15 Great Things To Do This Weekend

London Weekend Guide | 17th – 19th May 2024

The trumpets of warm-weather revelry are sounding. The thunder of a thousand cocktail-shakers draws near. The weekend is about to make its entrance.

What begets this fanfare? Well, quite a lot as it happens. Because the next couple of days are going to be packed with the likes of a rooftop party (with games, party bags, and 2014 prices on everything); a whole fair dedicated purely to things that smell nice; the re-vamp of the OG immersive theatre show from the OGs of immersive theatre; some spine-tingling classical concerts in a car park; the return of the UK’s largest photography show; and “The chicest car boot sale ever“.

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The Best Things To Do On FRIDAY 17th May
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1) Sarnie Party | A  good ol’ sandwich festival

Get bready – a sandwich festival is rolling into town this weekend. It’s called Sarnie Party, and it’s got some genuinely huge names in the sandwich world lining up: Pophams, Happy Endings, Untiles Sandwich Shop, Snackbar, Mondo Sando, and a lot more. It’s going down in Camden Town Brewery, and your ticket will net you a beer, plus a trio of sandwiches of your choice. Ironically, it’s looking like it’ll be anything but sub-standard.

Details: 17th-19th May | Camden Town Brewery Beer Hall | £30 (incl. 1x beer & 3x sandwiches)
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2) Photo London | The UK’s largest photography show

It may be called Photo London, but that’s really only a snapshot of what this exhibition’s all about. It’s the largest photography festival in the UK, and  this weekend it’s returning to fill Somerset House’s courtyard with a marquee housing hundreds upon hundreds of the world’s most inspiring stills for you to peruse…

Details: 16th-19th May | Somerset House | £35
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3) Bold Tendencies | Classical concerts in a car park

London proudly boasts some of the world’s greatest concert halls: the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican… and a multi-storey carpark in Peckham. The unlikely pairing is part of not-for-profit organisation Bold Tendencies’ annual summer programme (which starts this weekend), where they’ve transformed an abandoned multi-storey car park from a place where people leave their vehicles and loiter late at night, to a cultural hub of sculpture art, literature and music, with a rooftop bar thrown in for good measure.

Details: 17th May – 14th September | Multi Storey Car Park, 95A Rye Lane, SE15 4ST | £6+
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4) Viola’s Room | A immersive show feat. Helena Bonham Carter

Punchdrunk are the O.G.s of the immersive theatre scene, having basically invented it. And Viola’s Room was the first show they ever did. It was named The Moon Slave back then, and only four people saw it. Well, now that the remake it being narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, they’ll probably see a slight uptick on that number…

Details: 14th May – 18th August | The Carriageworks, 5 Carriage Street, SE18 6DJ | £28.50
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The Best Things To Do On SATURDAY 18th May
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5) Wild Isles Live | See a 12ft high puffin

This Saturday at the Southbank Centre, you can see a screening of the BBC’s Attenborough-narrated Wild Isles up on the big screen. Series producer Alastair Fothergill will be there to introduce never-before-seen footage and give it all a live commentary, then he’ll round it all out with a Q&A too.

Details: 18th May, 7:30pm | Royal Festival Hall | £29.50
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6) Caribbean Takeover at The Greenwich Maritime Museum | Everything but the sunshine

This Saturday, the Greenwich Maritime Museum is going to go all-out Caribbean with a lineup of “music, games, talks, Caribbean food, history, workshops and dancing”. It sounds like it’ll probably be a lot of fun, and if last year’s festival is anything to go by, it’ll be packed too.

Details: 18th May | Greenwich Maritime Museum | Free
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7) Barnes Fragrance Fair | It makes scents

Fancy some aroma therapy? Well, we have some good news for you. Head down to Olympic Studios in Barnes this Saturday and you’ll find perfumers, wine sellers, soap makers, tea blenders, candle vendors, workshops, talks, and more, all waiting to treat your nose.

Details: 18th May | Olympic Studios, Barnes | Free
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8) #SheInspiresMe Car Boot Sale | “The chicest car boot sale ever” – Vogue

There are car boot sales, there are fancy car boot sales, and then there’s the #SheInspiresMe car boot sale, which takes place in the car park at Selfridges, and involves trunk-loads of designer goods. And bargains aside, the proceeds that the organisers take in will allege to charity.

