If you’ve been waiting for summer to finally feel like summer, clear your diary. This weekend, the neighbourhood hosts two festivals, with the sounds of east London taking over every corner from the canals to the Olympic Park. Whether you want to dance your socks off or indulge in a calming reset, there is a stage with your name on it - and you don’t have to break the bank to attend.

Multiple venues in the Wick will take part in the Sound & Silence Festival on Sun 12th Jul- a donation-based, alcohol-free day dedicated to all things wellness. There’ll be cacao ceremonies, gong baths, breathwork, neurodivergent-friendly spaces, a sober rave, ecstatic dance and more. “Our hope is that people leave with a smile, feeling calmer, more connected, and inspired,” sa Bysruno Ciaramicoli Cabral, co-founder. “We want Sound & Silence to become a community people can return to again and again - not just a one-day festival,” adds Aleksandra 'Ayavaa' Karpowicz, the event’s other co-founder.

On both Sat 11th and Sun 12th Jul, the Olympic Park will host free festival Power and Respect, as part of the ongoing Music is Black Festival from East Bank. Curated by Jamz Supernova and Yazmin Lacey, the two day event centres the Black women and non-binary voices redefining British music culture right now. Expect everything from futuristic jazz and live electronic sets to a day to night dancefloor takeover running until midnight inside Sadler’s Wells East.

Also nearby is the De Beauvoir Jazz Festival, which takes place Fri 10th - Sun 12th Jul across multiple Hackney locations. The lineup features a Friday opening night with Ego Ella May, a Saturday afternoon Block Party at De Beauvoir Block headlined by award-winning tuba player Theon Cross, and a massive Sunday finale with New Orleans street jazz legends Tuba Skinny.

🎭Tonight Wed 8th Jul, Edinburgh Fringe First winning show KANPUR: 1857 comes to Theatre Royal Stratford East as part of their South Asian Summer programme. Based on historical events, an Indian rebel finds themself strapped to a cannon, answering to a British officer for the crimes of Kanpur, an Indian uprising against British colonial forces. Written by and starring Niall Moorjani, and co-directed by and starring Jonathan Oldfield.

🏷️Bottle Factory Flea Market is coming to Hackney Bridge on Sun 12th Jul, with over 60 independent traders setting up shop. Spend a summer Sunday browsing an eclectic mix of vintage and designer fashion, mid-century furniture, rare homeware, books, and vinyl records. The market runs alongside live music, local street food traders, and outdoor bars.

🌸Unwind this weekend with a Pressed Flower-Making Workshop at Bow Arts on Sat 11th Jul. The adult-only workshop is run by Roxana Gutila, who will guide you through experimenting with a mini flower press, then design and frame the floral artworks to take home with you on the day.

🌱Build your own tiny green world from scratch today, Wed 8th Jul, with UCL East’s Terrarium Workshop. Led by instructor, Joanna, you’ll learn how to layer soil, stones, moss, and plants to create a self-contained mini ecosystem.

🎥Eastway Baths are having another Audiovisual Assembly on Sat 11th Jul, bridging the gap between live electronic music and visual art. With performances featuring the ambient sounds of I Feel Like a Bombed Cathedral collaborating with visual artist Daisy Dickinson, alongside sets from Parallel Action and DJ Cheeba.

🍯 Discover the quiet beauty of Japanese craft right here in Fish Island with a Kintsugi Workshop at The Trampery. Next Tues 14th July Gohobi is hosting Tokyo-based Atelier CIRCOLO for a hands-on workshop dedicated to Kintsugi, the traditional art of repairing broken ceramics with lacquer and metallic powder.

⚽ Thanks to Sunday night’s heroics you can catch the World Cup quarter final England v Norway on Sat 11th Jul 10pm at multiple Wick venues such as Here East Canalside, The Lord Napier, No.90 and Colour Factory, or there’s the giant outdoor fan experience in the garden at Hackney Bridge. For a culinary sneak peek, head to the not-yet-open Uncle Hon’s BBQ, the former Silo in the White Building, where England matches are being shown alongside a one-off menu themed around the cuisine of the opposition.

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🎺3 years on from his debut in London, NY native Kareem Ali returns for a Passionfruit night at Colour Factory this Fri 10th Jul. Known for his jazz roots, Ali will be delivering a hybrid set that blends traditional DJing with live elements. You can also catch sets from rising talent Reek0, vocalist Lila, and Passionfruit founder Esk.

🌞If you are looking for daytime dancing, head down to Crate for their LLL Terrace Party on Sat 12th Jul. The lineup features Stargirl, Live Laugh Layla, and nicfromyork, who will be taking us through some garage, funky, breaks and bass.

🎵NTS Radio are running summer session O Brasil de Havaianas at Hackney Bridge on Sat 11th Jul, celebrating the evolution of Brazilian sounds. The 5 hour session will showcase contemporary Brazilian club music, with percussive sets from Alírio, Cherolainne, and funk innovator D. Silvestre.

💿For those looking for a proper, late night warehouse vibe, El House is at Vittoria Wharf Studio on Sat 12th Jul, featuring DJs Sazzle and Sandy Beach for a night of house and techno.

🥁Grow’s signature Deepdig night returns this Sat 12th Jul, bringing a selection of global rhythms to the canal. This edition features Rohan Rakhit and Donut playing alongside Soph, with the selectors digging deep into their record bags to span some soulful house, broken beat and percussive global tunes.

🍸Gigi (of the Wick’s own Pirate’s Hub) has started a fundraiser for new project Gwenda, an Italian-inspired cocktail bar and small plates restaurant that will be opening along the canalside this summer. Check out their campaign page here to watch the preview video, explore their early menu concepts, and help bring this vibrant new hub to our neighbourhood.

💡 Applications are currently open for Hackney Council’s Project Innovation Fund if you are a small, local community group, resident collective, or grassroots social enterprise with an income of less than £250,000. The grant is designed to help small organisations test out fresh community ideas, strengthen partnerships, and trial projects that support communities typically underserved by major systems. Applications are open until Aug 31st via Hackney’s Grants Portal.

🏆 Submissions are open for the biennial East London Art Prize, a major platform celebrating the incredible diversity of art made in the cultural hive of East London. Headed by Bow Arts and supported by a network of local partners (including East Bank and the V&A East), the prize is open to artists living or working in eligible East London boroughs, including Hackney and Tower Hamlets. Twelve shortlisted artists will be featured in a group show with access to mentoring grants, while the overall winner will receive a £15,000 cash prize and a solo exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery in Bow. The deadline to apply is Aug 16th.

🏳️‍🌈 Hackney Council and Hackney Giving have launched their latest Pride365 Grants Programme. Grassroots groups, local creatives, and voluntary organisations can apply for funding to support LGBTQIA+ cultural activities and heritage projects that directly take place within the borough and engage Hackney’s local communities. Applications are open to organisations with a turnover of under £300,000, and the deadline to get your project proposal submitted is Jul 27th.

🖼️ Entries are now open for the 9th John Ruskin Prize, a multidisciplinary art prize open to all artists, designers and craftspeople, of all nationalities, aged 18 and over. Run by The big Draw, and supported by the Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust, this year’s theme invites you to question the role of the maker today - what does it mean to create with an awareness of consequence, while also posing the challenge: must art serve a purpose beyond itself? Selected works will be exhibited at Trinity Buoy Wharf in 2027, and four winners will receive prizes totalling £9,500. Apply before 17th Nov.

📕 The Wick Book is a limited edition 160-page hardback historic record, looking at 15 years of culture, community and change in the neighbourhood through the pages of The Wick. We’re now down to the last 100 copies.

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