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Take me out: Best weekend events
By Richard Godwin, Evening Standard 15.12.06
Cool customer: John Hegley hosts the Big Chill's Hootenanny
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There's going to be a huge pillow fight by the Gherkin, the Frost Fair comes to town and poet John Hegley hosts a long day of variety and vaudeville in the high-spirited Big Chill House...
PILLOW FIGHT CLUB
Leadenhall Street and St Mary Axe, EC3. Friday 6-12pm
Don't tell anyone, but there's going to be a huge pillow fight by the Gherkin on Friday. Brought to you by the funsters behind the Flash Clubbing phenomenon, this promises to be quite the pyjama party - 3,500 people attended the last such event and it was a lot of fun. www.mobile-clubbing.com
FROST FAIR
Riverside, Bankside, SE1. Friday 4-9pm, Saturday 10am-9pm, Sunday 10am-6pm
Once upon a time the Thames would freeze over every winter and Londoners would gather to frolic and jape on the ice. The organisers of this event are, disappointingly, unable to promise ice - but they do aim to capture some of the spirit of the old Frost Fairs. Expect market stalls, live music, soulwarming food, performers, a husky-sleigh ride and - who knows? - Father Christmas. www.visitsouthwark.com
HOOTENANNY
The Big Chill House, 257-259 Pentonville Road, N1. Sunday, noon-11.30pm
Bespectacled poet John Hegley is your host for this long day of variety and vaudeville in the high-spirited Big Chill House. Expect lots of silly fun from his band the Popticians, DJ Wheelie Bag - whoever he is - and Simon Munnery of the anarchic League Against Tedium. Children are welcome but only until 6pm, when things presumably get a bit dark.
www.bigchill.net 020 7427 2540
SIMPLY BOTIFUL
Hauser & Wirth Coppermill, 92-108 Cheshire Street, E2. Ongoing, 6-10pm
If only more art was this adventurous. Swiss artist Christoph B¸chel has taken over this huge, squalid east London warehouse and dressed it with piles of old furniture, broken objects and unnerving props to suggest ... well, we're not entirely sure what. One room is full of broken fridges; another looks like a hotel lobby; there's a postapocalyptic feel to things. Gallery goers are free to clamber and crawl where they choose, piecing together their own meaning.
www.ghw.ch
