The Line-Up Blog

We’re delighted to welcome Totally Wild UK to Line-Up, our latest event calendar and ticketing customer.

Totally Wild UK run innovative and informative courses covering everything from introductory foraging to wild food cookery masterclasses and even wild brewing, wine and food tasting sessions.   

Be sure to check out some of their awesome foraging and cookery courses and book through the Line-Up powered event calendar.

Who?  Totally Wild UK

What?  Wild food foraging and cookery workshops.

Where?  North West England and the rest of the UK

Why Line-Up? 

“The Line-Up system allows me to upload an event and tickets and then stream it through to my website, which I can do for both individual events and all of the events in my calendar.

Previously we were using Eventbrite. I changed to Line-Up due to its integrated ticketing system that makes my site more accessible for clients to use” 

James Wood, Totally Wild UK

Using:  The Line-Up Events Calendar and Ticketing Wordpress Plugin

How easy was it to add the Line-Up Wordpress Plugin to your site?

“As easy as copying and pasting a code in to Wordpress – took less than 5 minutes.” James Wood, Totally Wild UK

Manage check-in at your events, quickly and easily

As a promoter or event organiser you will already be familiar with our distributed ticketing solution that drastically simplifies the journey from event discovery to ticket purchase.  We’re excited to announce another new product that aims to make your life even easier: the Line-Up Check-In iOS app.

We’re always looking for ways to help you get more people to your events. With our Check-In app, we’re looking to take the next step to enrich your entire customer experience; from discovery to purchase to when the event goer shows up to the event itself.

Getting your guests checked-in, managing the guest list and seeing real-time ticket sales for all of your events has never been so easy. What’s more, it’s totally free.

With the Line-Up Check-In app you can:

Manage check-in: scan the ticket barcode or with a simple swipe, confirm that the ticket buyer has arrived. 

Quickly access all the relevant information on your guests.

Check real-time ticket sales: see the total revenue and look at your sales trends day by day.

Add multiple check-in devices for even faster check-in: If one device is not enough for checking in all your guests, no problem. Simply add more devices and have multiple members of staff check the guests in as they arrive.

Offline use: Is your event happening in an area without data coverage? No problem, the Check-In app works in offline mode.

Available on iPhone and iPad now and of course, totally free.

We want feedback

We’ve worked hard to make our Check-In app as great as possible. We know there’s always room for improvement though so please contact us if you have any feedback.

Not set up to sell tickets yet?

It’ll only take a few minutes to get set up. Once your box office is set up, you can sell tickets on any website you wish and can keep an eye on sales using our app. Get started now.

We are delighted to welcome aboard Jazz.coop, the latest event promoter to use Line-Up ticketing.  

Jazz.coop are also the first to use our brand new event listings plugin on their website. Using Line-Up enables them to manage all their event listings and ticketing from one place.

Introducing the new Line-Up event listings plugin for venues and promoters as seen on the Jazz.coop website.

Prior to using our new plugin, Jazz.coop’s process was laborious. First they’d add events to their website and then they’d go to their Line-Up account to repeat the process so they could be listed on local Newcastle media sites such as Chronicle Live and Metro Radio as well as WOW247, the UK’s biggest nationwide ‘what’s on’ guide.

They then needed to do this again on a third-party ticketing site so they could sell tickets.  That’s three separate places the event had to be added to and a whole load of wasted time.

Here’s how the Jazz.coop What’s On page used to look, with customers having to click off their website to buy tickets:

By using the Line-Up event listings plugin, Jazz.coop only need to add their events once and the listing and ticketing is taken care of. 

In addition, listings on their website and on local news and entertainment sites are kept completely in sync.  Any updates and changes made in the Jazz.coop Line-Up account will update the event details everywhere in real-time - meaning, it doesn’t matter where people discover an event, they’ll be guaranteed to be seeing the most up to date information possible.

The new event pages on the Jazz.coop website include in-page ticket purchase. 

The plugin couldn’t be simpler to add to a web page and once it’s there, there’s nothing else you have to do on the listings or event pages.  Just add events into your Line-Up account and they’ll appear immediately on your website.

