Things To Do In London This Weekend: March 16 - 18
Hey there weekend, you're lookin' mighty fine...
Six very good reasons for not staying in
ART: Picasso 1932 - Love, Fame, Tragedy
This exhibition is a first. In that it's the first time that Tate Modern has run a solo show devoted to that little-known, obscure, positively unheard-of artist Pablo Picasso. This huge new exhibition looks at the single, titular year in which Picasso was 50 years old, and at somewhat of a creative peak. Going month by month (in March alone, he created three iconic paintings of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, shown together here for the first time), it charts the evolution of an artistic genius via over 100 paintings, drawings and sculptures, and is nigh-on unmissable.
Until 9 Sept; £22
Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG
FOOD/DRINK: St Patrick's Day at The Sun Tavern
Ah, St Patrick's Day. That time of year when we all suddenly remember that we have distant Irish relatives/have Irish friends/once went to Dublin for the weekend, and thus it is our right – nay, our responsibility – to get very, very drunk on whiskey. And here to help is Bethnal Green mainstay The Sun Tavern. Home to one of the largest selections of Irish whiskey in town (and also the notorious potato spirit poitin, for the brave), it's marking the big day with a menu of special cocktails for a mere £7.50 a throw, complimentary oysters (yup: free), AND a rowdy live set by Babyshambles' Drew McConnell. And if you're not certain you're quite drunk enough after all that, have one of those poitins. To be sure, to be sure.
17 Mar; free
The Sun Tavern, 441 Bethnal Green Road, E2 0AN
FUN: Swingers West End
Oh, Swingers. To paraphrase Beyonce, 'your golf's got us looking so crazy right now ...'. Because since setting up shop in the City two years ago, they've taken crazy golf from forgotten curiosity usually practised in rusting seaside towns, to bona-fide Hip Night Out. And guess what? They're at it again. This Friday sees the opening of a second, even bigger venue, this time in the West End (in the former BHS flagship store, talking of forgotten curiosities). With two seaside-themed courses (the thrillingly titled Big Wheel and Helter Skelter courses), plus a palm-bedecked Grand Hotel Bar, a retro Bandstand Bar and street food from the likes of Patty & Bun, this golf really does have us crazy in love. Uh oh, uh oh…
Opens 16 Mar; from £10 for a nine-hole round
Swingers West End, 15 John Prince's Street, W1G 0AB
NIGHTLIFE: Martin Solveig at Ministry of Sound
To say Martin Solveig is a fashionable DJ would be an understatement. His last track had a video starring Arizona Muse, his hit Do It Right was used as the soundtrack to a Stuart Weitzman campaign starring supermodel Gigi Hadid, and Chanel makes him bespoke vinyl-print underpants (this one may be a lie). And this week is your chance to see the Parisian doing what he does best: filling the floor at Ministry with stylish future-house and synth-pop sounds. Go, close your eyes, strut like Arizona/Gigi. We're sure you'll look much the same…
17 Mar; £26
Ministry of Sound, 103 Gaunt Street, Elephant & Castle, SE1 6DP
FOOD/MUSIC: Camden Market's All-Female Irish Music Trail
Paddy's Day isn't all blokes 'n' Guinness 'n' craic, you know. It's also women 'n' Guinness 'n' craic. As Camden Market is proving, with its splendid all-female Irish music trail. Throughout Saturday, seven live, lady-fronted acoustic bands will keep the ditties coming and the mood, well, grand in locations across the market, while you get stuck into Gaelic specials from the food stalls including Crosstown Doughnuts' chocolate Guinness flavour (with Baileys ganache, obvs) and Chin Chin Labs' stout ice cream with seaweed caramel and potato sponge cake. And for anyone wondering where the booze is? Well, thar's whisky in the jar... (And at the Kerb Counter bar.)
17 Mar; free
Camden Market, Camden Lock Pl, Camden Town, NW1 8AF
DRINK: London Beer Week
London Beer Week is, as you would imagine, a week dedicated to beer, in London. Which, as you would further imagine, is a Very Good Thing. For the less-than-princely sum of £10, you'll get a digital festival pass that entitles you to £5 tasting flights at 75 of the capital's best beer bars and taprooms (everywhere from Oslo in Hackney to The Strongrooms in Shoreditch to Pitt Cue in Spitalfields to Duck and Rice in Soho is getting involved). Plus, there are masterclasses, tours, brew'n'brunches, beer yoga (for reals) – oh, and brewery open days. No doubt with the noble aim of proving, definitively, that it is perfectly possible to organise a p*ss-up in them.
Until £18 Mar; from £10
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