Kensington and Chelsea's annual arts festival (starts 20 July) includes new artist collaborations with local people and a focus on urban regeneration and renewal — but you might be having too much fun participating and being immersed in the events and places to fully clock this. Here are some highlights from the week-long programme:
Visit a UFO crash site in Notting Hill
Take a private tour of the UFO crash site in an abandoned car park in W11. There are as yet no signs of life and you are assured that nothing untoward should happen during the tour. We say: don't count on it. Tickets £15/£10 concessions. Experience Crashed on 20, 21 & 27 July at 3pm.
Follow a chewing gum trail down the King's Road
Ben Wilson will create miniature art on discarded gum, following the routes of kings and punks. Free, to find and view any time.
Listen to a noise opera in Trellick Tower
The Ballad of Skinny Lattes and Vintage Clothing is being made as we type. The NeoFuturist Collective are spending three weeks at Trellick Tower gathering images and sounds from local residents. The resultant six-movement "noise opera" satire takes place on 20 & 21 July at 3pm and 7.30pm. £15 on the door but booking recommended.
Play in the Albertopolorchestra
Got a kazoo or a comb you can play? Can you sing, clap or whistle? Then join the procession from Royal College of Music to Exhibition Road on Sunday 21 July and be part of a collaborative performance. Children aged 6-12 can attend a morning workshop and families can all have lunch together before the main event. Free event, booking essential — contact the RCM box office on 020 7591 4314.
See local secrets danced out
IJAD Dance Company are gathering local secrets for their part-tour, part-performance piece, Infinite in TRANSIT. This is a Twitter friendly performance, so much so that they're giving free workshops on getting started with Twitter half an hour before start time. Then off you go, exploring the borough and discovering stories and secrets enacted through dance. There are seven different guided walks to take between 20-26 July and it's free to take part. Follow @IJADdance for updates.
Follow a cardboard tube train through Holland Park
William Alexander's cardboard tube carriage will "link up" the District Line spur at Kensington Olympia with Holland Park on the Central Line. Go and find it and help the "driver" create imaginary Overground routes. This "performance" (no, we really have no idea either) takes place on 23-27 July at 10am and 12.30pm, with matinees on 24 & 26 July at 4pm. It's a free event for all the family.
Throughout the week, watch out for flash mobs, a map in the making, camera obscura booth in which you should draw a friend, a kids' musical in Little Wormwood Scrubs Park, a play you need to draw and paint, Square Bubble, a promenade production of After the Tempest, and Leighton House Museum transformed by Arabian Nights. Then round the week off with outdoor dancing, tea and cake at Chelsea Theatre's Vintage Tea Dance.
inTRANSIT Festival of Arts takes place from 20-27 July at various locations across the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.
