45 hot events happening in London this weekend
Picture: SNeequaye
Snap up some sneakers, capture the early morning cityscape, or sail down the Thames. This weekend is packed with loads of fantastic things to do. Check them out now…
Cool things to do
Natural History Museum Late, South Kensington, Friday, free. The monthly late opening of this awesome museum.
Christopher Kane Sample Sale, The Music Room, Friday, free entry. Elbows at the ready: for one day only, prepare to do battle over heavily discounted clothes, shoes and accessories from the SS13 and AW13 collections.
The Mash, Brooklyn Brewery, all weekend. Brooklyn Brewery take over all branches of The Diner as part of a series of parties, concerts and pop-up supper clubs.
Hyper Japan, Earls Court, all weekend. Hyper Japan embraces both authentic, traditional elements of Japanese culture and emerging trends, with everything from food to fashion, plus live music and cosplay.
A Number of Names* Sample Sale, various venues, all weekend, free entry. Calling all you sneaker pimps – A number of names* teams up with sneaker festival Crepe City to hold their annual sample sale.
London at Dawn Photo Workshops, Westminster Bridge, £225. Photographer Anthony Epes leads these weekend workshops beginning at 4.15am and capturing the beauty of the early morning city.
Archikids Festival, various venues, Saturday and Sunday, free. Let your kids run riot in the Square Mile at a festival that hopes to turn five-to-eleven-year olds into ‘architectives’.
Buckingham Palace Summer Opening, Saturday and Sunday. The State Rooms open annually while the Royal family is on their summer hols.
Stevie Wonderland’s Summer Skate, Shapes, Hackney. A full-size indoor roller disco, free skate hire, barbecue and ice cream (not together, hopefully).
Great British Carnival, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Sunday, free. A lively (and probably noisy) mix of carnival arts will flood the Olympic park for a nine-hour festival of fun.
V&A Museum of Childhood Summer Festival, V&A Museum of Childhood, Sunday, free. This free annual family event is back for 2014 with a day of fun for all ages.
Brick Lane Village Fete, St Matthew’s Church, Sunday, free. A day of fun with dozens of food stalls, traditional games, live music and a dog show.
…or find more markets happening this weekend
Eating and drinking
Head to one of these newly opened restaurants:
Opso, Marylebone. A great place for savouring the more refined Hellenistic pleasures, and is a refreshing approach to Greek dining in London.
Barrafina, Leicester Square. Barrafina’s menu is studded with Mallorcan and Catalan tapas dishes.
Bell and Brisket, Highgate. Food trucks run by Bel Shapiro, serving brisket.
Stephen Street Kitchen, West End. An awkward concrete space transformed into an appealing brasserie.
…or see more new restaurant reviews.
Comedy
The Schadenfreude Cabaret, Friday and Saturday, free. At this semi-regular gig there’s a mix of sketch, musical comics, character acts and straight stand-up, and the line-ups are generally pretty good.
Hampstead Comedy Club – Free Fringe Previews, Camden Head, Saturday, free. This friendly long-established club is hosting double-bills of Edinburgh Fringe previews through June and July.
Bill Bailey Unplugged, Leicester Square Theatre, Sunday £13. A rare chance to see one of this country’s finest comedy talents up close and ‘unplugged’.
…or see all 62 comedy shows in London this weekend.
Live music
Raekwon, Brooklyn Bowl, Friday, £17. This is a rare and welcome date from Wu-Tang Clan heavyweight Corey Woods, aka Raekwon.
Hard Skin, The Grosvenor, Friday. Fat Bob and co are the uncrowned kings of Oi! punk.
Reeps One, Old Queen’s Head, Friday, £4. The 23-year-old beatboxer is like a living version of GarageBand, layering track upon track simply with the air in his lungs.
George Clinton And Parliament-Funkadelic, The Forum, Saturday. At 72, P-Funk frontman Clinton is still rocking out.
Burt Bacharach, Royal Festival Hall, Saturday. The greatest pop songwriter and arranger of all-time?
Walthamstow Garden Party, Lloyd Park, Saturday and Sunday, free. A varied music bill with lots of fun stuff for people of all ages to do.
