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Tuck into tasty dishes at new pop-ups and dining takeovers across the capital, listen to live music in Union Chapel, or get down with Fuzz Club and their two-day festival of psychedelic sounds in Hackney. Here are all the things worth knowing about this weekend!
Things to do
Lord Mayor's Show and Fireworks, various London locations, Sat, free. The spectacular traditional parade to welcome the new Lord Mayor (the annually elected ambassador of the City of London) returns, with a firework display in the evening.
Under the Hammerbeam Roof, Hampton Court Palace, Sat, £8. This special opera has been composed to celebrate Hampton Court's five-hundredth anniversary and tells of the tourists, ghosts and servants who have visited, haunted and worked in the palace over the years.
Daylight Music, Union Chapel, Sat, free. Shake off that Friday night hangover with this feelgood Saturday daytime event, with live music plus tea and cakes, and a drawing space for young (and old) concertgoers to get creative.
WAKU WAKU: Charlotte Mei and Grace Helmer, Beach London, all weekend, free. A beautiful exhibition of ceramic-based collaborative dioramas, recently on show in Japan.
The Tales We Tell: Indian Warli Painting, V&A Museum of Childhood, all weekend, free. This exhibition of Warli paintings (a tribal art form from Western India) is part of the V&A India Festival and celebrates the innovative work of Jivya Soma Mashe who popularised the style.
Doctor Who Festival, ExCeL Centre, all weekend, £68, £32.25 under-16s, £42.75 family. This three-day festival is the official celebration of all things 'Doctor Who', with appearances from the cast and writers (notably Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat), sets, costumes, a cosplay showcase and plenty more.
Contemporary Crafts and Design Fair, Chelsea Old Town Hall, all weekend, £8 adv, £10 on the door. This annual fair returns in 2015 with a dazzling array of handmade goods spanning ceramics, glassware, jewellery, textiles, furniture and more.
…or check out more events happening in London this weekend.
Eating and drinking
Eat At Snigdha's Table, W B Yeats, Fri-Sat, £15-£20. Contemporary Indian food is the focus at this new pop-up from professionally trained chef Snigdha Nigam. The menu features dishes such as crispy okra with balsamic reduction, vodka pani puri and whole leaf spinach tempura.
Mathieu Perez at Carousel, 71 Blandford Street, Fri-Sat, £35. Mathieu Perez swaps his provenance-focused modern bistro in the Pyrenees to take charge of the Carousel kitchen. Dishes include turnip, seaweed & jus de gambas’, plus beef cheeks in miso with brussels sprouts.
Sunday Lū'au, Pond Dalston, Sun, £13.50. Tuck into roast pork Hawaiian style at this Sunday feast at which they'll smoke a whole pig.
BBC Good Food Show, Olympia London, all weekend, from £23.50 adv. Those who have 'Masterchef' on series record are going to want to get themselves to the BBC Good Food Show. The enormous festival of the edible features talks and demonstrations from some of the most recognisable names in food.
Wünderlust, Big Red, all weekend. Street food stars Fleisch Mob have taken over Deptford's Big Red for the next few months, and will be serving a seasonal menu, local beers, natural wines and artisan cocktails in and around the double decker.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes, Vaudeville Theatre, Fri-Sat, £19.50-£35. Following a mammoth UK tour, the 'French' half of 'French and Saunders' and star of 'The Vicar of Dibley' finally brings her solo show to London.
Alfie Brown: Ism, Soho Theatre, Sat, £12.50, £10 concs. Stand-up Alfie Brown – easily one of the bravest voices on the comedy circuit right now – unapologetically tackles difficult topics with profound intelligence and sharp wit.
The Old Vic Variety Nights, Old Vic, Sun, £12-£60. Matthew Warchus, the Old Vic's new head honcho (or 'Artistic Director', to give him his official title) is taking the theatre back to its roots, with Sunday night variety and vaudeville gigs.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Live music
Fuzz Club Festival, London Fields Brewery, Fri-Sat, £12.50 adv, £25 weekend adv. Two nights of psychedelic sonic mayhem courtesy of the Fuzz Club label, with acts including Berlin-based duo The KVB, contemporary krautrockers Camera and Creation veterans The Telescopes on Friday, then The Myrrors and Lola Colt on Saturday.
