We’ve got three days of no work coming up. How are you going to spend August bank holiday?
We’ve rounded up the best things to do in Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate this August bank holiday to make your long weekend a breeze, whether you’re looking for club nights, gigs, galleries or a new pop up restaurant to try.
Break days up at the beach with exhibitions, a meal out, puppets and nights out. Catch a film, relax at a gong bath, take the family to see some art or even have a go at improv comedy - find something to do with our guide of the best events and shows this long weekend.
We’ll continue to update this guide, so keep checking back in.
Chilled things
Kate Malyon and Margate Queer Library and Archive founder Dr Sé M. Nomyo host a sea swim-led writing workshop, Sunday, August 3o. Gathering at Flints Project Space and open to all writing abilities, Negate Gap at 10am, the two hour session will start by watching Return to Water, a short film co-created by Sé and Kate, before the pair guide participants through a series of writing prompts and incorporate a swim into the session. Tickets are Pay What You Can, and you'll need to bring swimming kit, something warm to change into afterwards, and preferred writing tools - notebook or laptop.
Cliftonville's Quench gallery hosts How Do You Keep Making?, a conversation about juggling creative practice with mental health and raising children. On Saturday, August 29, from 2pm-3pm, artists Hannah Perry, Nicky Petrie and Rhys Coren delve into the issue, in a panel chaired by Rosie Reed held before the opening of the group exhibition Where Is My Mind? which runs until October 11. Ticketed.
Margate sculptor Lindsey Mendick’s Where You And I Begin wraps up at Carl Freedman Gallery on Sunday. Head over to have a look at times unsettling ceramics and an exhibition that looks at intimacy and co-dependency.
It’s your last chance to catch the final show by the latest cohort of Tracey Emin Artist Residency artists. Representing 15 months of studio practice and artistic development at TKE Studios, the exhibition features work by nine artists. Finishes Monday.
Margate’s Pie Factory hosts Louise Reiger and her exhibition Anemoia, Thursday to Monday. Taking inspiration from the 60s, 70s and 80s, the exhibition looks at memory and nostalgia for times one has never actually known.
Another exhibition closing on Monday, this one at The House Hotel in Ramsgate. Artist Caroline List presents Light Puzzle, an exhibition that explores the emotional and spatial effects of colour and light. Exhibited works draw on colour theory, light contrasts and optical depth and explores abstraction through compositions and colour horizons.
Broadstairs Bandstand puts on three afternoons of free music over the bank holiday. Pulse 89, 3sT and Twice the Spice 35 on Saturday to Monday 2pm-4pm. Little information is available for these, so the gigs are pot luck.
The Free Association is running an improv comedy taster sessions at Cloud Zen in Margate on Saturday. The two hour workshops will be relaxed with no being put on the spot and no performance to an audience. It’ll give you an introduction to the skills developed in the company’s longer courses. Tickets £20.
The Palace cinema in Broadstairs screens Lady, featuring Fleabag’s Sian Clifford as a lunatic narcissistic aristocrat, Lady Isabella. She hires a struggling filmmaker to create a documentary about her, and things get weird as Lady Isabella searches for human connection and seeks to be seen. It’s on Friday at 4.30pm, Saturday at 4.30pm and 7.30pm, and Sunday at 7pm. Tickets £9.
Andy Malt
Floating Frequencies Soundbath sets up its prayer bowls, tuning forks, crystals and gongs at Bleak House, for a restorative bank holiday Monday gong bath. Relax, heal, reenergise and potentially sleep through this immersive experience that strictly starts at 10am - no latecomers. Two spaces remain. Snap them up for £25 each.
Family things
To mark the 25th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Carlton cinema in Westgate will be screening the movie from Friday to Sunday. Tickets from £4.35.
The bOing! Family Arts Festival returns to Canterbury’s Gulbenkian Arts Centre on Saturday and Sunday. Free to enter, many of the performances and activities are also free. Ticket prices for paid events are capped at £7.50. See the full programme.
Problematic puppets Punch and Judy bring their domestic issues to Viking Bay, with the final two days of show Saturday and Sunday, August 29-30. Shows are free, and are at 11am, 12pm and 1pm.
Food things
Ramsgate's Royal Temple Yacht Club will be cooking up a barbecue on its sun terrace on Saturday and Sunday from 2.30pm. A perfect opportunity to check out the venue's amazing views across the harbour. There will be live music from Souther Country Rocks on Saturday.
