LOVEBOX Festival, Victoria Park, London

Lovebox Festival seems to be the most popular London festival; with advertisements splashed over every tube station and bus across the city it certainly gets a lot of hype. The three day event takes place every year in Victoria Park, in Mile End not Central London like I stupidly assumed, and showcases a variety of trendy music acts as well as offering appealing food, drink and craft stalls.

I was invited along on the Friday to experience Lovebox for the first time. The walk from Mile End tube is torturously long, but at least it wasn’t raining when I did the trek and entering the park my spirits were lifted by the lights and decorations everywhere. The 2011 line-up changed a number of times, but headliners for the weekend included Snoop Dogg and Scissor Sisters, massive names but not really my kind of music. Friday featured sets from the Wombats, Example, Metronomy and Ed Sheeran, but the main stage did not open until Saturday.

Interestingly many of those attending seemed uninterested in the music instead opting to spend the evening drinking or gathering elsewhere in the grounds. I was distracted by the rather wonderful Fringe Street and tent nearby, here you could find weird and wonderful installations, performance art and exquisite little pop-up stalls selling trinkets, old top hats and other mad bits and bobs. I was in heaven and brought home several special pieces: a full length vintage dress, a retro Sex Pistols t-shirt and a beautifully constructed feather headband. Other gems to be found included Michelle Lowe-Holder’s felt jewellery, the ‘If you Please’ delicate handmade underwear and Lucy Peacock’s wacky geometric plastic jewellery. It was so nice to see a festival promoting talented young designers with unique, high quality creations, rather than the usual festival tat.

The music I found predominantly underwhelming apart from a decent performance from Mr Sheeran. The food tasted better than it looked; we picked up a juicy burger from the Fine Burger company and a delicious fresh Mojito from the Bacardi area. These were paid for with the £20 note I found lying on the grass, my biggest find yet! The stars of the festival though were the quirky arts and crafts, but judging by the indifference I saw there on Friday, these creative gems were completely overlooked.

Visit the Lovebox website here.

Boris' Bikes

London has gone bonkers for bikes. It has been talked about for ages and now Boris Johnson (London mayor and clown) has introduced the scheme to the centre of London. He hopes to make London a greener and healthier place to live and work.

To start with 5,000 bikes have been put in place at 3000 docking stations around the city centre. It has been calculated that 6,000 journeys were made on the first day of the scheme. If the idea continues to be popular there will surely be talks to expand it further afield.

I have already spotted several stations around my work but unfortunately can’t spot any near my house in West London, making a journey home quite tricky. I am yet to try a bike, and although the idea excites me, I am a little apprehensive about the dangers of riding around in such a hectic city. For those inexperienced at dodging traffic on a bike it could be quite dangerous.

Other European cities have used bike schemes for a while now, the idea has working well in places such as Paris and Dublin. London’s bikes seem to be a little more pricey. Up to 30 minutes is free but then the tarifs steadily rise up to £50 for 24 hours, more expensive than hiring a car!

Check out the TFL website for more information, and let me know what you think of them...