Television, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Sunday, price. Television’s extended, fluid guitar jams and cryptic lyrics set them apart from hard-’n’-fast peers like the Ramones and the New York Dolls.
Jamie MacDowell and Tom Thum, London Wonderground. Singer-songwriter Jamie MacDowell and beatboxer Tom Thum mix mouth-made beats and instrument sounds with guitar strumming.
…or see all 44 gigs happening this weekend.
Club nights
Dojo, Birthdays, Friday, £5. A stellar night of top-notch grime, UK garage, house and techno, presented by London label Samuri Sound.
Out on the Dock, Tobacco Dock, Saturday, prices vary. This huge LGBT festival, held at vast warehouse rave space Tobacco Dock, features a performance from none other than ‘Toy Boy’ singer Sinita.
Guilty Pleasures, Koko, Camden, Saturday, £10. A high-quality but ultimately cheesy party of pop, disco and, crucially, soft rock.
Old School Indie, O2 Academy Islington, Saturday, £4.50. It’s time to throw yourself around to some huge old school indie-club classics.
Congo Natty and Up2Beat Present Jungle VIP Boat Party, Tower Millennium Pier, Saturday, £35 or £30 for boat party only. Love boats? Love bass? If yes to both, get yourself down to this badass boat party where the two are being combined in a glorious fashion.
Art of Dark, Saturday, Studio 338, £12. Finely honed underground house and techno parties.
The Poison and Smartie Party Boat Party, Pacha, Saturday and Sunday, £25 or £20 for just the boat party. A nautical party session kicking off with a boat cruise down the Thames and carrying on at Pacha if you want to keep on dancing once you’re on dry land.
…or see all 98 parties happening this weekend.
Film
‘Joe‘ ★★★☆☆ Adapted from Mississippi writer Larry Brown’s 1991 novel, ‘Joe’ is a moody, melancholic throwback to the dramas that first gained director David Gordon Green (‘George Washington’) attention.
‘Branded to Kill‘ ★★★★★ The violence is raw, the sex even more so, and the monochrome photography is flawless.
‘Northwest‘ ★★★☆☆ It’s a tough Scandi crime drama about the rise of a teenage skinhead in Copenhagen’s crime-ridden Nordvest neighbourhood.
…or see our reviews of other films in cinemas right now.
At the theatre
A Street Car Named Desire, Young Vic, The 1948 play tells of the fragile fading southern belle Blanche, whose visit to her sister results in a dramatic, violent and sexually charged confrontation with her brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski.
Forbidden Broadway, Menier Chocolate Factory. Ripping through audiences for over 30 years, this take-no-prisoners Broadway revue is dangerously funny.
The Pajama Game, Shaftesbury Theatre. The show may be called ‘The Pajama Game’ but there’s nothing sleepy about a production that harkens back to Eyre’s legendary revival of ‘Guys and Dolls’.
1984, Playhouse Theatre. A brilliant but brutal production.
The Crucible, Old Vic. Three-and-a-half-hours engulf your soul like a black mass in this titanic, ritualistic production of Arthur Miller’s tragedy.
…or see all critics’ choice theatre shows.
This week’s best art
Disobedient Objects, V&A,all weekend, free. A selection of objects from the 1980s to now that detail the history of protest and the role these objects played in making change happen.
Sickboy: Make It Last Forever, The Outsiders,free. Vivid paintings that capture the ephemeral qualities of our daily existence are juxtaposed by personal paraphernalia.
What’s Love Got to Do with It, Hayward Gallery. The Hayward’s Project Space has gone all gooey-eyed with this group show about how we express love.
A House is Not a Hotel, Pi Artworks. Five artists including Lisa Slominski, Christian Newby and Farniyaz Zaker look at the role of inhabiting and our relationship to a short-lived existence.
Donald Silverstein: Jimi Hendrix, Snap Galleries. These previously unseen archive images taken by the late American photographer in London in 1967 form a mesmerising portrait of the legendary Jimi Hendrix.
Absurd Observations, Proud Camden. The effervescent images perfectly capture ‘The Art of Dressing Up’.
And finally…
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