Events can be split by genre and type to allow customers to easily filter between them using the navigation buttons across the top.  There’s date filtering so readers can easily switch between events this week, next week or see all events and you can customise colours so it fits seamlessly into your website.  All this, and it’s fully responsive so it can be easily viewed on mobile and tablets.

Take a look for yourself

Add once, add everywhere

"The Line-Up events calendar plugin makes it so easy to list our events and sell tickets on our website.  It’s great that when we add an event it not only goes on to our site but also the local news sites that Line-Up work with, and if we want to make an update it updates the event everywhere.  

The ability to also sell tickets directly on other websites such as WOW247 is unique and a real added bonus - helping us reach and sell to as wide an audience as possible with no extra work."

David Parker, Jazz.coop

Distributed Ticketing

Did we mention that tickets for Jazz.coop events can also be purchased on WOW247?

That’s right - because of Line-Up’s distributed ticketing platform, every time Jazz.coop add tickets to their account, people can buy tickets directly on the Jazz.coop website, WOW247 and on Line-Up’s hosted event pages - with more to come.

If you’re still adding your events to multiple places or sending people off your site to purchase tickets or using a basket checkout and paying the card processing fees, then give the Line-Up event listings plugin a try and save yourself time, money, or both!

Our experience shows us that people discover events via a variety of routes, whether that be their favourite newspaper site, a local blog, or the website of a venue. Over the last few years Line-Up has been focused on helping event organisers achieve greater visibility on as many of these platforms as possible, while also simplifying the process of managing this distributed information.

We are delighted that today more than 15,000 event organisers use us to promote their events across 300 local news and media publications; however, this is only the start of the journey towards getting more people to events.

Once people discover the event they are looking for, they need to purchase tickets. Here is when things can start to go wrong.

Would-be event goers are typically pushed off to another, often unfamiliar, site to buy tickets. More often than not, the ticket buyer can end up back at the beginning of the whole discovery process, trying to track down the event again on the new site. Sometimes, the buyer simply doesn’t trust the site they are sent to. Worst-case scenario, the tickets may be sold out. All of this is frustrating for the customer and ultimately they give up.

A better solution, that makes sense

We are trying something different. We are launching Line-Up Ticketing; the first truly distributed ticketing solution. Our goal is to simplify the journey from event discovery to ticket purchase by allowing you to sell tickets directly at the point of discovery, wherever that is.

We enable event organisers to sell tickets:

To facilitate this, we’ve built a fully responsive ticketing widget that can easily be dropped onto any website, in much the same way you would add a YouTube video.  The widget offers event goers a consistent, familiar, and easy purchase flow directly at the point of discovery.

We’ve also baked all of the functionality you need to turn any website or app into a ticket store, straight into our API.  This will enable developers, anywhere in the world, to equip their products with seamless ticket selling, quickly and easily.

The first major publisher to integrate our distributed ticketing solution is WOW247.  This means their 1 million monthly uniques can now purchase tickets directly on the WOW247 nationwide ‘what’s on’ guide. We’re looking forward to announcing many more publishing partners in the upcoming months.

Ready to roll?

Event organisers can set up their box office now to start selling tickets for their events.

What next?

We’re really excited about our new ticketing launch and are eager to hear from anyone who’s interested in becoming a beta API partner.  In the next few months, we’ll be continuing to add new features to our widget and ticket management tools and will be posting any updates here on the Line-Up blog.

What’s one of the best things about the Internet? Anyone can create websites, events and advertise their business easily and cheaply.

And the worst thing? Well, anyone can create websites, events and advertise their business easily and cheaply.

So yes, there’s a lot of people advertising their events out there, but then you’re smarter than a lot of people. Let’s look at some easy ways to top the competition.

List your event

The first thing to do is list your event with us. No event, no views. If you’re short of time, send us an email and we’ll add your event for you.

And of course you’ve already followed our event tips and have great content. If Line-Up already had your event on our system, you’ve claimed and edited it. In short - it’s live. All good first steps.

That’s just the start though. What else can you do?

