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

 EXCLUSIVE OFFER: Win a Camden staycation + dinner 

Just opened this week on Chalk Farm Rd is the latest branch of the hip international lifestyle hotel phenomenon, Selina Camden. The 30-room luxe crashpad is aimed at people they term 'traveling nomads', but after a year of Covid it's also an ideal staycation spot for those looking for a brilliant little break from the WFH routine. So we're offering the chance to win a room for the night for two people, including dinner at the 100% plant-based restaurant Powerplant in this week's tasty Camdenist prize draw. Read more about the hotel and the latest addition to Camden Town's world class vegan food scene here. And here's how to enter 👇

 Multiple chances to win! Visit @camdenist on Instagram and tag friends. Share your unique referal link with neighbours, friends and family:    

 Or share with a click... Email  |  WhatsApp  |  Tweet  |  Facebook  |  LinkedIn You've recommended a total of  people so far.  

 PARTY: Springfest brings beer to the Ballroom 

Every Saturday from tomorrow until the end of June, Camden's iconic Electric Ballroom hosts a Covid-secure booze-up with all the Bavarian trappings. Expect oom-pah brass from No Limits Street Band, shameless pop from Club De Fromage, and sauerkraut-topped wurst from Brat Bros. Lederhosen are very much a la mode here, too. In fact the only thing not German-themed is the beer, which will instead showcase local craft largers, ales and pils, plus farmhouse ciders, too. There are afternoon and evening sessions for groups of 4-6 people, making for the best way to get back onto a dancefloor this month, even if you still need to sit down, for now. Tickets and info.

 KIDS: After school gardening at Castlehaven 

Having spent so much time in front of screens or cooped-up at home, anything that get the kids back in the outdoor world learning and socialising again sounds like a great idea. So 

the green-fingered crew at Castlehaven's Horticulture Hub have set up Little Gardeners, running every Thursday after school (3.30-4.30). All family bubbles are welcome to come and learn about seeds, growing veg and making bug hotels. 

 DANCE: Paradise Lost, live and livestream 

Book now for

The Place

's hybrid live performance of Lost Dog's award-winning

Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me)

, to be seen either as a socially distanced live show or online stream (Sat 5th June, restreamed on 6th). Written, directed and performed by Ben Duke, it's a one-man classic revived for the Covid era, and is for anyone who has ever created anything - from a paper aeroplane to a baby - and watched it spiral out of control.

 READ: Kentish Town Rd's long retail history 

With the cliff-edge decline of traditional retail during the Covid lockdowns, it's easy to forget that varying degrees of upheaval have been going on for hundreds of years. In this amazing snapshot feature from 1978, local historian Gillian Tindall remembers Daniels, the reliable centrepiece of Kentish Town Road for nearly a century, and reveals how the street, like others all over the country, has never really stopped changing.

 THIS WEEK'S ONE-CLICK POLL With lockdown increasing our reliance on home delivery for everything from dinner and groceries to clothes or flowers, will you reduce the amount you order online now we can go out to shops and restaurants again?  

LAST WEEK WE ASKED:

Now we’ve got to mid-May and can sit inside a restaurant and go to a museum or show again for the first time since last year, what do you think of the pace of the unlockdown?

Voters are generally behind the pace of change at the moment, but the June 21st milestone is far from assured. We wonder what people will feel if we once again find our summer plans are disrupted...

 CAMDENIST COMMUNITY: Discount on tickets + merch 

To get a tasty 15% off any merch or ticket purchase from the CMDN store, simply use the discount code CAMDENIST at checkout. 

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