To have a free day out is to beat the system. It’s the cultural equivalent of gorging yourself at an all-you-can-eat buffet, except it costs much less and you won’t go to bed praying for death because you consumed enough lukewarm spring rolls to murder an ox. Picking free entertainment is a learned skill, however. Opt for something too mainstream and your enjoyment will be dented by swarms of other people. Pick something not mainstream enough – say, the time I went to the opening of a ferry on the Isle of Sheppey as a teenager – and there’s a good chance you’ll spend your day bored, cold and eating cheese-and-pineapple cocktail sticks in a windowless indoor car park that stinks of exhaust fumes. When it is just right, however, free stuff can expand your horizons like nothing else. Let’s imagine that you’re on the fence about, say, jazz. The expectations that come with a financial transaction are far too high to risk a full afternoon of potentially directionless skronk. But if it’s free, like the Barbican’s Women in Jazz will be in October, you have nothing to lose. This guide is nothing but potential reward. Go to a free… Read full this story
- 50 best TV shows to stream on Netflix
- Lightning map live and UK thunderstorms tracker: Where are the storms today?
- The best free Kindle books on Amazon Prime
- Robert Golden's best photograph: the 1976 Notting Hill carnival riots
- 'Free at last': Jerry Falwell Jr quotes Martin Luther King Jr to say he's 'relieved' after resigning from Liberty University over pool boy sex scandal
- UK flu jab rates prompt complacency warning
- Taylor Swift becomes the first ever female solo artist to win a VMA for Best Direction... for her gender-flipped music video The Man
- My best photograph: Mars rover Curiosity's shot of the hill she'll never climb
- The best Android apps (September 2020)
- All the things which are changing as schools and colleges open doors again
Young arts run free: the 50 best things to do in the UK for zilch have 325 words, post on www.theguardian.com at September 29, 2018. This is cached page on Goose Art. If you want remove this page, please contact us.