DJs, food, drink, art and more for Margate’s First Friday event

Bus Cafe co-owner Jodie Ellena-Lindley

July’s First Friday in Margate is a celebration of the town’s reopening after lockdown, with events on July 2 happening in a dozen locations.

The Sun Deck at Nayland Rock will be open, with DJs easing guests into the weekend. The Bus Cafe will be doing a small plates pop up evening. Po’Boy and Pork & co will both be open until 8pm.

Little Bit, Margate Bookshop, and other shops in the Old Town will be open until 8pm. Treble Performing Arts are planning some impromptu performances in the Old Town, too.

On Northdown Road, Cliffs cafe and record store will be open late, with DJs playing music. And up the road, Lovelys Gallery will be opening their summer exhibition as part of First Friday.

The Lovelys Art BnB is a celebration of the seaside and holidays at home. It officially opens on Saturday, July 3, but First Friday followers will have a preview evening on July 2 from 5pm-8pm.

Artist Dan Thompson has produced a limited edition poster print ‘Colours of Margate’, which be available only from Lovelys, and only on First Friday.

And at 137 Northdown Road, artist Ty Locke’s show ‘Domestic Bliss’ opens, exploring domestic spaces and our relationship to them.

And a few surprises are promised on the prom as well.

As a warm up to First Friday, Naomi Gale will be playing her crystal sound bowls from 4.30pm-6pm in a location to be confirmed.

Local writers and poets are celebrating the special connection between the Nayland Rock seaside shelter and the poet TS Eliot with a ‘Write In’.

The Nayland Rock Shelter Photo TDC

Organised by Connor Sansby, founder of publisher Whisky and Beards, the shelter will be a space for writers to work in a supportive space, with some impromptu performances thrown in.

TS Eliot stayed here in 1921, so this event marks the centenary of his time in Margate.

Sansby is a graduate of Open School East, whose current students will open their exhibition at the Nayland Rock Hotel to First Friday visitors.

The pop up cocktail bar Daisy (in Mala on the Harbour Arm) will be hosting a cheeky discount for First Friday goers. Keep your eyes peeled for the secret password!

And at the end of First Friday, there’s a sunset bike ride, complete with a rickshaw sound system with onboard DJ. Meet in the Market Square for Kent Bike Tours ‘Cycle del Mar’ at 8.30pm. Dress for the occasion, and cyclists are encouraged to bring horns, bells, and whistles.

Any independent shop, art studio, or local cafe can take part – they just have to agree to open at that time, and ideally do something a bit more fun than usual!

First Friday was started by Marine Studios in 2010, and more than 100 of the monthly events had taken place before coronavirus brought them to an end. The revival is led by Marine Studios, Little Bit, The Bus Cafe, and Dan Thompson Studio.

For more details, visit the Bus Cafe or Little Bit in Market Square, or find the Visit Margate page on Facebook. You can also follow @firstfridaymargate on Instagram.

6 Comments

    • Everything is art Steve, I thought we’d established that with Duchamp, Bauhaus, Warhol etc. Do you have the same aversion to poetry when faced with imaginative writing?

      • If everything is art why does some graffiti get a bad name and is removed by the council. Yet some graffiti is left and protected ?

        Who decides what’s graffiti art and just graffiti ?

        Graffiti is something that is paint/sprayed on to something that doesnt belong to you and without permission.

        Some graffiti artists get fines , some earn millions, guess it depends if your name is banksy’s, but it’s still graffiti.

        By the way if anyone wants to buy another unmade bed I am selling my sons for only 1 million.

  1. The nayland shelter is a general public shelter to use in all weather’s who’s giving these artis permission to take over the shelter they are all jumping the gun with all these covid variants going around its the young that are vulnerable at this time is it profit before people’s health.

  2. Ahh yes at our highest point since Jan 30th

    I know, let’s have a party…. This country is just a joke

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