Carrying on our mini-bumper theme for August, this weekend's guide offers a slightly slipstreamed pick of the choicest offerings out there for your deservedly picky perusal. Shopping, theatre, dance, art… My aren't we cultured! Oh, okay, so there are a couple of late nights to mop up all that civility. We are, after all, only human.

This weekend's guide is brought to you in association with glacéau vitaminwater. With the pre-Olympics Snail Race - this week's Thursday Night Hydration Club installment - happening tonight, remember to pop down after work for another quirky evening of music and free glacéau vitaminwater cocktails. Click here for photos of the last great Thursday Night Hydration Club event to get you in the mood.

Thursday August 7, 6-9pm • 3-4a Little Portland St,

Covent Garden Night Market
Revisiting its heritage as the original London larder, Covent Garden launches its nocturnal market, transforming the historic Piazza into foodie paradise every Thursday and Friday throughout August. Featuring a choice of mouthwatering stalls, including some of the UK's finest traders, Covent Garden's cobblestones will also play host to 'kitchen theatres' every Friday, when some of the country's top chefs will cook live with produce from the surrounding offerings.

Dickie Beau Presents
With Dorothy's metallic and feline crew not fetching the most
overwhelming of reviews, sidestep that wretched yellow brick road and make a beeline for Dickie Beau's cabaret clique and their distorted vision thatgoes way beyond Oz. Featuring aficionados from Film Noir and Bistrotheque, it's safe to say we're definately not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Field Day
Like hangovers, tax forms and Monday mornings, no sooner do you mop your brow after surviving yet another festival than one more is hot on your tail. On the upside, I'd rather be at a festival than filling in a tax form, hungover, on a Monday morning. Especially such a wonderfully left-field, tentless, anti-megafest festival, with Noah & the Whale, Simian Mobile Disco, and an afterparty at The End.

Open Space
Providing a platform for emerging dancers and choreographers, the new monthly Open Space night at the Siobhan Davies Studios, offers a chance for both professionals and spectators alike to enjoy some fantastically talented artists before they hit the performance big time. Tonight's offerings include a Canadian autobiography, provocative Flappers, horticultural residence, and a Guest of Honour.

Hackney Wicked
For what's being billed as the most vital art event of the Summer, head over to Hackey Wick where Hackney Wicked is working with gallerists, artists and studio directors to showcase a multifaceted forum for contemporary art. Hackney's gone all highbrow, innit.

I Scream Sundays
With the lamentable loss of Boombox really hitting the old heart-strings as the temperature (tentatively) rises, I Scream Sundays is a refreshing spot of salvation on countless levels. Without quite the excessive scale of Wet Yourself, Hoxton Street's favourite plays host once again to this Sunday night spectacle of bright, brash youth, with a distinct (and rather lovely) lack of respect for Monday mornings.