Join The First Pint's quest to find the best underground pubs in Central London. Photo credit: Lillo Montalto

Pub-crawl with The First Pint through the streets of Soho, Fitzorovia and Covent Garden in an amazing quest for the best (and most hidden) underground pubs of Central London.

Our underground pub crawl tour starts from one of the quietest places in Fitzrovia, the Bourne & Hollingsworth pub, (28 Rathbone Place, W1T 1JF), a few yards from Tottenham Court Road tube station. This basement cocktail is of course tucked down a perilous, winding flight of stairs, and features some of the most decadent wallpapers decorations of all times, giving you the feeling of being in a private members’ club or, alternatively, in your granny’s house. It’s a cocktail bar, so don’t even bother asking for beer: you’ll find only a lonely Asahi tap on the bar. The atmosphere is absolutely intimate and the prices are good for being in the very heart of London.

You’ll more likely to find a better atmosphere few steps far from Bourne & Hollingworth pub, at Jerusalem Bar & Restaurant, in Fitzrovia (198 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JL), well hidden down a staircase that leads you beneath the pavement of Shaftesbury Avenue. You need to be eagle-eyed to spot the entrance, on the left side of the road walking from Oxford Street towards Bourne & Hollingsworth pub. Once inside, it feels like being in a sort of hidden dungeon full of treasures: soft lights, chandeliers spreading a mild red light all over the place. Bring over your girlfriend and have a candlelight dinner with her sunk in one of the comfy sofas scattered all over the huge bar. The place’s stone walls give it just the right atmosphere for a relaxed chill-out night to wash away the daily stress.

Perfect, posh, trendy and alternative, its only weak points are prices and beer: although they serve ales in bottles, the choice at the tap is poor, including average lagers like Amstel, Murphy’s, etc. Burgers and nachos portions are just huge, but expect expensive prices – roughly, if hungry, you probably are going to pay around £7 to get filled up. Cocktails tend to be quite expensive, too.

Triscia’s: Italian underground heaven

Member's only Triscia's will give you a taste of Italy... underground! Photo credit: Lillo Montalto

Next stop is the real surprise of our underground pubs crawling tour. Walking down Greek Street from Soho Square, there’s only one bar really worth popping in, but it is just impossible to spot it unless you’re a local or you already knew about it: the doorbell is hidden inside the letter box! The First Pint managed to get in anyway.

Shuffled discretely inside house-door number 57 to find the splendid, hidden-away New Evaristo Club (57 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 3DX).  Although it is (primarily) a members only bar, Triscia, owner and the ever-present bar tender of this tiny, little jewel of Soho, will be happy to welcome you even if not a member yet. In fact, it’s known to locals only as Triscia’s.  Her late Italian husband opened it 68 years ago, trying to recreate the real Italian bar atmosphere. And he succeeded indeed.

If you have never been in Italy, just swing by at Triscia’s to get a feeling of what a real Italian bar is: old people playing a quiet game of Dinari, drinking beer from their bottles of Peroni, photos of Sinatra, Schillachi, some shady looking suited types lining the wall and a pleasant, never-stopping chatter sound hanging over the place. Customers are both Italian and Londoners, going crazy on Wednesday nights when a guy with a recorder comes in and pumps up some good rock & roll music from the 60s along with swing and blues hits. Open seven days a week, from 5.30pm to 1am, its tiny smoking area outside is just the perfect gathering place: be aware you are going to meet random people by the dozen just lighting up a cigarette.

A taste of Hanway Street

Troy 22, a nice place for merry-making and song-singing! Photo credit: Lillo Montalto

Proceed then to Hanway Street, the last resource for those of you who need a last late night sip  in Soho. Get lost into this tiny hidden alley, real backbone of Oxford Street booze, getting off from Oxford Street. You’ll find the On The Beat second-hand record store, probably the best in town, and the Bradley’s Spanish Bar, one of our favourite West End boozers.

Try not to miss an electric purple sign “The Bar”: those steps will lead you straight down into a world where the clocks stopped many years ago and things will appear frozen in time. The vintage atmosphere you can breath at The Bar club is made precious by the music, especially when the DJ delivers out loud the best soul from the 60s and the 70s, doo-wop and funk. Open until 3am on weekdays as well as on Fridays and Saturdays, the drinks come for reasonable prices and the friendly, talkative staff makes it the perfect last call for night-owls or hammered people who just need a place to rest.