POM on the Pier is gearing up for a party this weekend. Open late on Saturday and Sunday, head down to Margate's Harbour Arm for a BBQ and Bank Holiday specials, including bottles of wine at happy hour prices.
Ahead of it's offical opening, new Ramsgate restaurant Little Kraken will opens its bar today at 5pm. Find it on York Street, for discounted drinks and food samples until 9pm. The kitchen is set to open on September 10, with a menu including seafood, steak and oysters.
Another end-of-summer BBQ, brought to you by Big Plates Forever and hosted at Cliftonville's newest local boozer, The Last Light. Meat, veggie and vegan skewers and flatbreads are on the grill, which you can wash down with a cold pint or two. It's on Sunday, August 3o, from 2pm.
PomUS at Fort Road Hotel hold a late dinner service on Sunday, August 30, and is open for brunch on Monday, August 31, 11am-3pm. Booking recommended.
Friends of Foe and Komorebi Kitchen will be teaming up for a special food pop-up at HOFFS in Margate on Saturday and Sunday. Fusing their Sri Lankan and Japanese cooking into one full-flavoured menu, they’ll be offering three courses for £37. DM on Instagram to book.
Going out things
The George & Heart in Margate is having a Sunday Summer Closing Party on Sunday, August 30. Running 5pm-9pm, the grill will be fired up, and the tunes will be playing. Hospitality workers get a discount to say thanks for the summer season graft.
Margate High Street sometimes-open bar, Bar Bohemia opens on Friday, August 28 from 12pm. From 9.15pm to 11.30pm, the bar is throwing an AfroLatino bash for those who would like to get their boogie on.
Ramsgate pub Ravensgate is opening on Monday, August 30 so the crew can see off summer Notting Hill Carnival style. There will be rum cocktails and reggae, calypso, dancehall, rock steady, ska and dub from the speakers, when DJ Katmandude gets behind the decks 4pm-6pm.
Smugglers Festival returns for woodland fun and late night lemon and spoon offs from Thursday to Sunday. The final few tickets remain, with weekend and family day tickets still available, from £92.70.
Andy Malt
Kick the long weekend off by reviving your teenage dance moves when Fatboy Slim plays Dreamland on Friday. It’s sold out, but check the various social, WhatsApp groups and Twickets for last minute spare tickets.
Ramsgate Arts Club will be open from 7pm until 3am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday night, Lol Hammond will be DJing funky house, beats and curve balls.
Over in Olby’s Soul Cafe, alt karaoke night, I’m Not Kara-okay returns for the bank holiday for all the emo, punk and metal fans on Friday. Doors at 8pm, tickets £11.
Head to Ramsgate bar Penelope on Saturday, for Ibiza DJs, small plates and wine.
Summer’ween is coming to Where Else in Margate on Saturday. It’s like Halloween but in the summer. Rock, punk, emo and metal club night Can’t Stop will be putting on a fancy dress party. Rock up in your best heat appropriate scary costume. Tickets £7.
Balearic Boutique will be taking over the Sun Deck on Margate on Saturday with DJ Jo Mills headlining the day. Drop in between 2pm and 10pm. Free entry.
Queer cabaret night The Plague is on at Where Else in Margate on Saturday. Hosted by Freeda Nip and ELZ, the event will raise money for Trans Club. Tickets £5.
Margate Soul Weekender is bringing a taste of the festival to Broadstairs on Sunday at The Pavilion, Harbour Street. Running 7pm-12am, Super Soul Sunday sees classic soul, funk and rare grooves and a festival vibe fill the air and invites you to boogie along. Tickets £5.50.
Margate’s Faith in Strangers puts on a drum n bass night, with Goldie and his Metalheadz Blue Note Sessions. Featuring Ed Rush and Bailey also, this day party kicks off at 4pm on Sunday, with tickets £27.72.
Once Metalheadz Blue Note Sessions is done and dusted, Faith in Strangers hosts 80s snooker champ Steve Davis and composer Kavus Torabi from 10pm on the Sunday, Tickets £12.10.
It’s Neptune’s Fest over at Neptune’s Hall in Broadstairs on Sunday. DJs Rosy Ross, and Jonny Henfrey will be spinning vinyl in the garden all afternoon, then Briain Not Brian will take to the decks in an after hours tent later. Pizza and rotisserie chicken served 1-8pm. Free entry.
Babyshambles will be performing on Dreamland’s Scenic Stage on Sunday. Support from Big Special, Warm Duscher, Gans, and Pregoblin. Tickets £49.50.
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