This weekend is the last before the Olympics begin – make sure you soak up all the culture London has to offer before the city goes sport mad.

BT River of Music
The BT River of Music is a huge weekend music festival is a one-off to welcome the world to the Olympic city. Six stages – each hosting music from a different continent – will be set up along the Thames at venues like the Tower of London and Battersea Park. Artists representing every Olympic and Paralmypic nation will perform, including the Scissor Sisters and Noisettes. Tickets are free but you’ve got to book them in advance: at the time of writing, there are still some left for Asia Stage at Battersea Park and Oceania Stage at Old Royal Naval College, and for Africa Stage at London Pleasure Gardens on Sunday only.
21-22 Jul

Blue Peter’s Big Olympic Tour
Catch Blue Peter presenters Helen and Barney this weekend on the kids TV show’s Big Olympic Tour. They’ve been following the Olympic torch on its journey around the UK for special live programmes and events, and will touch down in Central Park in East Ham this Saturday and Sunday. From 10am to 4pm, there’ll be free family activities like Olympic sports, learning about the history of the Games and having a go at being a sports commentator.
21-22 Jul

Shakespeare: Staging the World at The British Museum
The British Museum has teamed up with the Royal Shakespeare Company for this major Shakespeare exhibition which explores the playwright’s London through his plays. It gives a taste of what going to the theatre was like 400 years ago, and how it connected London with the rest of the world as international trade, colonisation and diplomacy increased. The exhibition includes performance and objects from paintings and rare manuscripts to everyday items like maps and coins, all piecing together the world of the famous dramatist and his characters.
Until 25 Nov

Floating Market on Regent’s Canal
From tomorrow, a magnificent floating market will moored in Mile End near the Olympic Park. A collection of narrowboats and barges will be selling everything from books and hats to vintage frocks and handicrafts. If strolling along the official Olympic walking route makes you peckish, you can sample various foodie delights on offer, including sausages from a barge called “Marilyn”, Slovakian delicacies from “Vareska” and a selection of candyfloss, popcorn and other fun-fair based treats from The Zebra Boat.
20 Jul-16 Aug

What will you be doing this weekend? Let us know by commenting below.

When Victorian Londoners craved some cultural stimulation and a little mischief, they could head to the city’s opulent pleasure gardens to find it. Those long-faded entertainment destinations are about to be resurrected, with the launch of London Pleasure Gardens on 30 June.

Pontoon Dock, a derelict site in east London is currently being transformed into a pop-up cultural centre that can hold 35,000 people, with venues for music, dance, arts and theatre as well as a floating cocktail lounge, a hotel and restaurant, a nature reserve and sculpture gardens.

The Creative Team

The idea for London Pleasure Gardens won the Meanwhile London competition to find uses for London’s wasted spaces before they are permanently redeveloped. The creative team behind the initiative have worked on projects like Glastonbury’s futuristic Shangri-La, the field where a night-time dystopia of clubs, costumes and theatrics unfold after the festival’s music stages close.

One of the directors is Garfield Hackett, the man behind east London’s counter culture art movement, Mutate Britain. He says London Pleasure Gardens will bring “the kind of urban leisure environment not seen in the city since the great pleasure gardens of the Georgian and Victorian periods.”

“We’re going to have beautiful structures, amazing art, places to chill out and all kinds of cultural adventures for those who want them. Our backgrounds in the guerrilla entertainment world mean we’ll be bringing lots of names and faces you really couldn’t see elsewhere.”

Coming Up at London Pleasure Gardens

The pleasure gardens have already signed up major events like Bloc 2012 and BT River of Music. For the Olympics it will put on a programme of entertainment ranging from big screen sports to cabaret, circus and comedy, in what Hackett affectionately calls “an environment of beautiful madness.”

Building work is well underway to create the site before the opening night on 30 June. “Over the next couple of weeks anyone passing by is going to see some cool structures going up and confront a stream of workers, artists, designers, architects, food and drinks co-ordinators and more heading in and out,” says Hackett.

“We’re right on schedule at the moment, though the pop-up nature of the site means it still isn’t looking finished. At the minute, it looks like a butterfly half out of the chrysalis, or, less poetically, like somewhere that is going to be pretty unbelievable in a couple of weeks time.”

London Pleasure Gardens opens with the Paradise Gardens Festival, 30 June to 1 July. Entry is free.

Here’s a fun video tracing the history of the Thames in Royal events, and showing clips of various Jubilee celebrations throughout our Queen’s reign.

It’s a busy year for London’s largest waterway. If you’re a fan of the Thames, make sure you check out the following events:

• Head of the River Race, 17 Mar
• The Boat Race, 7 Apr
• Royal River at the National Maritime Museum, 26 Apr-9 Sep
• Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, 3 Jun
• BT River of Music, 21-22 Jul
• Thames Festival, 8-9 Sep