PARTIES & FESTIVALS

💃🏽This week’s crop of outdoors events include some proper knees-ups.

Sunday was all scheduled to see the return of Kentish Town’s mighty Alma Street Fair, but the annual bash was pulled a few weeks ago due to a lack of local volunteers willing to help out.

Hey guys, nobody called us?!

Thankfully, all is not completely lost for those in need of a dancing-in-the-street fix, as the aptly named Inkerman UnFair is bringing a sound stage to one of the regular spots - just outside MAP Studio Café off Alma Street - all Sunday afternoon.

There’ll be music from local DJ heroes Dig It Soundsystem, the Artery open mic event happening in the venue upstairs, and much food and drink-based merriment in support of MAP, who are still fighting for survival in the face of ruinous recent lease and rent dramas.

• 🪩 Those busy Dig It DJs are also appearing tonight for the 100% free community jamboree at Parliament Hill bandstand. Get there with picnics from 6pm and it pumps through until darkness falls, when the carry-on carries on over at lovely nearby boozer the Dartmouth Arms.

• 🍧 Officially known as the biggest street party in Camden, the Somers Town Festival takes over Chalton St market, Phoenix Rd and the British Library piazza on Saturday, with big stages, live bands, stalls, rides and loads more attractions.

• 🛋️ Up at Hampstead’s Fenton House, The Idler Festival offers plenty of horizontal delights today through until Sunday. Day and weekend tickets are still available so you can drop by and enjoy garden party vibes with the likes of Irvine Welsh, Adam Buxton and Sindhu Vee appearing.

• 📸 Which ‘IST’ are you? Remembering the fun we had taking these photos of people wearing CamdenIST name badge stickers at Alma Street Fair in 2022 (local bloke/leader Sir Keir Starmer politely declined).

COMEDY

Where you can chortle, titter and guffaw

As we look forward to the entire borough positively teeming with comedians when both Camden Fringe and the Roundhouse Comedy Festival take place in unison, here are some to check out this week.

• 🦘 There’s a chance to catch touring absurdist Aussie comic Reuben Solo at Monkey Business Comedy Club early show (6pm) this Saturday at All About Eve in Camden Town.

• 🧱 Check out the Nice N’ Spiky Comedy night at historic Denmark Street venue The Lower Third on Wednesday night, with 7 pro performers at every show.

•  🌈 Head up to the UK’s first dedicated LGBTQ+ standup venue the Queer Comedy Club on Junction Rd in Archway next Saturday (15th) for an Edinburgh preview split-bill from best buddies, Welsh fella Carwyn Blayney and Irish lesbian Leigh Douglas (pictured above).

FOOD & DRINK

DESTINATIONS

All change at Swain’s Lane

Hampstead Heath perambulators love to make a beeline for the cute shopping and dining destination that is Swain’s Lane, at the foot of Parliament Hill Fields.

With a cleverly curated line-up of shops in the redeveloped arcade, it’s a popular place to visit for a few quality supplies and perhaps sit down for a little something, too.

Swain’s, the neighbourhood’s wine bar set around a big central counter (that we featured here last year) had a spot of bother back in April with with the landlord changing the locks, a problem that sadly doesn’t seem to have been resolved three months on.

Inside, dust gathers on tables laid for lunch, and a blackboard full of Easter specials is still chalked up, for a scene akin to the Mary Celeste.

We wonder what will happen next in the rather turbulent history of this spot, formerly the Duke of St Albans pub, and a popular pit-stop to feed and water the horses before the climb up the hill to Highgate.

• 🌺 In happier upheavals, Electric Daisy Flower Farm, praised for their luscious window displays, have retired from the arcade, but the shop has been taken over by the similarly attractive aesthetic and offering of The Real Flower Co.

• 🐟 Keeping with the Lane’s abbreviated nomenclature theme, recent arrivals London Shell Co are doing brisk business on their evening £2 oysters and summery eat-in dinners, plus they have a few places left for their Bastille Day picnic at North London Bowling Club up the road next week, too.

• 🍨 The Bistro Laz/Al Parco empire,. set in the grand old Brookfield Mansions tea rooms, has expanded to the unit next door with Highgate Creamery, currently doing brisk business selling ice cream to hungry dog walkers, day trippers and assorted parched blow-ins, too.

• 🚵🏽 Swain’s Lane is also infamous among cyclists for being London’s toughest road to climb. It’s so brutal it will once again host the Urban Hill Climb race in September.

MUSIC

Our pick of the live local gigs this week

• 🎼 Pop-up gig specialists Sofar Sounds are plotting to be somewhere in West Hampstead tomorrow night, and they’re offering a 2-for-1 ‘bring a friend for free’ deal on tickets if you’re quick.

• 🎺 One of the world’s most talented trumpeters, Takuya Kuroda, (pictured above) is at the forefront of genre-bending jazz music, which he brings to the Jazz Café on Monday (10th July).

• 🎻 London Performing Academy of Music have a special gala at Conway Hall on Wednesday (12th) celebrating the talent of young Ukrainian musicians, who they have helped bring safety in the UK by providing scholarships to continue their studies. Expect Ukrainian chamber works, popular music classics and even Eurovision hits.

• 📺 Global rock sensation Motley Crew played an intimate/secret gig for 500 people at Camden Underworld last week, the day before headlining Wembley stadium with Def Leopard. You can see the impressive video here. Next up for an intimate local gig it’s Liam Gallagher at KOKO, which you can only access with a pre-order of his upcoming Knebworth 22 LP.

Gig highlights in association with the fabulous Halibuts.com

MORE

• ➡️ It’s time for the annual gamble with the elements as Luna Cinema at Kenwood returns for five nights (from Wednesday 12th) where you can enjoy big screen movies, either under the twinkling midsummer stars or under blankets and raincoats. Good luck.

• ➡️ PUB DEAL OF THE WEEK: Chalk Farm Road’s rustic gem The Farrier, housed in the atmospheric old horse hospital stables, is offering bottomless wings Wednesdays, where unlimited chicken (or vegan cauliflower) wings come slathered in up to seven different sauces for 90 mins, all for just £20.

• ➡️ Camden Green Loop and the cartographically inclined good folk at Footways are launching a new map of the area with a special free-to-attend walking tour in Camden Town this Thursday, followed by speeches, networking, food and drinks.

• Try to swing by Tottenham Court Rd’s Outernet this weekend as Who Cares for Camden? celebrates 75 years of the NHS with a showcase of poignant portraits of hardworking staff taken by locally-based photographer-to-the-stars Rankin.

• ➡️ We enjoyed the sunset rooftop gathering to mark 6 years of Young Camden Foundation this week, including news of their latest partnership opportunity, which you really should check out if you run a business in the area.

• ➡️ Meanwhile, meet the group of under 25’s who have just decided where £320,000 of Camden Giving grant funding should be allocated.

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