Walk few steps round the corner and you’ll find Troy 22, The First Pint’s golden suggestion for our aficionados. Don’t make the mistake of walking up the near-vertical stairs: remember to always go underground! Upstairs you’ll find a relaxing urban lounge when you can chill out listening to some real good rock & roll hit of the good old days, while it is downstairs where the magic is hidden. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll find some artist sitting at the bench, sipping his beer and playing his warm flamenco on his Spanish guitar. It is a Spanish bar indeed, an underground intimate treasure where lights are low and streams of sangria flow like rivers (you can get a jug for just £15). This Spanish cove is cloaked by a surreal atmosphere, and it has so much character that even the loo is worth a picture.

Cocktails and Hip-hop Karaoke

Whether it be contemplative chill-out sessions or raucous beer drinking, underground is the way to go. Photo credit: Lillo Montalto

Finally, don’t miss Freud bar in Covent Garden (198 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8JL), located just few hundred meters from Friendly Society basement gay club. Opened in 1986, it is definitely the best cocktail bar in London, a hidden one-room cellar where some 15 types of bottled beer are stored, including Efes, Kasteel Cru and Zywiec. Wine starts at a bargain £3.15 a glass. Be willing to spend an average of £6-7 for your cocktail, but after this experience no other cocktail besides Freud‘s ones will ever touch your lips.

Ranging from the classic Mojito to the Homeboy, the fear-inducing Zombie, and the straight-forward Perfect Pimms, our platinum tip is the Long Island Iced Tea. Simply wonderful. If you don’t drink alcohol or you are fasting, don’t worry, you’ll be able to get also delicious lunches and great coffee and teas on request. Open every night until 11pm, it stays open longer on Thursdays (until 12pm), Fridays and Saturdays (until 1am).

End the underground pub crawling at The Social club where, as you can read in its manifesto, great music and better booze are provided. It is traditionally the place where bands in London have their first concert ever, but as the owner of the place would put it, according to Rebecca (an artist working there), “We just play fucking good music.” If you ever dreamed “about being Tupac Shakur even if you’re white,” as we have been told, don’t miss Thursday’s Hip-hop karaoke night, one of the funniest in London. Crazy reggae and Ska nights (“it feels like being in the 80s,” we hear) are the perfect way to finish off dancing after the tour the force that has just been proposed.

Locals do suggest other places around, like Black’s member’s club and Jerry’s, equipped with an encyclopaedic collection of liqueurs, but The First Pint reporter was out of commission by the end of this insane tour to check them out. So it’s up to you to give them a try and give us a real good feedback!
See The First Pint’s Underground pub crawl in a bigger map

Other unmissable underground pubs in London:

– Underwriter – 15 St. Mary Axe. Closest Tube station: Liverpool Street.

– Shunt Vaults Members’ bar, deep in the tunnels under London Bridge Station. The entrance is a little door on Joiner Street in London Bridge Tube Station.

– Ginglik in Shepherd’s Bush Green, W12 8PH.

– Three Blind Mice Bar – 5 Ravey Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 4QW.

– Buffalo Bar – 259 Upper Street, Highbury & Islington, London, N1 1RU.

– Underground Bar – LSE Students Union, East Building, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE. Closest Tube station: Temple/Holborn/Covent Garden.

– Lounge Bohemia – 1 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, EC2A 3EJ.

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The Brooklyn-based band and performance collective MEN will be playing at The Garage in Islington. Photo: Cass Bird

Activism meets creativity as Ladyfest Ten reaches Highbury Road and Holloway Corner to celebrate female talents in all forms. Founded ten years ago in Olympia, Washington, this year’s Ladyfest upholds the tradition of a global, feminist, DIY movement. Ladyfests have been held all over the world from New Orleans to Santos-Brazil.

Events

From 12 to 14 November, you can catch a dizzying array of music, art, comedy, photography, film, debate, and written and spoken word events. The independent festival offers an eclectic selection of music performances – from hip-hop and beat-boxing at the Horatia to electro and riot grrl action at the Relentless Garage, finishing up on a mellower folk-tinged note on Sunday afternoon.

