Your Friday morning essential read. Five local feel-good highlights, including exclusive special offers and events. Prepared with love by the team at Camdenist

 LIVE: Ricky Gervais in Kentish Town this Thursday 

Comedy hero

Ricky Gervais

 has a habit of announcing special 'warm-up' gigs on home turf - aka Kentish Town's O2 Forum - at short notice. The Hampstead-based star sold out the venue that way back in October, before a couple more eagerly anticipated 'local' dates fell foul of the winter lockdowns. Now, ahead of his upcoming six month national stand-up tour he's back on stage in NW5 next week, for one night only. Tickets go on sale at 10am this morning, so you'll need to be super-fast, particularly as this is a limited capacity socially distanced performance. Good luck with that Friday morning website ticket frenzy.

 EAT: Three new streetfood stalls at Buck Street Market 

It's good to see the

container eco-market

at Buck Street back up and starting to flourish after a rather inauspicious first year (they launched two weeks before the first lockdown). Three particularly tasty-sounding new food traders have just opened (with more to come imminently, too).

BunCo

 specialises in Taiwanese-Turkish fusion steamed bao, with beetroot and squid ink among the bun varieties wrapped around a range of meat, fish and veg fillings.

The Duck Shed

 offers all kinds of slow-roast pulled duck burgers, wraps and salads, (all with vegan versions, naturally), and 

Peccati di Gola

, features ultra decadent gourmet burgers and hotdogs. Mmmm.

 READ: CogX Festival, AI & Camden as a global tech hub  

Next week sees the return of the CogX Festival to King's Cross and online, as 100,000 attendees join 1,000 speakers to discuss how tech might solve the world's most pressing problems. If artificial intelligence baffles or scares you, read this piece to hear how it can also be used for good. It includes a special link that grants the first 100 Camdenist readers a FREE Premium Virtual Pass to the festival (worth £345) with access all events via the Hopin video platform.

 VISIT: Think & Do No.19 Highgate Road Open Day 

Camden's experimental community social hub,

Think & Do

, moved in to a brilliant new home on Highgate Rd last year, but are only now finally able to have a big (Covid-secure) open day. Enjoy tasty free food, browse a surplus produce market, get your bike fixed, join a seed-sewing workshop, listen to live music and stories, take a mindfulness session and enjoy a movie in the evening. 11am-4pm this Saturday. Info @tkentishtown on Twitter.

 SHOP: Silk Road Bazaar at Canopy Market 

The Aga Khan Foundation's public photo exhibition The Silk Road: A Living History, currently on display in Granary Square, comes alive this weekend. From Fri-Sun, alongside the usual food and craft traders at the nearby Canopy Market, you'll find stalls offering Ottoman-inspired silks, Pakistani homeware, Uzbek hats, shoes, calligraphy art, teas and more. Full list of the bazaar traders and more info on the King's Cross website.

By now all Camden residents should have received a copy of our debut free print guide Camdenist Presents Unlockdown through their letterboxes. We'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and if you'd like to get involved - so we've dedicated this week's poll to it. To speak in more detail, please use the contribute form button below or email us [email protected]

 THIS WEEK'S ONE-CLICK POLL What did you think about receiving Camdenist Presents Unlockdown through your door? 

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:

How far are you going to attempt travelling on holiday this summer?

Plenty of you have plans to explore the UK this summer, (but then anyone trying to find availability at even so much as a camp site in August will already know this). A self-confessed 'desperate' 29% are still crossing fingers and toes that they'll be able to hit the hotspots of Greece or Spain before the autumn, and a similar number will be staying right where they are. As we've been saying all along, this really is the ideal summer to discover more about Camden's neighbourhoods and the West End. There's loads on that we'll be bringing you in this email each week, so you are going to be fully briefed to make the most of it 😉

 COMMUNITY: Win 4 festival tix + VIP eco-transport 

>> Share your referral link with friends for multiple chances to win <<

How does a small, family-friendly music festival that's less than an hour away sound this summer?

Campo Sancho

 has DJs including Norman Jay MBE, Miguel Campbell and DJ Paulette plus local food, a circus tent, music workshops and loads more. It's so close you can get there by taxi, so we've teamed up with ride-hailing app FREE NOW and the lovely people at Campo Sancho to offer an incredible prize of 4 x festival tickets and return door-to-door travel in a premium electric eco-taxi. To enter, simply share your referral link (below). You'll get one entry into the prize draw for every person you get to sign up, until the closing date of July 9th. 

Full details here

Spread the word! Share your link with friends, family & neighbours:  

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Camdenist is collaborative and transparent by design. We invite all locals to participate, so we've built a form where you can send us ideas, propose features, and even contribute your own work.

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