Heather Lawton is the Creative Director of Mothership - the brains behind Bookstock, The Book Club, Queen of Hoxton & Stories and DJ/Promoter at Nineties By Nature.
On Friday nights I generally escape the office a little early for some team drinks in our bars, It’s the perfect excuse to touch base with the venues before we all leave for the weekend. We pass by The Book Club (100-106 Leonard St, London, EC2A 4RH, wearetbc.com) for a cocktail or two ( my favourite is the Don't Go To Dalston, full of vodka, fresh raspberries and topped up with bubbles), and maybe a spot of pingpong before heading up to the roof at the Queen of Hoxton, below, (1-5 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3JX, queenofhoxton.com) for some early evening sun and an Ice Cream Float - my favourite is The Queens Floatilla with popping candy.
As the hordes descend, we make space for the customers and I'll generally meet up with a few friends and grab some food at Laxeira (93 Columbia Road, E2 7RG, laxeiro.co.uk). Laxeria is the best tapas restaurant in London, it’s proper family- run local business, a little piece of Spain in East London. When I’m ready to get the cocktails flowing again I head up to Stories, below, our newest venture, (30 – 32 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ, storiesonbroadway.com).
This Friday, I'll be passing by Disco Bloodbath at Dalston Superstore (dalstonsuperstore.com), below, to see Ben Pistor and Damon Martin host their bank holiday basement party alongside their special guest Raudive (117 Kingsland Road, London, E8 2PB, dalstonsuperstore.com). I’m only popping in though, as I’ve got an early start on Saturday morning as get ready for Bookstock, our third annual street festival in Leonard Street. Saturday will be a long day: on-site early doors dressing the space, installing stages and hanging bunting. I’m super excited about our specially made bunting created from little model seagulls, and we will be doing a workshop on how to make your own at The Book Club with Good Empire Events (goodempire.com) soon, for all you crafty folk. We'll break for lunch and pop up to Only Fools & Peacocks in Stoke Newington (120 Stoke Newington High Street, London, N16 7NY,onlyfoolsandpeacocks.com), a Hackney-based costume company run by two sisters with an obsession with hats and dressing people up. I’m a big festival-goer, and as all festival- lovers know, a good costumier is an essential party contact. We'll be searching for something nautical for our outfits for Sunday. Then on Saturday night…I sleep - ready for a 7am start on Sunday.
Darrell Berry
The lovely boys at Sound Services (Sound Services, Unit 11, Gemini Business Estate, Landmann Way, SE14 5RL, sound-services.co.uk) will be arriving bright and early to install our sound system and from that point on, its all systems go, as we open the gates at 12pm. We have three arenas this year - all in keeping with our seaside theme - The Promenade, End of the Pier and Under the Pier.
The Promenade is the main stage area, where you can see all our live acts and DJs including Odyssey, The Nextmen and Princeless. You’ll find plenty of seaside memorabilia like our personalised sticks of Bookstock rock, saucy postcards painted by the talented team at Animaux Circus (animauxcircus.co.uk), a human Punch & Judy show and a surf simulator . This is all hosted by the crazy team at Musical Bingo (musicalbingo.com), who will also be leading a Knobbly Knees competition, a slow-motion-Baywatch-running competition and of course a special seaside themed round or two of Musical Bingo. At The Book Club on the ground floor, you’ll find The End of the Pier with Pinball Geoff’s Penny Arcade, a wonderful world of vintage arcade games to rival any coastal town’s Amusements, plus we'll be serving up traditional Fish 'n' Chips. Under the Pier, is a crazy basement rave led by the guys from To The Lazer Cave (tothelazercave.co.uk), who’ll have 30 lasers bouncing around a room of silver foil fishes - and all of this for free!
When the day is finished, it will be time to let my hair down, so I'll be heading down to Secretsundaze Go Bang at The Coronet ( secretsundaze.net)…to let someone else do all the work.
Seeing as it’s a Bank Holiday I will spend a bit of time on Monday wandering around the Real Street Food Festival (realfoodfestival.co.uk) on the Southbank. I'm yet to try any of this year’s food, but I know I'll be treating myself to a Gin & Tonic from the award- winning guys at Fever Tree, who serve 100% natural mixers (fever-tree.co.uk). I’m a big foodie, so I’ll then head home and try and recreate a few of the recipes from my lovely friend Rosie’s blog (alotonherplate.com), she’s a food writer, journalist and a damn good cook.
