Paint fights, glitter, whisky and, er, finger sandwiches. What more could you want from a weekend?
FOOD: Wringer & Mangle’s Tea Party
A gentle reminder: it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday. But WAIT! Before you drop everything and run to the nearest garage for a box of Milk Tray – there’s still time to arrange an altogether cooler surprise for your mum. Especially if she likes gin (and most mums do, we find). Presenting the new afternoon tea from hip London Fields venue Wringer & Mangle, where alongside the traditional finger sarnies, delish pastries and cake, you get to knock back gin cocktails served in self-cooling infusion jars and vintage tea cups. Beats the hell out of an Assam, we reckon… Favourite-child status, guaranteed.
Served 2pm-5pm daily; £30 Wringer & Mangle, The Laundry Building, 13-18 Sidworth Street, E8 3SD
ART: Creative In Focus
Warning: arty questions, incoming… What is authenticity in a picture? Do you want it, or something hyper-real, that goes beyond the norm? Is it possible to have both? Does it matter? All this and more is explored by the major new photographic exhibition at the Getty Images Gallery, looking at modern life and its contradictions. Which is a long way of saying: you should go see these 70 stop-you-in-your-tracks stunning images. That much, at least, is beyond question.
Until 26 March; free. Getty Images Gallery, 46 Eastcastle Street, LondonW1W 8DX
EVENT: House of Holi at Cinnamon Kitchen
Ready to paint the town red? And blue? And yellow? And… You get the idea. This Friday sees the return of Cinnamon Kitchen’s pop-up party pod in celebration of the Indian festival of Holi. You know, the one where you pelt your friends with pigment until it looks like you’ve not so much tasted the rainbow, but exploded it then rolled around in the remains. Bookable in half-hour slots, you’re provided with white overalls, colour powder, and even cocktails and traditional Indian canapés post-paint fight. Holi smokes.
4-12 March; from £8 9 Cinnamon Kitchen, Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YL
NIGHTLIFE: Burning Down The House
Right people, time to get 2016 into gear. Because we're now getting towards a third of the way through the year and not once have we worried about matching our face paint to our outfit, or sprinkled a Tinkerbell-stash worth of glitter over our hair. New Dalston night Burning Down The House is about to change all that. Bringing together the most fabulous tunes of the 80s (Bowie, Grace Jones, The Smiths) with a generous side of glam, disco and funk, it’s is well worth dressing for the occasion.
5 March; £5 VFD, 66 Stoke Newington Rd, N16 7XB
POP-UP: Beyond the Cask
If Don Draper, Ava Gardner and – er – Winston Churchill taught us nothing else, it’s that drinking whisky is COOL. But we’re here to tell you that there’s something even cooler: drinking whisky in a dark-wooden, speakeasy-style Soho pop-up, mixed up as exclusive cocktails such as Smoke & Mirrors (whisky, wood-smoked Hojisha tea, blackberry and raspberry shrub, vermouth) and Sweet Sixteen (whisky, hazelnut-infused vermouth, Campari, chamomile bitters). The whole shindig is being thrown by Glenmorangie – so to treble your cool points, try one of their rare drams neat on the rocks. Winston would be proud.
3-12 March 5 Bateman Street, W1D 3AQ
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