We saw The Amazons here in October 2022. We got to the venue after they had already let a ton of…read morepeople in and lined them up on the stairs to enter the concert space. Once they opened the concert space, they let the rest of the people who were outside waiting, in the venue. We immediately went to the bar and ordered some wine. We hung out there a while while we waited for the show to start. It was comfortable and a nice place to wait. The show space is very unique and had amazing sound. Even though we went in to the show space later, we could still see the stage really well. The Amazons were awesome and I'd definitely return to this venue.

I went to the Roundhouse last night to see The National play the iTunes Festival. And I gotta say,…read morethis is my kind of venue! Why? FOOD We turned up to the venue hungry and there was food! And by food I don't mean dirty water hot dogs but rather, nachos, burgers, peri peri chicken sandwiches and even a portobello and goat cheese sandwich (all of which were grilled to order on a BBQ.) OUTDOOR TERRACE Better still, we were able to consume said food outside, with beer. A concert venue with a terrace? Two words: hell yes! SCREENS The camera work during the concert was excellent and beamed up on two large screens which helped me to feel almost as if I were on the stage. ACOUSTICS You'll definitely get awesome aural at Roundhouse! SEATING I know, I know, all the kids are on the floor spilling drinks all over one another, jumping up and down, swapping spit and whatnot, but at this point in my life it is terrific to be able to take in a show from a seat with an incredible view! Now, if only I knew someone with an extra VIP pass to: The xx on 12 July and Florence + The Machine on 13 July Le sigh, a girl can dream...

I didn't stay here for long, as I was heading down to the Mela in Croydon, but it was very nice,…read morehot, lovely little plant stall selling lots of strange herbs I'd not encountered (what is grapefruit mint please?) free Supermalt from the malty drinks stand, which is like liquid sweet bovril/horlicks for those not familiar, and free cans of drink at teh entrance as well. Bit gutted i missed out on Jimmy Cliff, but I did see him at the Croydon Festival last year. Worth attending. However it was so loud that I could only stand about ten minutes of music, so I don't know what condition your hearing would be in after eight hours.

If I new anything about web design and hacking I would attempt to add another couple of stars to…read morethis review. Other things I've given five stars are no where near as good as the Rise Festival was. The parks in London make it a city worth living in. They are free and very well kept and I just love them. A place where the alcoholic and the athlete, the child, the gangster and the elderly can all find a bit of room and do their thing. Summer is welcomed into London with a series of free festivals accross its parks, with perhaps the biggest being the Rise festival. The web site states that well over 100,000 people attended and I can well believe it. Having said that it felt much more spacious than Clissold parks' Stokefest a month of so earlier. You could move around at the Rise festival, making it much easier to sample more than one music show - or to go and get beer or food. My favourite barometer for the quality of a festivals organisation is the length of time you have to queue for the toilet. I wasn't so pedantic as to time it, but I would have to say that the wait was always less than ten minutes. Admirable!! Especially compared to the likes of The Notting Hill Carnival (an important part of the London music scene seems to be the ability to keep drinking and dancing whilst your bladder explodes.) Now a free concert like this is never going to attract the likes of Radiohead or Fatboy slim so direct comparisons with music between The Rise Festival and say Hyde Park the week earlier are probably unfair. None of these acts, which I list below, had appeared on my Ipod. CSS Jimmy Cliff Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings Dub Pistols featuring Terry Hall and Rodney P Kitty, Daisy and Lewis Trojan Sound System TY Bassekou Kouyate Yaaba Funk The Aliens But the music I heard, particularly The Aliens and some African dance music on a smaller stage, was excellent stuff. Add to this quality music the fact that you can carry in your own drinks and food, that I was able to walk to the venue, that there were rides and food and interesting cultural things going on - AND IT WAS FREE! - this was just a spectacular day out. Another great thing about this festival was the atmosphere and the general crowd behaviour. People were just friendly and happy. I didn't witness any crowd misbehaviour and I felt that the police were really restrained and respectful in their presence. Unfortunately, I have to delcare that if this event happened in Australia - there would be a lot more drunken idiots. Especially teenagers. The Rise Festival made the headlines because Boris, our Mayor, removed the specific focus of Anti - Racism, with a little last minute meddling. It was apparantly the biggest Anti Racism festival in europe. He changed it to the Celebrate Diversity festival. Now I don't disagree with it neccessarily but I don't see any reason why he would have done that except as a little statement that he can do whatever he wants. First he gets rid of drinking on public transport, then he starts mucking about with festivals. I bet next he will extend areas on the streets where you can't drink and then he will ban drinking in parks, and the free festivals and their special nature will go out with. Londons park festivals, especially The Rise, are wonderful events that bring the community together and reinforce everything that is good about living in the capital.

Great pizza and beer (well, hard cider for me)! This has a bit of a "nice"dive bar feel. Live music…read moreis a bonus (and was the draw for me to come here).

This review is just for the pizza and drinks FYI. My hubs and I came yesterday (Monday) for the two…read morefor £12 pizza special (until 8pm). I didn't realize there was 2-for-1 drinks (has to be the same cocktail) but what a nice surprise! The pub is appropriately shabby, with dark wood floors and booths with split open seats and sticky tables. Pretty buzzing for a Monday night. I ordered the Parma Violence: gin, violette liquor, lemon juice and gomme and it was smashing. Delicious and potent. Now the pizza (sigh). I ordered the passion amore: avo, capers, mint and aubergine as the veg pizza option was not part of the two for £12 (boo on them). My hubs got some meat pizza. They came relatively quickly and looked very nice. Mine had large chunks of avo sprinkled atop. But... Yet AGAIN in London, mediocre pizza itself. The dough base was probably my favourite part as it was thin and just chewy enough. But bland I sauce, bland taste. My husband said his was similar. I swear pizza in London just sucks compared to NY. All these reviews claiming how good the pizza is are so misinformed.

