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

 EVENTS: Highgate Festival opens the season 

Despite the latest delay to lockdown relaxation causing further strife for the nation's beleaguered festivals and events organisers, thankfully the brilliant selection of outdoor bashes planned to take place across Camden over the coming weeks and months all remain firmly on the green list, and many of them are free, too. Kicking off proceedings this weekend is the return of the Highgate Festival, with 9-days of art, music, talks and walks, plus look out for the Pearlie Kings and Queens parading on e-bikes to open the proceedings on Saturday. Info on the full line-up of events and all the other local summer fair, fete and festi highlights here. 

 EAT: Bad Vegan opens in Camden Town this week 

Superstar chef Tom Kerriedge comes to Camden High Street with the eagerly awaited opening of his latest restaurant concept,

Bad Vegan

, in foodie hotspot Buck Street Market this week. The twist is that meat and dairy products do feature on the menu - as naughty sides and decadent toppings. The plan is to appeal to not-quite-vegan conscious eaters and their fully plant-based friends alike. Pictured above is the signature 'Taternator' wrap, featuring a crunchy potato finger and a selection of fillings, while some sweet chilli coated crunchy cauliflower florets also look great. Find out for yourself from Thursday here. 

 VISIT: Museum of Youth Culture pop-up 

Revelling in British youth culture and social movements across generations from the Teddy Boys to UK Hip-Hop and the Acid House explosion, this growing collection of photographs and cherished ephemera has been gathered for a free pop-up museum in Carnaby Street. Largely featuring public submissions made during lockdown as part of the Grown Up In Britain campaign, it's well worth exploring and open until July.

 MUSIC: Weaving, Yearning in Pancras Square 

Weaving, Yearning is a public sound installation that plays just once every day at sunset (9pm, to be exact), as singing voices bounce off the imposing Google and Universal Music HQs in Pancras Square for 20 minutes. It's part of an evolving one-year project A I S T I T / Coming To Our Senses taking place across five European cities and run by The Finnish Institute. You've got until Tuesday to catch a free show.

 WATCH: Drummond Streatery timelapse video 

Alfresco dining has come a long way since last summer's hastily assembled first streateries (ie. tables and chairs in the road). Euston's famous South Asian food destination

Drummond Street

is firmly back on the map after the twin blows of Covid on top of disruption from the HS2 development. It's just launched an innovative modular approach to outdoor eating, with units and planters that can be reappointed easily. Watch the timelapse video of them being set up this week, and remember to head down for a curry soon.

 THIS WEEK'S ONE-CLICK POLL E-scooter trials have begun in other parts of London, so how would you welcome their arrival in Camden? 

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:

What did you think about receiving Camdenist Presents Unlockdown through your front door?

Good to know that a healthy percentage of you enjoyed the free 24-page local guide we put through every resident's letterbox last week. A brutally honest 21% felt it was no more than another binnable pizza flyer(!) but all feedback is good. Do let us know the way you'd like to receive future guides. As ever, Camdenist is collaborative and we really do listen to keep improving what we do across all platforms.

 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

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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.

Misplaced your copy of Camdenist Presents Unlockdown? Never fear, you can read the entire magazine online as a PDF, and also download to refer to 24-pages of local inspiration all summer long. Read all about it 

 Well worth following...