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Immerse yourself in a rainbow of vibrant hues on Clapham Common with the return of Colourscape, devour glorious baguettes, bagels and baps at a day-long celebration of bread, or catch the final weekend of Summertales in Shoreditch. Ready, steady, weekend!
Things to do
London Transport Museum Friday Lates, Covent Garden, TONIGHT, £12, £10 concs. Take an after-hours, adults-only trip through the London Transport Museum for their Friday Lates events, which take on a different theme each month.
Sangria Sunset, Wonder Foundation, TONIGHT, £20. This Spanish-themed event is a fundraiser for the Wonder Foundation, a charity that supports women and children living in poverty in Quatemala, Phillippines, Congo, Nigeria and Ivory Coast.
Redhead Day, Candid Arts Trust Galleries, Sat, free. After all those years of nicknames and factor 50, gingers are getting their very own safe place thanks to Redhead Day UK, a celebration of pale skin, red hair, freckles and everything else that makes them special.
Electric Bloom, various Hackney venues, Sat, free. Over the last six months the team behind Electric Bloom has been exploring Hackney's history, running arts workshops for local communities. On this launch day works will be on display all over Hackney, and their app will provide a night trail allowing visitors to see the artworks which are at heritage landmarks, with stories to complement them.
Surrey Docks Farm Harvest Festival, Rotherhithe, Sat, free. Reap (or eat) the benefits of the glorious summer at Surrey Docks Farm. Try local food, farm produce and a barbecue. Once you’ve eaten enough, you can watch the morris dancers or listen to a vegetable orchestra, ride a donkey or a tractor, and pet small animals.
Colourscape Music Festival, Clapham Common, Sat-Sun, £10, £5 children. Colourscape is celebrating its 26th birthday at 2015's event on Clapham Common. Visitors to its colourful tunnels will experience something similar to being swallowed by a scene from 'Yellow Submarine'.
Battle of Britain Weekend, Royal Air Force Museum, Sat-Sun, free. Go back in time to September 1940 as the Royal Air Force Museum commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain across a weekend of family-friendly events.
St John's Hill Festival, St John's Hill, Sun, free. The Traders' Association of St John's Hill hosts this annual festival which sees the street lined with bunting and filled with stalls and activities reaching from Marcilly Road to the Plough pub.
Wolf Whistled - Race and Feminism, Tindlemanor, Sun, £5. This biannual meet-up tackles issues surrounding cultural appropriation, race and language and shadeism.
Summer Takeover: A Celebration of 50 Years of the Camden Arts Centre, Frognal, Sun, free. The Summer Takeover celebrates Camden Arts Centre's 50th year as a visual arts pioneer. There will be a wide range of artist-led activities - perfect for all the family - including a group performance, live drawing, a chance to make bunting, bell-ringing and the weekly drop-in Make & Do session.
…or check out more events happening in London this weekend.
Eating and drinking
The Owls Are Not What They Seem, Secret London location, Fri-Sat, £65, £50 previews, £5 bar only. This autumn you're invited to a dinner party in Twin Peaks, where coffee is not coffee, doctors are not doctors and owls are definitely not what they seem. If you like your meals served with a side of drama then pull up a chair.
Mercado Chileno, Old Spitalfields Market, Fri-Sat, £27.50. Chile makes some really good wines, and this is your chance to find out just how good; a ticket to the Mercado Chileno includes tasters from as many of the 200-odd wines on offer as you can manage.
Real Bread: The Uprising, Brunei Gallery, Sat, £9-£25. The Real Bread Campaign who strive to promote loaves made without processing aids or artificial additives have teamed up with SOAS Food Studies Centre for a day of talks exploring therapeutic and social baking, the sourdough sensation, ancient and heritage grains and what it takes to start a successful bakery.
Hackney Village Fayre, Hoxton Square, Sat, free. Find Hoxton Square brimming with delicious treats at this one-day event which will see local restaurants serving up plates of great grub to the community. Food stands from the likes of MEATmission, 8 Hoxton Square, Hoi Polloi and Bistrotheque will be dotted across the square along with fete-style games to keep the little ones happy.
Omnivore Food & Drink Festival, Old Truman Brewery, all weekend, prices vary. The French-born, itinerant Omnivore food fest began in 2003 and has been trotting the globe since 2012, but this London instalment promises to be one of the best yet, with its roster of top international chefs and mixologists meeting plenty of homegrown talent.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Kings Place Festival 2015: Felicity Ward – The Iceberg, King's Cross, TONIGHT, £6.50. Eternally upbeat Aussie storyteller Felicity Ward is a hugely talented stand-up. As part of the Kings Place Festival she's reviving her 2014 show 'The Iceberg', which focuses on perspective and what's underneath the tip of the iceberg of life's big dilemmas.
Live at the Chapel – Post Fringe Gala Bash, Union Chapel, Sat, £20. Thought you'd missed out on the Edinburgh Fringe? Fear not – some of festival's comedy highlights are joining forces for this Union Chapel gig. On the bill: Stewart Lee, Luke McQueen, David Elms, Mae Martin, Joseph Morpurgo and Pappy's.
Kings Place Festival 2015: Lazy Susan, King's Cross, Sun, £6.50. This Foster's Best Newcomer-nominated sketch duo – made up of Celeste Dring and Freya Parker – have an undeniable talent for character-driven skits. Each sketch has a high gag rate, but the big laughs come from Dring and Parker’s deft, subtle performances.
