What are you up to this weekend? Here's a round up of our recommendations and a smattering of suggestions to help you make the most of your 48 hours leisure time.
All weekend:
- Plenty of Christmas shopping opportunities at festive fairs and markets around town, including these just in: De Beauvoir Town Christmas Fair on Saturday and Sunday at Guiden Showroom (ie indoors!), 72 Southgate Road, N1 3JF. Open 10am-6pm, £3 single, £5 family. Walworth's Pullens Yard Studios are open all weekend with the resident designers, artists and makers selling you their wares direct.
- Are you going to A Fluid State food and drink festival?
- Taste of Christmas is at Excel all weekend.
- The Queen of Hoxton turns its roof terrace into an Apres Ski Lodge for the rest of December. Ski jackets and salopettes are in order for enjoyment of Glühwein, roasted chestnuts, warm cider and mince pies from this elevated Shoreditch perch on Curtain Road. Daily, midday to 10pm.
- Illumini's Crypt-Mas show has begun! Picture from opening night.
Friday:
- It's Clerkenwell Christmas Market today.
- Bush Hall presents a bumper comedy line up of Milton Jones, Kevin Eldon, Richard Herring, Simon Munnery and Colin Hoult from 7.30pm. Tickets £15.
- The Shrine presents the Future Sound of Africa session at Passing Clouds, Dalston. 9pm-3am, £5 before 10pm, £8 after.
Saturday:
- Madame Geisha and Spindle Magazine are popping up with a fashion and art shop (handmade hats, bowties and more...) at 82 Great Eastern St today noon-5pm. It's also the We Make London Christmas Fair at Chelsea Town Hall and Maggie's Christmas Fair.
- Judgement Day takes place at York Hall, Bethnal Green with Championship Boxing pitting El Maachi vs Colas in a battle for the International Masters Light Middleweight title. Hopefully, Marianne 'Golden Girl' Marston will also be in action against Lana Cooper. Tickets £35.
- The Chap's Night of a Thousand Waistcoats returns to the Bloomsbury Ballroom with the second Grand Anarcho Dandyist Ball. 8pm-2am, tickets £20, dress code: 1890s decadance, 1920s villainy, 1930s glamour, 1940s spiv.
- For something a bit grimier, try Outbreak at 229 Great Portland Street: a night of dubstep, breakbeat, future bass with live graffiti and a free art workshop. 10pm-3am, £6.
Sunday:
- And now for something completely different..... Celebrate Divine Orgasmic Pleasure at Cunny Carnival on Hampstead Heath. There will be a Sexy-Crazy International Re-Empowerment Ceremony of Scary Euphemisms for the Source-Place of All Life “Our First Breath Is Sacred” from 1pm at the Stone of Free Speech aka Pan’s Phallus on Parliament Hill east side, above bandstand/café.
- The Underground Farmers Marketgoes festive in Kilburn with handmade goodies and cookery demos. Midday till 6pm. Tickets £5.
- Belgravia Christmas Sunday brings reindeer to Elizabeth Street and Pimlico Road SW1 between 11am-4pm.
- It's English Language Question Time at the British Library with Susie Dent off Countdown! 2.30-4pm, £7.50
- The Covent Garden Hotel screens opera from the Royal Opera House each Sunday in December, starting with La Traviata. At £35 it's cheaper than the opera house itself and we imagine a whole lot more comfy and you get a cuppa tea. Email [email protected] to book.
Other good stuff:
Don't forget to comb our specialist selections: all things literary in the Book Grocer, show openings and closings in Arts Ahead and things for when you're skint in London on the Cheap.
You can also browse all latest arts and events features and salivate over our latest food and drink content for gastronomic inspiration.
What are you doing? Let us know in the comments. And have a stonking time.
Image of an Ilumini Christmas fairy by vintagedept via the Londonist Flickrpool.