Details: 18th May, 12-6pm | Selfridges Car Park | Early tickets are sold out, but there’s another batch going on sale at 10am on Saturday
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9) The European Writer’s Festival | Meet some new pen pals

If you’re reading this, then it’s safe you assume that you’re a) looking for interesting stuff to do this weekend, and b) literate. Which means that the European Writer’s Festival might be right up your alley. It’s taking place over two days in the British Library, and it’ll involve panels & performances from 30 European authors including Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov, Italian author Igiaba Scego, and Portuguese author Afonso Cruz.

Details: 18th-19th May | The British Library | £20
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Things to do on SUNDAY 19th May

 

10) Roof East’s 10th Birthday | Food & drink at 2014 prices

Ready for a little light masochism? Because this Sunday, Roof East is celebrating its 10th birthday by selling food & drink at 2014 prices. That means cocktails for £6.50, burgers for £6, and soft serve desserts for £4. It’s painful, we know. There’ll also be half price games, free party bags (just head to the Box Office and say “Double Digit Party Bag”), and hidden, cash-filled envelopes dotted about.

Details: 19th May, 12pm- 11pm | Roof East | Free entry
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11) London Craft Week | Hundreds of fascinating workshops, talks, and classes

This year’s lineup at LCW will see 750+ makers from around the globe converge on the capital to show off their nimble-fingered talents. There are events taking place across the entire city, from east to west and north to south. You can take in everything from a talk on the art of sword making, to a perfume blending workshop, and a look inside Christian Louboutin’s workshop, and more…

Details: 15th-19th May | Across London
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12) Light Into Life | 17 beautiful mirrored sculptures in Kew Gardens

When artist Marc Quinn says that his new exhibition at Kew Gardens is designed to ‘reflect on the links between nature and humanity’, he literally means it: the 17 sculptures are all polished to a mirrored sheen, allowing you to see yourself in them, and see the verdant nature surrounding you reflected right back.

Details: 4th May to 29th September 2024 | Kew Gardens | Included with entry to the Gardens
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13) Untapped at The Sea, The Sea | £75 tasting menus from rising star chefs

The Sea, The Sea have decided to lend their beautiful alien steampunk spaceship style chef’s table space to some up & coming chefs. And by ‘up & coming’ they mean people like Nick Marsden, who works in the development kitchen at Dovetale, after stints at Pitt Cue, Evernight and The Laughing Heart… But the best bit? The full tasting menu is only £75, which is a bargain for what you’re getting.

Details: 19th May | The Sea, The Sea, 337 Acton Mews, E8 4EA | £75
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14) The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe The Black Figure | Final day

Following his 2022 blockbuster at the Hayward, In The Black Fantastic, Ekow Eshun has curated another stellar survey of contemporary Black art, this time honing in on the way Black lives are depicted in figurative sculpture and portraiture. There are artists who make the everyday monumental, like Thomas J Price’s bronze, athleisure-clad statue of a woman paused in thought. There are artists who redress historic imbalances by cleverly referencing and inverting Western art traditions, like the graphite portraits of Barbara Walker in which Black figures now take centre stage, the white figures fading out of view as embossed outlines. And there are those who take experimental approaches, like the dynamic, morphing portraits of Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Each featured artist has something different, and deeply personal, to say – it’s a captivating show from start to finish.

Details: Ends 19th May | National Portrait Gallery | £16-18, book here
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15) Skateboard | Final day

Since its first boom period in the 1950s, skateboarding has really kicked off. And to acknowledge this, The Design Museum’s major exhibition, simply titled ‘Skateboard’, pays homage to how the boards – as objects of design – have grown out of their homemade-in-the-garage early days to high-tech performance models you get today, to keep the pace with what’s become a multibillion dollar industry and now a legitimate, properly-recognised sport.

Details: Ends 19th May | The Design Museum | £16, book here
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Fancy escaping the capital? Check out our newly-refreshed pick of amazing day trips from London