I attended the Innocent Village Fete this year and was extremely dissapointed. The tickets were…read moreexpensive, and most of the activities (such as the welly wanging, morris dancing etc) which I'd looked foward to seeing I couldn't because the crowds were so big! In the duck herding I didn't get to see a single duck. Some highlights were the book tombola and some free smoothies, other than that everything was overpriced or we were unable to see it.

I had quite an enjoyable time at the Innocent Village Fete. Although I didn't get to see any of the…read moreevents like morris dancing I did get to see the Ukele Orchestra which was very interesting. The cakes from the Women's Institute were also good, as was the Lonely Planet stall. On the way out we were given a free carton of Innocent Orange Juice which was nice. Would I go again? Maybe.

This was the first year of the London Animal Free Festival and it was an amazing success! Kudos to…read morethe organizers' hard work. Even better than some of the VegFests, as there were lots of free vegan food samples to be had and it wasn't too crowded. So many friendly vendors and compassionate people. There were several bakeries, caterers, animal sanctuaries, talks on nutrition, animal advocacy, film screenings, and more! I went around several times to just ogle the goodies from each table. The hot food area was in a separate room and it helped with the flow of traffic in and out of the galleries. The upstairs balcony area was great for eating in super comfortable seats and watching the music and dance acts. I was absolutely stuffed full of vegan cheese bites, a veg hot dog, and vegan dim sum! I haven't had vegan dim ages, so I was so excited and happy to sample a rare treat. When we left around 2:30pm there was a line wrapped around the corner and the security guards could only let in the same amount of people in as the number leaving. Fantastic event! Look for it again next year! Maybe in June? Book advanced tickets or get there early to avoid the line!

The Camden Garden Centre really has it all: friendly & knowledgeable staff who are willing to…read moreengage in a little chat with you and point you to the flowers that suit your garden's particular needs. For example, our garden is deprived from sunshine for most of the day (aka shade) but we nevertheless want to have a garden that exists more than off shrubs and other boring greenery... Aside from the nice staff, their selection is also quite extensive - especially given that the store is very close to the city centre and doesn't have the opportunity to expand like other suburban garden-centre monsters.

Oooh yay for mums!…read more My mother came to visit my kitten in our new(ish) flat and was truly unimpressed by the state of our little garden. I should probably mention that we had to dump our old kitchen in the garden for two months before we could persuade someone to drive us to the dump...so this has left a muddy, slimy mess. Oops. However, my mum took one look at it, and marched me off to the Camden garden centre to see if we could find some tools and plants. I am glad we did! This place has: * A huge selection of plant pots and statues (I wasn't into them...but maybe other yelpers are?) * Plenty of plants in pots, ready to re-locate into your garden...We bought as many herbs as we could carry!! * Seeeeds! All the seeds you could think of (or bulbs) with seed trays etc. * Spades, forks, gloves etc. * Houseplants * Friendly, helpful staff This is all very helpful...but I would not have fixed my garden without mum's help (plus she paid for some of it, saying it was a moving in prezzy!) So I recommend visiting here with a parent in tow. Thanks mum!!

I went to see The Roots at The Forum this weekend and although most of my enjoyment was down to…read morethem being an incredible band, some of it had to do with the venue, which I rate highly. As a sprightly, young music fan, I used to get standing tickets for every concert because I wanted to be at the front, hugging the speaker and as close as possible to whoever was on stage. Now at the ripe old age of 24, I may be getting a bit old for this kind of behaviour and so for the first time ever, opted for seated balcony tickets. When we arrived and moved through the fast moving queue I started to worry that buying seats meant that you had to sit in them; I just wanted to be on the balcony for a better view. My fears turned out to be unfounded; the seating is comprised of tiered, cushioned benches that curve around the balcony. It was unreserved too so even though we arrived late, we still managed to squeeze in with another friend at the front. There are several bars at The Forum, so the queues for drinks were nothing like what I've seen in other large music venues and they are inside the auditorium so getting a beer doesn't mean missing half the gig. It's very grand inside with a huge chandelier hanging from the high ceiling and gold detailing on every available surface. The only complaint about this venue is the sound wasn't particularly good, especially after the gig, the DJ set was so quiet it sounded as though the speakers were in a different room.

I came to see Manu Chao here last night, which was an amazing concert with an electric atmosphere…read more Everyone was jumping up and about for most of the evening. It was sold out, but still not terribly crowded. A pint of beer was decent at 3.20 pounds, not extortionate but you're not allowed re-entry. Might as well have a drink before. It was not too small and not too big, perfect for an intimate concert. Its divided into two levels with lots of chairs upstairs, where you can sit with a great view of the stage. The cloakroom was terribly crowded at the end of the night, but the manager and security team managed the crowd really well (mini London mob... don't we know them well). Awesome concert, decent venue.

As a rock melomaniac I always felt attracted by the musical atmosphere from the UK. Live concerts…read moreeverywhere, emerging bands, festivals... but still I wasn't able to find a place where to enjoy a good party and experience that vibe at the same time. My search reached to an end when I was handed a flyer in a casual Friday night at Camden Town. Written in it I could read the names of many bands I loved, as if I was going to go to a festival where they played. Nevertheless I was skeptical, since I had gone to places like that before and ended up disappointed in the end. On the contrary, in the moment I walked in, I was welcomed by "Live Forever" by Oasis, and I started to foresee what it was going to be a good night. The dancefloor was full of people enjoying the big hits by Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, The Libertines or Arctic Monkeys. On top of that, drinks weren't expensive and there was a second floor were live concerts were held: it was the vibe I was looking for and my quest was complete.