The festival encourages interaction so if all that artistic energy gets you inspired, you can engage in some creativity of your own; The Lady Garden will provide you with all of your DIY and crafting needs at the Resource Centre on Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets

Tickets can be bought per day or for the whole weekend: music passes are £15-£25; ‘rest of the fest’ passes cost between £12.50-£40. All profits from the festival will be donated to Eaves, a charity which provides high-quality housing and support to vulnerable women.

For the full musical line-up and schedule of events, check out the Ladyfest Ten website .

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Hanna Vojackova, from the series 'Ridinghood from East End'. Photo courtesy of Czech Centre

Feel like exploring new contemporary cinema? The 14th edition of the Czech Film Festival is kicking off tomorrow Thursday 11 November in London. Films will be shown at the Prince Charles Cinema, the Riverside Studio and the Barbican .

This year’s festival is full of award winning features exploring different themes – history, politics or biopics, and different genres, ranging from documentaries to sci-fi.

The opening gala screening

The festival opens with the gala screening : Marek Najbrt’s Protector (2009). The screening will be introduced by screenwriter Robert Geisler. Marek Najbrt’s Protector has won this year’s Czech Lion awards, shared with and Tomas Masin’s Three Seasons in Hell (2010).

Gypsy night at the Barbican

Plenty of events will fill this year’s festival with a special night marking the bicentennial of Czech poet Karel Hynek Macha. A unique screening of Karel Anton’s silent film Gypsies (1921) will be accompanied with live music by Irena and Vojtěch Havel as a part of the Barbican silent film series, on 18 November. Tickets are £8.50 online, £10.50 full price.

Lost in translation?

The First Pint will be attending the première screening of the short documentary Czechin’ London by Tomáš Doležal and Marta Svobodová. The screening will be followed by the opening of the Lost in Translation? exhibition where you’ll be able to meet the artists and share your experiences of London. The screening starts at 4.15pm on Sunday 14 November at the Riverside Studio, tickets for the premiere are £5 but the exhibition is free!

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The beginners group out for their morning run at British Military Fitness. All photos courtesy of British Military Fitness

“Muck? That’s just soil mixed with water,” says Chris Preston, a British Military Fitness (BMF) instructor and former member of the armed forces. Preston leads a beginners group at Richmond Park in southwest London, and it was there, early in the morning, that I had my free trial class.

The ‘military fitness’ routine starts with a warm-up and then jogging, broken up by intervals of strengthening exercises, focusing legs, abs and arms in a 3-2-1 ratio. The class has a water break midway, and finishes with a game and stretching. It’s fun and fast-paced, and to my surprise very social. The class lasts for 60 minutes, and it literally flies by.

Preston says BMF-style training suits anybody. Indeed, the trial class was a mix of young and old, men and women. There are three levels – beginner, intermediate and advanced – and while I try to exercise twice every week, the beginners’ workout was tough. Still, “no one ever is left behind,” says Preston. And sure enough, a woman struggling to keep up got plenty of help and encouragement and finished along with everybody else, panting and smiling.

BMF currently has 20,000 members, according to PR and Promotions Manager Laura Kettle. She says around 70 percent of people join within 24 hours of their free trial class. It’s an impressive sales result. So why does BMF succeed to motivate where others fail?

A group in British Military Fitness.

“A class is never the same – it’s about variation both for your muscles and brain,” says Preston. “The instructors also change, and there are different locations to train.” Like most things in life, if something becomes too repetitive it becomes boring. You wouldn’t eat the same thing for dinner every night, so why should you stick to only one exercise routine?

According to Preston, one-dimensional training gets you fit in a particular way, but soon your body becomes used to it and doesn’t improve as much over time. Sports physiology research by the International Association of Athletics Federations confirms this thesis.

As for the name – British Military Fitness does sound a little intimidating. Are people ever apprehensive about joining? “Not normally,” says Preston. “But sometimes people can be a little worried about the class style. But we work hard to put them at ease. We’re not going to shout at you. We are your personal trainers, on hand to encourage and help you along.”

Perhaps the most interesting sales pitch is that all instructors are former or serving members of the British Army, making them more than capable of looking after any injuries that could occur during a class. And that military orderliness is a guarantee.

So is it anything like real army exercise? It certainly is, says Preston: “Many instructors train recruits in during the day and then come to do BMF classes, so many exercises are the same. But,” he adds, “BMF classes are more fun.”

British Military Fitness: Quick Advice

DO: If you like training outdoors and want a fast-paced, flexible, fun, effective and sociable form of training.

