The best things in life are free…

I’m skint, you’re skint, we’re all skint; let’s have a rollicking good summer anyway…by following the cheapskates guide to life below, we want your suggestions please leave your top tips below as a comment!:

1. We’re a bit slow off the draw for these but this weekend both West End Live and Paradise Gardens festival are taking place. West End Live is an outdoor spectacular featuring all the west end shows you normally can’t afford including Wicked, Hair, Legally Blonde and many more. With ticket prices at £95 for best seats, you can’t afford to miss this.
2. Paradise Gardens is a lovely festival in Victoria Park, Mile End. Had some great fun here and it lasts all summer with differing shows and outdoor fun.. oooher vicar ;). Their highlights include…Music on the Paradise Stage from: Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Jazz Jamaica, Soul Jazz Orchestra, Brute Chorus, Movits, UK premiere of ‘Wishful’ a site specific spectacular, Footsbarn Theatre presents ‘Sorry’, Electro Ballroom with: The Correspondents, Arriba La Cumbia, Sensational Street Arts including the London premiere of ‘Gloves On’ from Ragroof Theatre, Heart N Soul presents ‘The Beautiful Octopus Club’, T-Mobile’s Big Dance Countdown and new work by ‘Avant Garde’ and ‘Cindy Claes’ http://www.paradisegardensfestival.org.uk/ Tickets for Footsbarn Theatre’s ‘Sorry’ can be ordered here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing/performancelist.asp?shoid=18134
3. Futurising, 29-30 June 2010 is London’s free creative careers festival, amazing people to talk to about future careers, training, courses and workshop sessions, so you can give up your shitty admin day job and doing something amazing everyday. http://www.futurising.org Nicholls & Clarke Building, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6PG
4. Greenwich + Docklands International Festival This year’s Festival invites you to experience the world from a different angle! Our theme is “Earth” and with 10 days of surprising, surreal and spectacular outdoor arts events we hope to encourage you to think about Greenwich and East London in new ways: some performances will offer new perspectives on familiar landscapes and settings, whilst others will delve into our relationship with the Earth, using Greenwich’s role as the home of the Prime Meridian – ‘the centre of time and space’, as inspiration. From large scale spectaculars exploring Newtonian gravity and Darwinian evolution, to more intimate performances inviting us to think about climate change, ideas of “home” and different cultural maps of the world, the Festival has been devised as a journey of discovery, enabling you to experience some extraordinary, world class performances across Greenwich and Tower Hamlets. http://www.festival.org It’s all this week and next…don’t miss Voala in Woolwich this Saturday 26th at 10pm and also the show in Millwall Dock next friday and saturday, we saw the company last year – they are so awesome – naked men on boats and fireworks – what more could you ask for…
5. The Scoop Awesome free festival with free theatre and film. We watched Withnail and I in our picnic blankets last year, was ace! http://www.morelondon.com/scoop.html
6. iTunes Festival Free festival featuring top names in our favourite venue in London the Roundhouse (in Camden). Our favourites for this year are Foreigner + Europe on the 25th July 2010, Mumford and Sons + Laura Marling on the 9th July 2010, Kate Nash on the 6th and Scissor Sisters on 1st. Be sure to register at http://apps.facebook.com/itunesfestival/ and don’t fret if you’re not selected there are tickets available on the door if you get there an hour or two before the show and wait in a queue (bring wine from the Sainsburys opposite the Roundhouse)
7. Create London 6 weeks of great free and cheap events in London this summer http://createlondon.org/2010/