Suede, Roundhouse, Fri-Sat, £32.50. The reunited Britpop band preview their new album over two nights in Camden.
Fidlar, The Forum, Sat, £13.50. A fearsome foursome from LA, Fidlar play hedonistic skate-punk – their name is an acronym for for 'Fuck it, dog, life's a risk'. As you'd imagine, they put on a pretty heavy live show.
Polar Bear, Electric Brixton, Sun, £19.50, £14-£15.50 adv. Seb Rochford and his boundary-pushing jazz band co-headline with James Holden.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this weekend.
Stefan Marx
Nightlife
The Double R with Dana Ruh, The Pickle Factory, TONIGHT, £10. Stripped-back techno and house party crew The Double R – the creation of Radio Slave and Jamie Fry – host a night of deep beats, headlined by Berlin producer Dana Ruh, who's released tracks on the likes of Ostgut Ton.
Freerotation x Gottwood x Field Maneuvers, The Bussey Building, Sat, £15. Three electronic-minded festivals join forces to support and raise funds for the refugee crisis, held at Peckham's multi-floored Bussey Building.
Krankbrother and Oval Space Present Arts Emergency, Oval Space, Sun, from £5 earlybird. An ace fundraising party with all profits going to Arts Emergency, a charity that supports underprivileged children around east London.
…or see all the parties planned this weekend.
Film
Deptford Film Club Dive-In Movies: ‘Splash’, Wavelengths Leisure Pool, Sat, £15. We’ve had rooftop cinema, hot-tub cinema and edge-of-a-lido cinema, now here’s swimming-pool cinema.
Rio Centenary Double Bill, Rio, Sun, £11, £9 concs. To celebrate their birthday they’re playing two silent films from 1915 that might have screened at the cinema when it first opened a century ago: gangster flick ‘Regeneration’, which has been described as the spiritual godfather to Martin Scorsese’s ‘Mean Streets’, and Cecil B DeMille’s tale of eroticism and betrayal, ‘The Cheat’.
Or at the cinema...
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 ★★★★☆ The final chapter in the 'Hunger Games' saga is more funeral march than victory parade – but that's entirely appropriate for this gritty action series.
He Named Me Malala ★★★☆☆ An enlightening if rather unfinished-feeling documentary about the Nobel-winning teenage girl from Pakistan.
…or see all of the latest releases.
© Ikin Yum
Theatre
Medea, Gate Theatre, Fri-Sat, £20, £15 concs. Euripdes meets Stoppard meets 'Home Alone' in this version of the Medea myth told from the perspective of her sons.
La Soirée, Spiegeltent at the South Bank, all weekend, £15-£67.50. Catch a breathtaking melée of burlesque, vaudeville and circus sideshow in this returning show.
Rotterdam, Theatre 503, all weekend, £15, £12 concs. This tender little gem from ‘Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho’ writer Jon Brittain is about a lesbian couple, one of whom reveals she’s transgender.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
Susan Hiller, Lisson Gallery, Fri-Sat, free. This show looks back over the influential artist’s works exploring the unconscious and the role of the artist as collector and curator.
Kara Walker: Norma, Victoria Miro Mayfair, Fri-Sat, free. Including a selection of preparatory drawings, the American artist continues her exploration of the brutality of colonialism, racial oppression and prejudices.
Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer, The Queen's Gallery, all weekend, free. Everyday activities through the eyes of 17th century Dutch artists including Johannes Vermeer.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win...a weekend in Paris for Weather Winter Festival or a city break for two to Dublin and a shopping spree on Opsh.com
Grab... up to 53 percent off tickets to ice skate at Ice Rink Canary Wharf, includes boot hire
Book…these gigs while you still can
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