DON’T: If you don’t want to get your trainers mucky and if you prefer individual training.

Equipment required: Running shoes, and clothes according to weather. During autumn and winter, Chris Preston recommends tights with shorts over and a base layer with a T-shirt on top. For especially cold days, bring along a pair of thin gloves and a hat.

“You should be a little cold at the beginning of the class. Start cold, finish cool,” is the army motto.

Price: Membership is £36 per month for once a week classes and £48 per month for unlimited classes. A £50 joining fee is charged if you discontinue membership before three months. Trial classes are free.

Location and classes: BMF train in several parks around London and the UK, and you never have to book in advance. There are three types of classes: Military Fitness, as described above, running clubs and Walk Fit classes. Walk Fit classes include strengthening and flexibility exercises, but no running. Walk Fit has a separate website.

Added benefits: The Fresh air! Tons of venues! And a stunning environment, depending on the park.

The only downside: Most classes are either in the morning or in the evening. Unless you’re in Canary Wharf, there is little or no choice for lunchtime classes during the week.

Read more from The First Pint, the international's guide to all that London offers.

The 1st London Iranian Film Festival will run from 19 - 26 November in different venues around London. Photo courtesy of the UKIFF

Werner Herzog once said: “The greatest films in the world today are being made in Iran.” On 19 November, these “greatest films” will come to town, as the 1^st London Iranian Film Festival (UKIFF) brings to London, and for the first time in the UK, 35 of the best Iranian contemporary movies.

The final selection of films has been disclosed on 4 November at the official press conference for the festival launching. The First Pint was there to meet the selection committee: a panel comprising some of the most talented voices in film-making from Iran and further afield: Patrick Tucker, Zoran Veljkovic and the famous Iranian painter Hossein Khosrojerdi, with whom The First Pint had a chat with about Iranian cinema.

UKIFF Director, Pejman Danaei, personally helped the committee to choose the best films out of the sheer volume of shorts, documentaries, features and animation films submitted: 471 films from 53 countries were in fact sent to the jury, demonstrating the prolific nature of Iranian film-making itself. From 19 to 25 November, only 35 of them will be screened in London, in partnership with Apollo Cinemas, Ciné Lumiere and the Shortwave Cinema.

“Iranian directors don’t have a platform in Iran” said Pejman Danaei, the young film-maker and festival director.

“But this festival is non-political. It is all about screening Iranian films to promote Iranian culture,” he added, to prevent any political speculation around the festival.

The quality of Iranian films

The UKIFF selection committee has chosen 35 Iranian films to showcase at the festival. Photo credit: Lillo Montalto

Films will be divided into three categories (feature, short, documentary) and filming courses and workshops,will be held throughout the city to support the main events, following Danaei’s idea that “the festival is not just about screening films but it is also a cultural and educational platform.”

Patrick Tucker, internationally acclaimed stage and screen director, is member of the selection committee. “I used to shoot films in many languages: this proves the universality of image and human drama,” he said.

“Most of the films I’ve seen so far tend to have the sea as insisting leitmotif and, above all, an enigmatic end: it’s up to the audience to draw up its own conclusions,” said Tucker, a BBC director. “The quality of the Iranian films is indubitable, as making film is a universal, all-consuming passion.”

Zoran Veljkovic, cinematographer and director of photography, has declared to be “extremely surprised by the quality of the film seen, certainly not beyond any other Western country.”

Why London?

So, the question remains: why London? “Because it is the centre of multiculturalism,” candidly explained Danaei, “We’re trying to target an audience made by people like me: simple film enthusiasts, people interested in Iran or, generally speaking, interested in other cultures.”

Experts such as BBC director Patrick Tucker want to encourage awareness of Iranian cinema in the UK. Photo courtesy of the UKIFF

Danaei told The First Pint that the festival “is all about Iranian cinema, the only selection criteria was the quality of the work submitted.” This festival is therefore non-political: “We are going to be just a reflection of our society: of course some films will end up having some political element within,” he said,  finally conceded to the journalists’ questions about any anti-regime message conveyed by the festival itself.

“We did no receive any funding from Iranian government, probably because in Iran people would expect this project to be political motivated,” he said. “We were sorry to disappoint the authorities.”

