Incoming: Cockles & Muscles, Legss, Broadstairs Dickens Festival

Newly announced events in Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Whitstable and London to fill your schedule, including parties, supper clubs, drag brunch, live music, wine tasting and more.

Cockles & Muscles will be celebrating ten years of putting on queer parties in Margate with a special night at Margate Arts Club on Saturday, June 21. There’ll be an early start with a happy hour and shows in the garden from 6pm. Full line up TBA. Tickets £7. 

We’ve been hoping to see art-rock band Legss live for a while now, so it’s very exciting news that they’ll be stopping off at Ramsgate Music Hall as part of a UK tour on Thursday, June 26. Tickets £12.50. 

Queer Cuntry has announced two all-dayers in Margate and London over the coming months. First up, there’ll be a takeover at The Sun Deck in Margate on bank holiday Monday, May 26, from 3-9pm. Free entry. Then on August 23 from 2pm to 1am, the QC team will be at Signature Brew in Walthamstow. Early bird tickets £15. There’ll also be a Little Gay Hoedown at Margate Arts Club on July 4 followed by a car wash on July 5, both raising money for future Queer Cuntry projects. Tickets £5. 

If that's not enough, Queer Cuntry are also running the Little Gay Line Dancing Club so you can perfect your bootscooting for the next gig. First class is on June 5, with five more following over the next five months. There are packages, passes and by the class rates (£12-£100). Bootscooters get entry into the Paisley Fields gig following the first class.

This year’s Broadstairs Dickens Festival is set to take place from June 13-15. Events include a beach party, parade, country fayre, tours of the Dickens Museum, lawns games and more. Get down and party like it’s 1839. Find out more. 

Start your Margate Pride celebrations off right on August 9 with a bottomless brunch at The George & Heart. Hosted by former Drag Race contestant Just May, there will be bubbles, food, sweet treats and laughs. Places are limited, so don’t hang about. Tickets £45. 

Punk band Panic Shack have announced a show at Where Else in Margate on Thursday, October 9. By that time you should have learned every word to their eponymous debut album, which is out on July 19. Tickets £20.58. 

Also coming up at Where Else, math-punk quartet University will be playing the venue on Tuesday, September 16. Their debut album McCartney, It’ll Be OK is set for release on June 20. Tickets £11.85. 

Seafood supper club Catch is breaking out of Ramsgate and holding its first Margate event at The George & Heart on Thursday, June 5. It’ll be a four course meal out in the garden. Places £35. 

Pomus in Margate is hosting a free wine tasting with English winemakers The Heretics on Wednesday, May 21. If you want to take part - because there’s no such thing as free wine - you will need to be booked in to eat at Pomus on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. Not a massive hardship though. DM to book. 

Another tasting - but not wine and not free - Bottleneck in Broadstairs is teaming up with Davidoff for a cigar tasting on Tuesday, June 4. Your £85 entry fee gets you a welcome drink, two cigars, plus whisky, rum or coffee pairings. 

Whitstable artist Catman has designed a new collection of cans for Fatboy Slim’s coffee company Pepita. Both will be on hand for a signing event at Thirty Nine Whitstable on Thursday, June 12. Meet them, have photos taken, get stuff signed, buy original artworks, and hang around for music spun by DJ Masterbreaks. Tickets (including collectable coffee tins) from £50.