan-run Nine Worlds Geekfest is a chance for those who love geek culture in general (and its many specifics) to meet like-minded fanatics away from the manic atmosphere of the corporate sci-fi expos.
Panarmonion, Lewis Cubitt Square, all weekend, free. This temporary summer pavilion combines a stage hosting a range of performances with a bar serving cocktails and beers to King's Cross visitors.
Remembering the Future, Enfield Town Centre, all weekend, free. TV screens will be popping up in London over the summer, responding to audience interaction and presenting the public with visions of what their communities might look in the future. Digital artists Hellicar & Lewis have been working with six groups of young people to create the visions and with cutting edge motion capture technology place passersby into the futuristic world.
The People's Tower, multiple venues, all weekend, free. A unique chance to work with world renowned artist, Olivier Grossetete. Members of the local community and pupils from the school will work together to create a temporary tower constructed entirely from tape and cardboard.
…or check out more events happening in London this weekend.
Kerb Southbank Riverside
Eating and drinking
Olly's Turkish Pop-up Restaurant, Ten Thousand Hands Café, TONIGHT, £25. Olly Temur's family are from the Black Sea Region, and he's inviting us all to get a taste of traditional Turkish hospitality at this supperclub in Lewisham. Communal tables and friendly faces will make you feel as if you've dropped in for a big family meal, and the dishes on offer prove that there's a lot more to a Turkish menu than greasy kebabs.
The Underground Supper Club, Cahoots, Sun, £38.50. Soho's remarkable, retro tube-themed basement bar will host an immersive evening of fine dining, cocktails and post-war fun for one night only.
Flavour Lounge Willesden, St Andrew's Church, Sun. Half a dozen food traders and a handful of stalls selling drinks and sweet treats will fill the courtyard of St Andrew's Church with temptation every Sunday.
Kerb Southbank Riverside, Southbank Centre, all weekend, free. If you like delicious, affordable food and fun times then street food collective Kerb have set up just the events for you this summer. Swing by the riverside stretch in front of the Southbank Centre for these food markets which will keep you eating from lunch until sundown if you think you're hungry enough.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Limmy – Daft Wee Stories, Union Chapel, TONIGHT, £15. Cult Scottish comic Limmy – aka Brian Limond – is celebrating the release of his book, 'Daft Wee Stories', with a live tour that stops off here at the Union Chapel.
Daniel Koren – The Most Important Thing, Soho Theatre, Fri-Sat, £15, £12.50 concs. Brooklyn-based Musician-comedian Daniel Koren plays his tunes accompanied by a virtual choir of other Korens. 'The Most Important Thing' is his proper comedy debut.
Doug Loves Movies, Leicester Square Theatre, Sat, £16. Movie nerds, get your geek on. US comedian Doug Benson (star of 'Super High Me') is recording his hugely popular podcast – Doug Loves Movies – in London. It's a film afficionado's dream. Benson sits down with big-name guests to geek out about their favourite movies.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Live music
Jimmy Cliff, Indigo at The O2, TONIGHT, £23.20 - £51.50. The legendary Jamaican singer, best known for his seminal ‘The Harder They Come’ soundtrack, cracks out all the old reggae-soul hits: 'You Can Get it if You Really Want', 'I Can See Clearly Now', ‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’ and more.
Visions Festival, various Hackney venues, Sat,£30 adv. Another year of underground music, street food, craft markets and summer fun at this cool one-day festival in Hackney.
Bad Religion, The Forum, Sat, £20. Long-lived Californian punks with a social conscience, Bad Religion hit London to play their tuneful old-school hardcore. They've got a new album, 'True North', as well as their fifteen previous records to play from.
Multi-Story Orchestra, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park, Sat-Sun, £5. Talk about musique concrète! Peckham’s disused multi-storey car park is the setting for summer concerts from the 60-strong Multi-Story Orchestra under Christopher Stark, alongside recitals in a smaller ‘strawditorium’ space.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this weekend.