Create urgency

Compare two events going on in your area. There’s a long-running exhibition. It looks good, you’d like to go. But you think, ‘I’ll catch that next week. Or the next’. Then there’s a one-night-only show. You’ve booked it in advance and there’s a note in your diary. You don’t want to miss it.

Apply this same logic to your events. Got a long-running show? Add all of the performances to your event, not just one long-running performance. Got a 5-week course? Create 5 unique performances.

This way, the event will appear daily, instead of just one long extended period perhaps near the bottom of the list. Plus, it’s still the same event, it just will show up more!

Take a look at some of our west end shows to see an extreme version of this. But it works - based on their run dates, which of the following events would YOU be more drawn to?

Be specific

Can your event be separated into smaller events? Let’s say you’re promoting a festival - do you have a few great bands that will pull in an audience? Create an event for each one, as well as the whole festival event. If someone sees an artist they like in the title, they’re more likely to click on it.

Of course this takes a little more work on your part (or ours if you email them to us) but more events will garner views collectively. And the more specific the event, the more likely it is to gain someone’s interest right off the bat.

Make it easy for yourself by duplicating your events and editing. You can do all of this from your Line-Up dashboard. 

Cover all bases

Show up in more searches by entering more applicable categories. This assures that your event will be on more filtered lists. Therefore, the event will be nearer the top in more places, meaning more views.

Example? A festival with music, stalls, food and different performances would fall under ‘Music’, ‘Family’, ‘Comedy’ and ‘Food and Drink’. You ideally want to catch those people who are browsing for what to do, rather than just people who already know what they are looking for.

We give you unlimited edit on your events, so make the most of this by logging in and adding some categories now.

Cheat your way to popularity

Our app is also a great tool to spread the word about your event. You may not realise, but every time you add an event to Line-Up, it goes into our nationwide, ‘what’s on’ app.

Not only can you tweet your event easily via the app too, but our brilliant iOS developer Andrea has designed a sneaky way to increase your event’s popularity across the whole Line-Up network.

Views on the app are actually linked to views on publications. So when your event is viewed or liked on the app, it will get a small bump in popularity across the whole of Line-Up, which can eventually push your event to the “what’s popular” section on our network publications.

So download the app, find your event, mark it with a heart, and get all your friends and family to do the same. Best of all, it’s free.

Get to the top

You may have noticed a trend - getting to the top of the list. Most users won’t scroll too far down on the ‘what’s on today’ list. Think about how you use Google. How often do you continue searching past the first one or two pages?

There’s a quick and easy way to get to the top of the event listings on your favourite publication - Featured Listings. Choose one or more publications, pick a start time, and a run time (24 hours, 7 days or 30 days). Keep an eye on your Insights page to measure the impact. 

Go wider

Enough about Line-Up. Let’s reach out.

Use social media. It’s not nearly as effective as using publications, as the user base is usually narrowed down to your own personal network. But still, Twitter and all the rest are great tools for event promotion, especially if you rope in friends, family, co-workers and fellow performers to share and re-tweet your posts. This is not a time to be bashful.

Tweet at your nearby publishers, tweet at us, tweet away. Really, this is just networking.

Plus, you can tweet your event straight from your Line-Up account. Edit the message, tweet your event page, and our Twitter cards will pull in your event’s details automatically.  

Get personal

Finally, get in touch with local media, whether in our network or otherwise. Entertainment blogs are also a good place to spread the word. Contact the editors to get your event into their ‘what’s on’ listings online, and print where possible. It’s also a nice idea to offer them a free ticket in exchange for a review of your event. From experience, an individual, personalised email goes a lot further than a mass mail-out.

Be professional and friendly and many editors are happy to help you out (this goes for us too).

And if you’re happy with our style of event listing, where you only submit your event once and it goes into multiple places, let the publisher or blogger know about us! This helps us spread our network and let our users get into more places quicker. Win win.

Until next time,

People judge books by their cover, and users will judge your event by its appearance as well. It’s not fair, but however great your event is, a bad title, image or description will prevent you getting the website clicks you deserve and need. 

Editing your event

Do you ever send an email and worry that you misspelled something? You might find yourself checking the sent folder for the email, and, sure enough, “let’s have a chat” says “let’s have a cat”. It’s a small error, but it still leaves an impression. 

