Incoming: Gilles Peterson, UK Creative Festival, Canterbury Live

Gilles Peterson and the UK Creative Festival in Margate, a new festival for Canterbury, the Broadstairs Dickens Festival and more. A bumper load of dates for your diary coming up over the next few months.

Gilles Peterson will be in Margate to play a genre-bending three hour DJ set at the Drill Shed on Saturday, June 20. This is going to be a popular one, so don't hang about. Earlybird tickets £22.66. 

UK Creative Festival returns to Dreamland in Margate on July 1-2. The conference programme includes panel discussions, workshops, networking opportunities and more, bringing together creatives from across design, advertising, tech, music and film. A free creative fair also offers young and emerging talent the opportunity to meet top agencies, brands and other organisations to help build their careers. Tickets from £100. 

New music festival Canterbury Live launches this August. Spread over three days, headliners are JLS, Becky Hill and Madness. Other acts on the bill include, The Wanted, Pixie Lott, Ella Eyre, Cast, The Beat and The Ordinary Boys. It will take place at the St Lawrence Cricket Ground on August 7-9. Tickets from £45. 

The Broadstairs Dickens Festival is back for its 89th year at venues across the town from June 12-14. The programme includes a parade, Victorian fair, a mobile Victorian photo studio, apothecaries, workshops, talks and more. See the full schedule. 

Drag artist Baby Lame will be performing Hit Me Baby One More Lame at Ramsgate’s Alley Bar on Saturday, April 11. The show uncovers the totally unauthorised story of Britney Spears and features around 100 Britney songs. It is, says the blurb, “a hilariously unhinged immersive punk odyssey through space travel, romance, murder and full-throttle pop madness, co-starring… the entire audience.” Tickets £15. 

Throwing Muses’ Kristen Hersh returns to Ramsgate on Saturday, October 31 for a performance at St George’s Church. Tickets £12. 

Author Francesca Wade will be discussing biography and a “literary detective story” Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife at CAMP in Cliftonville on Thursday, April 9. Free tickets. 

Richard Ayoade is going on the road to discuss his new book Afterthoughts, or Some Pistachios Won't Open: Wisdom for the Unreflective. The tour will bring him to the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury on Sunday, June 7. Hear him speak about some of the 500 thoughts contained in the book. Tickets from £34.

Local band NOTV will be putting on a disco punk party at Where Else in Margate on Friday, May 8. Taking over the whole venue, there will be live performances from Lulu and Artinho downstairs, electroclash DJs upstairs, party games, vegan Buckfast brownies, and more. Tickets £8.10.

Margate Electronics is back at Margate Arts Club on April 24. This edition will put the focus on artists working with experimental processes such as live coding, video synthesis, live hardware sampling, tape manipulation, and 3D-rendered moving images. Performing live are Hellocatfood and Rhizocorp, while Eva Papamargariti will be screening a new video. Tickets £11.33.

Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre has announced two new in-house productions, following last year’s The Party Girls. A new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, set in 1770s Paris, will run from September 14-19. Tickets from £19. Then, arriving just in time for Christmas, a new family-friendly musical based on Kenneth Grahame’s The Reluctant Dragon, will run from December 5 to January 3. Tickets from £18.

Margate-based artist Rachelle Francis is currently showing her new exhibition My Hands Are My Voice at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury until May 17. The exhibition features artwork created in posthumous collaboration with her mother Diana Francis, who died in 2019. Alongside these works, an interactive installation of cloth books created with communities across Kent, with an accompanying headphone piece by composer Tom Adams drawn from workshop recordings. Various workshops will take place during the exhibition’s run. Full details. 

Resonant Coast has announced a new show at Staple Stores in Ramsgate on Sunday, May 24. The night will act as the launch party for Richard Pike’s new album Redemption Suite I-IX: For Piano & Textures, with the musician playing music from it live. Also performing will be guitarist Jonny Fryer. Tickets £7. Ahead of that, the next Resonant Coast show will be at Ramsgate Arts Club on Sunday, April 26 with Alex Rex and Francesca Ter-Berg. Tickets £8.

London/Margate trip hop duo Colour of Heartache have been announced as support for Nick & June at Ramsgate Music Hall on Saturday, April 4. Their first show in Thanet, the performance will also act as the official launch party for Colour of Heartache’s new single Not Yours, which came out yesterday. Tickets £17.50.

Head to Gather& in Ramsgate on Sunday, April 19 for Sunday Sessions, a vintage market selling pre-loved streetwear and designer menswear, furniture, records, art and more. There will also be food and drinks available. Follow on Instagram for more info.

The next Writing in Progress new writing night takes place at Off Licence in Cliftonville on Wednesday, April 8. Head along to hear a variety of writers read work in progress, and sign up to perform yourself if you want to try something out on the friendly, supportive audience. Free entry. DM to take part.

Thanet Experimental has announced Spring Awakening, a month of exhibitions at Salon in Cliftonville. Running from April 3-28, showing work during the run will be Loser Gang, David Nettingham, Vicki Salmi, and Threat Collective. Follow on Instagram for more details. 

Fancy eating like it's the tenth century? Turner Contemporary is hosting two eight course medieval feasts on April 17 and 18. You’ll eat wild vegetables, local shellfish and more, washed down with mead and ale. You’ll also learn about the history of the time and hear stories of the people living in Margate over 1000 years ago. £65 per person.