Nightlife
Flamingo Pier Record Label Launch, Counter Café, TONIGHT, £10-£12. The latest edition of FP also doubles-up as a launch party for the crew's new Flamingo Pier Collective record label. They're releasing the debut EP on the new imprint, so listen out for tracks from that plus further dancefloor-filling disco jams.
Truman's Brewery August Yard Party, 2-3 Stour Road, TONIGHT, free. The Yard Party is back for August with live music, great food and brand new beers to sip on. This month’s bands incude Victor and the Rain Dog, Babilondon, Familiar Creatures and NIFE.
Silent Disco at the Cutty Sark, TONIGHT, £29.99. Time Out's Silent Disco will be hopping aboard the Cutty Sark in Greenwich with three channels of perfect pop tunes to keep you dancing all night long.Boppers can also venture from the dance floor and explore the rest of the ship between 8.30pm-10pm to avoid the usual crowds and pepper the partying with a little history.
Seth Troxler's Acid Future, Tobacco Dock, Sat, £42.50. The American DJ brings together old-school rave tunes, lip-smacking food and cocktails.
Good Times on the Thames, Waterloo Millenium Pier, Sun, £25. It’s hard to be miserable at a boat party in summer, and when said event is led by soulful selector Norman Jay MBE, it’s scientifically impossible. Soak up guaranteed good vibes at this boat party led by Jay and his funky Good Times crew.
…or see all the parties planned this weekend.
Man With a Movie Camera
Film
Waterloo Road, BFI Southbank, Sat, £8.35–£11.75. Set in the mean streets around Waterloo station in 1941, director Sidney Gilliat's second feature is a populist drama commendably unpatronising in its view of the way the war left 'folks battling with themselves' at home.
Soundtrack Sunday, Curzon Bloomsbury, Sun, £9, £7 concs per film. Head to the Bertha Dochouse screen at Curzon Bloomsbury for a triple bill of recent docs with superb soundtracks.
‘His Girl Friday’ + ‘The Big Sleep’, Regent Street Cinema, Sun, £11, £10 concs. A flawless double bill of old-school Hollywood treats. ‘His Girl Friday’ is perhaps the funniest, certainly the fastest talkie comedy ever made.
Or at the cinema...
Man With a Movie Camera ★★★★★ If you want to know exactly what cinema can do, catch this silent masterpiece recently voted the best doc of all time.
Iris ★★★★☆ New Yorker Iris Apfel, a one-of-a-kind fashion eccentric, gets her 15 minutes of fame in this doc from the late Albert Maysles.
…or see all of the latest releases.
Theatre
Grand Hotel, Southwark Playhouse, Fri-Sat, £22, £18 concs. Like the hundreds of glinting crystals in the vast chandelier that hangs over Thom Southerland’s sparkling production, the characters in this richly layered musical are a beautifully crafted but fragile bunch.
Impossible, Noël Coward Theatre, Fri-Sat, £10-£60. This magical extravaganza is only a few steps on from Paul Daniels, but fun nonetheless.
Bears in Space, Soho Theatre, Fri-Sat, £16, £14 concs. A batshit-crazy comedy puppet show about a couple of bears in space.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
Celina Teague: I think therefore I #, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, Fri-Sat, free. For all their bright flare, Teague’s latest paintings actually have a dark undertone as they respond to the global atrocities reported via social media.
Thomas Ruff: Nature Morte, Gagosian Davies St, Fri-Sat, free. In the age of digital photography, the German artist’s new photograms herald the importance of the film negative.
Fig-2, ICA, all weekend, free-£1. Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s week-long show involves a clown reacting to the military parades and displays of state power that take place just outside the building.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win...a VIP beach hut for you and seven people at Camden Beach presented by Stoli or a nine-night holiday in Brazil for you and a friend
Grab...£12 tickets for a one-hour beginner's rock climbing course at Urban Ascent
Book...these gigs while you still can
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