login Login / Register
promoters add listings Promoters Information

Best of the fests

We Big Smokers love an excuse for a party, and hardly a week goes by without some sort of parade, food fair, arts festival or mobile phone-sponsored musical event. And now that we can finally imagine a time when it might be nice to to go outside, here are a few dates for your rain-soaked diaries...

The Chinese don't half milk their new years, and the annual China In London festival runs on well into April. There's everything from Chinese rap to classical notes at the Barbican Centre and the Royal Festival Hall, while the China Design Now (March 15th–July 13th) exhibition at the V&A challenges you to find 40 quid's worth of pleasure amongst the talent on display. Easy, especially if you nick some of it.

An excuse for a party is one thing, an excuse to get drunk on gallons of Guinness, wear gigantic shamrock-shaped hats and dance clumsily to The Pogues is another. For this you'll need the St Patrick Day Festival, with a parade through the capital on Sunday 16th March, Roisin Murphy headlining Irish music in Trafalgar Square and an Irish Food Market (more Guinness anyone?) in Covent Garden.

If you feel the need to shake the smog out of your hair, trot along to the Spring Festival at Kew, running until 20th April. An easy festival to organise, this. Just plant around five million bulbs and wait for the flowers to show up. No divas, no rehab-induced cancellations and no portaloos to order. Make the most of the £12.25 ticket and bring a picnic in. Although the constant parade of jets en route to Heathrow detracts from the stately ambience somewhat.

A date that makes it into Itchy's diary before our sister's birthday is the Taste Of London in Regent's Park, from 19th–22nd June. Tickets are a fairly hefty £21, but you'll leave stuffed and in possession of new-found posh foodie tastes far beyond your means. Tickets sell out most years, so get organised quick.

FestivalFor anyone who thinks they hate music festivals, the O2-sponsored Wireless Festival (3rd–6th July) in Hyde Park might just coax you back to your lager-filled CamelBak. Fatboy Slim's headlining, organic burgers are on the menu and you can get the tube home to your non-tent at the end of the night.

And if you've still got some energy left by the bank holiday weekend of 24th–25th August, get yourself down to Notting Hill, drink enough punch to imagine you're in Rio and flirt with the sexiest float. The carnival is one of Europe's biggest parties. Sunday's a quieter, more family-orientated affair, while Saturday's the day for us riffraff to get down and shake it with the best of them.

email a friend Email to a friend

Post a comment

London A to Z

Find the best bars, restaurants clubs and more in London with our venues list.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z