As Patrick Tucker explained, most of the Iranian films have some sort of spiritual quality, tackling the issue of how to maintain old traditions in the modern society. So does The Glass House, on of the most original gems of Iranian documentary scene, scheduled for Wednesday 24 November.

“Death is a constant, underlying theme: Iranian films carry some strong messages Hollywood would never buy,” Tucker said.

The 1^st London Iranian Film Festival will launch with a celebratory opening night gala at the Apollo Cinema in Lower Regent Street on Friday 19 November. The gala screening will offer a performance of traditional Iranian music followed by the opening night film The White Meadows.

For further information, check out the festival’s website

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Depiction of the Weighing of the Heart ritual. Papyrus of Ani, c. 1275 BC. Photo courtesy of the British Museum

Set in a maze-like structure that winds through the British Museum’s Reading Room like in the heart of a pyramid, the Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition –  which opened 4 November –  is a trip through the hopes and fears of a lost civilization and an unparalleled insight into the complex Egyptian theology of gods, demons and monsters.

The ‘Book of the Dead’ was not a single text, but a collection of spells and illustrations painted onto papyrus scrolls which provided a sort of “passport” for the journey of the soul through the afterlife. The spells are often accompanied by illustrations, which depict the landscape of the Netherworld and the trials the traveller had to face to be admitted into the afterlife.

“I think ancient Egyptians are still so fascinating today to young people because of their level of achievement in sculpture, architecture and so on for the time they lived in,” John H. Taylor, curator of the exhibition, said to The First Pint. “So much has survived in excellent conditions that it seems to have been made last week. Egyptians convey a great sense of mystery which results to be tremendously fascinating for younger generations.”

Never exhibited before

Depiction of the Opening of the Mouth ritual. Papyrus of Hunefer, c. 1280 BC. Photo courtesy of the British Museum

The exhibition includes two complete ‘Book of the Dead‘ papyri rolls. The Greenfield papyrus is the longest ‘book’ of its kind in the world, in its 37 metres in length it has never been displayed in its entirety before. “There are a lot of fine painted illustrations that can be damaged if displayed for too long,” Taylor said. “We spent a tremendous amount of work to repair these papyri, something like 11 hundreds working hours.”

Alongside with these manuscripts, the exhibit shows treasures from the British Museum’s world celebrated collection of Egyptian artefacts: coffins, gilded masks, amulets, jewellery, tomb figurines and mummy trappings, together with masterpieces on loan from Paris, Leiden, and Boston.

“Some pieces have rarely been seen in a museum and some other have never been displayed,” Taylor added. “It was a great challenge for us because it needed a lot of space and there were a lot of conservation issues to consider, but it was several years in the planning and the British Museum was really keen to put it together.”

Getting to the Field of Reeds

Located right in the centre of the Reading Room, the Judgement Room is perhaps the show-piece of the exhibition. Shrouded in an eerie atmosphere created by soft-lightning, evocative music and state-of-the-art presentation, the room illustrates the important ‘weighing of the heart‘ ritual. The heart of the deceased was placed on a scale and weighed against the Egyptian goddess Maat, who represented order, rightfulness and truth. If the heart was lighter than the soul, then it could be admitted to the afterlife. If it was heavier, a monstrous devourer was ready to destroy the soul forever.

The exhibition shows that the Book’s final purpose was to help the deceased to overcome this terrible obstacle into the afterlife allowing it to reach finally the Field of Reeds, a perfect and idealised version of Egypt, the homeland.

The exhibit runs until 6 March 2011 and is completely free.

Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
British Museum
Great Russell Street
London, WC1B 3DG

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This year's European Documentary Festival focuses on the Environment. Photo: Woodleywonderworks/Flickr

With oil spills, volcanoes and tsunamis inundating shorelines and headlines across the globe, it is fitting that the European Documentary Film Festival has chosen this year’s theme to be the Environment.

Between the 4 and 11 of November, five locations across London will be screening films and encouraging debate on environmental themes through question and answer sessions. The organisers hope that the overall impact of this festival will be a more mainstream questioning of man’s relationship with nature and natural resources.

After reading the title of the festival, it is no surprise that the bulk of funds for the events come from the European Union National Institutes for Culture and the European Commission. The venues themselves also reflect the cultural geography of the films and their makers.