Suspiciously Cheap Comedy, Backyard Comedy Club, Sun, £5, £3 concs. Joining Gein's Family Giftshop and Goose tonight are a bunch of Edinburgh Fringe champions, including Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Nish Kumar, Best Newcomer winner Sofie Hagen and Newcomer nominee Adam Hess.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Live music
Alvvays, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, TONIGHT, £14. Appling reverb to jangly guitars like Doritos adds cheese dust to chips, the Canadians recall the swooning pop of rain-soaked Scotland – your Jesus And Mary Chains, Pastels and whatnot – and the group's self-titled debut hugs Velocity Girls LPs close to its chest.
Petite Noir, The Lexington, TONIGHT, £10. South African musician Yannick Ilunga delivers powerful, swirling electronica with Nick Cave-ish vocals: a surprisingly effective combination.
Gabby Young And Other Animals, Spiegeltent at Canary Wharf, TONIGHT, £15. Young and her Animals perform their engagingly eccentric, dramatic and flamboyant ‘circus swing’ and lounge pop. Their recent album ‘The Band Called Out for More’ suggested a perkier, folkier Florence And The Machine.
Proms in the Park, Hyde Park, Sat, £38. Terry Wogan hosts the open-air concert featuring The Jacksons, Russell Watson, Caro Emerald, The Mavericks, Beverley Knight and more star performers, plus the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society.
OnBlackheath, Blackheath, Sat-Sun, £54.50. SE3 hosts its very own music festival, with Elbow and Madness topping the bill plus food and fun.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this weekend.
Nightlife
'90s and '00s Pop Jam: Piano Karaoke, The Landor, TONIGHT, free. Sadly, the good ol'-fashioned piano singalong is something of a dying tradition in London. Keeping the dream alive in super-fun style is this new night, where punters gather around a piano (and pianist, obviously) and belt out songs with as much gusto as they dare.
Matthew Dear + secret guest, Phonox, TONIGHT, £10, £5 adv. 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.
Summer Tales Final Weekend, Red Market, Shoreditch, Fri-Sat, £5, £4 before 9pm. The Road to Nowhere return to Summer Tales, hosting the penultimate night of the pop-up party, while a secret special guest will be attending the final night.
Despacio, Roundhouse, Fri-Sat, £35. Put the magic back into clubbing with James Murphy and 2ManyDJs' disco soundsystem.
Oval Space x Phonica Twelfth Birthday, Bethnal Green, Sat, £15-£20. Ace London record shop Phonica celebrates 12 years strong with a night at Oval Space. There's a fine bill of genre-spanning selectors on the cards, headed by disco-house genius and Studio 54 luminary François K.
The Cave Club, Moth Club, Sat, £6. A fantastic monthly freak-out for fans of psychedelic pop and tripped-out rock 'n' roll, supplied by guest DJs and live bands.
Trouble Vision, Village Underground, Sat, £20. Icy house wizard John Talabot brings his Hivern Minds label out to play for a showcase. As well as Talabot himself, you can also hear the forward-thinking sounds of Dorisburg and Pional.
…or see all the parties planned this weekend.
Film
Legend ★★★★☆ Tom Hardy is on stunningly good form playing 1960s East End hard men the Kray twins.
Irrational Man ‘Irrational Man’ harks back to the likes of Woody Allen's ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ and gives us Abe (Joaquin Phoenix), a philosophy lecturer who arrives to teach at a small East Coast college preceded by his reputation for eccentricity and womanising.
…or see all of the latest releases.
Theatre
Song from Far Away, Young Vic, Fri-Sat, £10-£35. An unexpected return to naturalism for Simon Stephens in this frail, gorgeous monologue.
The Win Bin, Old Red Lion Theatre, all weekend, £10-£15. A gloriously imaginative new comedy from Kate Kennedy and Sara Joyce, who return to the Old Red Lion Theatre after their Beckett Trilogy earlier this year.
The Man Who Had All the Luck, King's Head Theatre, all weekend, £19.25-£25, £15-£18 concs. A lucky man is stricken with guilt in this worthwhile revival of Arthur Miller's first play.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
Ugo Rondinone: clouds + mountains + waterfalls, Sadie Coles Kingly St, Fri-Sat, free. Three new bodies of work in different media by the Swiss artist that explore natural phenomena.
William Kentridge: More Sweetly Play The Dance, Marian Goodman Gallery, Fri-Sat, free. The South African artist, film-maker and playwright presents two immersive multi-screen film installations along with large-scale ink-on-paper paintings and sculptures for his first show in London in fifteen years.
Michael Bauer: Butter Bebop, Alison Jacques, Fri-Sat, free. The German artist fills the gallery with three monumental paintings which are dominated by a diverse range of motifs, merging figuration with abstraction.
City & Guilds of London Art School Degree Show, Kennington, all weekend, free. With an alumni that includes architectural drafting genius Stephen Wiltshire, sculptor Frank Dobson and contemporary artist Alistair Mackie, the 13 graduating MA Fine Art students are in good company.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win...two tickets to the European premiere of Casa Valentina or a year's gym pass to No1 Fitness Personal Training Studio
Grab...£10 tickets to ‘House of Burlesque’ at London Wonderground
Book...these gigs while you still can
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