Venues

One of the venues is Ciné Lumière, the cinema at the Institut français in South Kensington. It has a lively schedule all year round and not all the films are exclusively in French; the website explains that it showcases French, European and World cinema. As part of the festival, the film One will be screened here (5 November at 8.30pm). This critically acclaimed film is professed to be a journey around a world where “Opulence cohabits with extreme poverty…We slowly destroy our fragile home through our illogical consumption…” It’s no blockbuster comedy, but it’s the important kind of cinema that is becoming ever-more relevant.

Le Syndrome du Titanic screens on Thursday at Cine Lumiere. Photo: Courtesy of Cine Lumiere

Hungarian Cultural Centre

Another venue on the festival circuit is the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Covent Garden. Its website proclaims “HCC’s ultimate goal is to bring attention to the great achievements in Hungarian art and culture while encouraging collaborations between Hungarians and Londoners.” Sounds like the perfect place for a festival of this nature. The sole film being shown here is the Portuguese offering, Stop, Listen, Look, (11 November at 6.30 pm) which considers a small country village left to rot when the lifeblood train service is diverted away. When most leave to find work, those who promised to look after the land must stay true to their word.

Other venues include the Italian Cultural Institute, the Austrian Cultural Forum London and the Goethe-Institut London. Some events charge £5 for a concession ticket while other screenings are free. The evening showings look like they’ll educate and fascinate. Give your mind something to chew on and check out some amazing cinema in this amazing city.

For more information on screenings and venues go to the festival website here: http://www.europeandocfestival.org.uk/

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This was once a car in Iraq. Photo courtesy of The Imperial War Museum

Chubby pink hands play with rusty red metal, perplexed by what lays before them. “Mummy, is it a car?” asks one of the children. And there starts a Conversation on Iraq.

The object was a car once, until it was caught in a suicide bomb in Baghdad three years ago, and transformed into an exhibit at the Imperial War Museum London.

It sits uncomfortably amongst traditional tools of aggression, a V2 rocket here and a Spitfire there, providing a unique insight into a conflict to which many have become numb.

The car represents the 37-38 people killed around it on 5 March 2007 on Al-Mutanabbi Street, a book market which formed the heart of Iraqi cultural life. Like the victims, the identity of the car cannot be accurately pinpointed owing to the force of the bomb, leaving children and adults alike to wonder and question.

For selected weekends this month and in November there will be someone there to answer their questions, “to try and build up as many different layers of interpretation based on daily life in Baghdad,” says Grant Rogers, Informal Learning Manager at the museum.

Future guests will include a bomb disposal expert, a soldier, a UN worker, and Iraqi citizens. The aim is not to provoke a reaction, but to use the car as a conversation piece, to respond to visitors curiosity and allow them to look. As Grant puts it, “the most interactive device you can ever has is a human being,” and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

Visitor Fiona Brent, 38, found the car shocking “because it shows the devastating effect of modern warfare.” Her nephew was drawn to the alien object, and although it was tricky to explain, Fiona felt the car is an important addition to the museum’s collection.

Andy Shefford, 36, was perplexed by the heap of metal, but found that “if you understand the circumstances surrounding it definitely gives you an idea of the sort of destruction that these things can reap.”

Both visitors regularly see car bomb images on the British news; burning cars as metaphors for those who have died. But it is only the sobering experience of standing next to the ravaged car that brings it into our sphere of reference, where “people have really been investigating the answers” provided by Grant and his team.

Two years ago, placing such a provocative object centre stage would not have been possible at the Imperial War Museum. But thanks to the bravery of new Director Diane Lees, the museum is putting a much stronger emphasis on the civilian, and bravely exploring modern conflict. The museum invites you to go and join in the conversation, in their ‘classroom without walls’.

Conversations on Iraq will take place the weekends of 20-21 and 27-28 November between 11am-12.30pm and 2pm-4pm.

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There will be thousands of floating lights at the Diwali Festival. Photo credit: Poeloq / flickr

The days may be getting shorter, but this year’s festival of lights will add a bit more glow to your weekend. Trafalgar Square is hosting their annual Diwali celebrations this Sunday, and the theme for 2010 is the International Year of Youth.

Diwali in the Square takes place on Sunday 31 October from 2pm to 6:30pm, transforming Trafalgar Square into a hub of colorful lights and decorations, Indian music and traditional dance.

Organised by the Mayor of London in association with the Diwali in London Committee, this year’s celebration is dedicated to “all young people who recognize the universal values of tolerance, love, respect and unity, the ideals imparted by Lord Rama”.

Diwali is a five-day long festival marking a new beginning and is celebrated by the Hindu, Jain and Sikh communities. The word “Diwali” (or “Deepvali”) means “a row of lamps”.

Expect lots of colours at Diwali. Photo credit: everherdofaspacebar /Flickr

The festivities kick off with traditional Garba dancing in the centre of the square at 2pm, followed by the opening ceremony with Diwali messages. Free sarees will be made available on a first come, first serve basis.

A number of community groups and professional artists will be performing during the day from 3:25 pm, including: BBUK Yuva, Sangeet College Ensemble, Renu Gidoomal’s Bhajazz, Sai School Children’s Choir, Sanskriti Dance group, GCC Bhangra Dance group and much more.

Devotional songs will close out the festivities at 6:10pm.

For information and a full schedule of events—including events in other communities—visit the festival’s website

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This cabaret-circus extravaganza offers unusual personalities, amazing feats and some amusingly disturbing things too. Photos Courtesy of La Soirée

Behind the National Theatre in the South Bank Big Top, a circus is brewing. London’s latest spectacle is La Soir ée, a flamboyant display that truly embraces the unusual. And unusual it is, from top to bottom: La Soirée’s troupe is a self-proclaimed ‘madcap family’, performing feats ranging from the acrobatically impressive to the downright disturbing.

Crafted for the Edinburgh Festival in 2004 by a creative team of cabaret producers and performing artists, La Soirée premiered in mid-October in London’s ultimate circus venue: the South Bank Big Top. The ring really lends itself to the performance, with a marquee-like interior and blaring accordion music providing a lively, carnivalesque atmosphere as the guests file in. The seated members of the audience surround a small circular stage and ultimately become part of the performance themselves. Crowd interaction is a common theme with La Soiree, so to those who like a front seat – be warned.

From the second the lights are dimmed and the first act takes to the stage, it is clear that La Soirée is all about one thing: pure, unadorned entertainment. There is no story, no narrative of any sort that connects the performances in any way – their only similarities are that they are all bizarre, and mostly quite funny. There are times when it almost feels like watching an episode of Britain’s Got Talent (minus the judges).

The English Gents in one of their impressive acrobatic moves.

Not all the acts are brilliant, but there are a few that stand out. Of these are The English Gents, an acrobatic duo whose strength and skill is awe-inspiring. These suit-clad, pipe-smoking performers balance upon one another in seemingly impossible ways. Both have equally impressive solo acts as well – one of which involves enough of an element of danger to keep audience members at the edge of their seats throughout.

La Soirée is certainly not a place for the squeamish, as many seemed to find out during the show’s other stand out act – Captain Frodo. This Norwegian contortionist squeezes and bends his way through a pair of tennis rackets, all the while chatting to a visibly shocked audience. Whilst those of a weaker constitution may choose this moment to head to the bar or nip to the toilet, there is no doubt that Captain Frodo was the audience favourite. But it wasn’t simple appreciation for his freakish talent, but also for his comedic timing and excellent showmanship that added a lot to the performance.

The inimicable contortionist Captain Frodo.

Other acts include David O’Mer, a German gymnast whose performance starts from within a bathtub (for little other reason than to soak the nearby crowd), and Miss Behave, an eccentric sword-swallowing diva who wanders through the audience taking swigs from their drinks. On this particular night, one hapless ‘volunteer’ was invited to the stage at one point by Canadian Comedienne, Mooky, before proceeding to act out a scene with her for the best part of ten minutes.

An homage to the strange, La Soirée is an eclectic mix of the weird and wonderful. “Follow your dream, no matter how freaky it may seem to others,” were the uplifting words of Captain Frodo at the end. The show may be light-hearted and fun, but it insists on spreading a relevant and positive message as well. La Soirée aims to provide something for everyone and, whether you love it or hate it, you will certainly be entertained.

La Soirée runs until 31 January, 2011. Shows are at 8pm Tuesdays through Thursdays, 7pm and 9:45pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 5pm on Sundays. Tickets range from £15 to £65; the show also offers dinner packages. La Soirée is at the South Bank Big Top, sE1, behind the National Theatre.

La Soirée tickets are available online or at 0843 221 0999.

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