One of the great features we have at Line-Up is the ability to edit your event after it is published. So even though your event is live, you can change almost anything, and your event listing will be changed on every publications it’s live on, within seconds. 

Because sometimes not everything goes to plan...

So let’s give your event that final shine it needs with a few quick edits. A lot of these might seem like obvious points, but if an event is lacking any of these they look less professional and might dissuade users from clicking on your event.

Invest the time now in making your event listing look great, and start getting more clicks on your page.

If you aren’t sure, here’s how to edit your Line-Up event.

Titles

Titles are the first thing users see. They have to give an idea of what the event actually is - no-one is going to click on a title with random characters. Obvious? Yes, but I still find a few examples of this happening during my daily data crawls.

A title’s style also says a lot about the event and the promoter. Many people think ALL CAPS gets more attention, but my in experience, it looks messy and even aggressive, and it simply won’t get you as many clicks. Some research even says that capital letters are harder to read.

You don’t want to come across like this fella:

For example, an event called “CARIBBEAN CRUSH” does not need to be in all caps to get attention, I’m already made curious by the lush sounding name. Let’s change it to simply ‘Caribbean Crush’.

Length of the title is another place to set your event apart. With Line-Up you get 100 characters for your event title, which is quite a lot. If a title is too long, people might lose interest, and frankly, it will be cut off. Where possible keep the title within 40 characters.  

Finally, avoid weird and annoying characters. Examples? “Dance @ Disco” or “Robert + Friends” or “/// DJ DECKS FACTOR!!”. See what I mean?

That’s a lot of words about a 40 character title! But we find events that use professional titles are more likely to be popular with users, and shown in “the top events in your area” sections, so it’s worth spending time getting this right.

Image

Images can really make your event stand out, or let you down. Give yourself the best chance you can with a high-quality picture. 

Let’s return to our lovely example, “CARIBBEAN CRUSH”. I think the image captures the playfulness of the event- it’s bright, it has movement, and there’s a human figure (which establishes an emotional connection - people like people).

However, it is a flyer. And on most of our partner sites it’s hard to read. It’s also hard to tell exactly where the image will be cropped on publications; different network sites will show different versions of your image. It’s best to avoid type (that is, writing) altogether and go for something clear, crisp, and centered.

For example, the image below sets the somber mood for a WWI event and is also draws the eye:

If you don’t have a suitable, high-quality image, I really recommend choosing a photo from Morguefile, or my personal favourite, Unsplash. They provide free, beautiful photos which are sure to attract clicks.

On a side note, make sure your venue has an image too! If you haven’t claimed your venue on Line-Up, you should get on that. If you’re not affiliated with the venue, shoot us an email and we’ll add an image for you. You don’t want a broken image under your event listing, and neither do we. (Learn more about claiming and editing venues).

Description

Finally, let’s talk about your event’s description. Make sure your description answers the who, what, and why about your event. (Where and when will taken care of with the date and venue).

Brevity is underrated. You don’t want to bog down your user with superfluous information. This is your chance to grab their attention, ideally in a few sentences. (I realise the length of the post makes that statement ironic.)

Use small paragraphs. Make it easy for the user to read.   

The description is also a chance to enter ticket price and other necessities. Ask yourself what essential information you would need to become interested in an event, then answer these in your own description.

Good example:

“Picture yourself in your own incredible frame! Join artist Marc Woodhead to create personal frames with predella scenes all about your life and the journeys you have made.

Sessions are free unless otherwise stated, and all materials are provided. Places for drop-in holiday activities are not limited but you may be asked to wait during busy periods.

Family tours will be given throughout drop-in holiday activities at 11am, 11.45am, 2pm and 2.45pm”

Interesting and factual with good use of paragraphs. Nice!

Bad example:

MBK CONCERTS PRESENT ANAMANAGUCHI PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

They literally took the title of the event, and repeated it in the description. Who is Anamanaguchi? This gives us no information about the event whatsoever. 

Now it’s your turn

Go back to your last posted event and use our checklist to make your event super duper:

✓  Do I need to take date, time, price, or venue information out of my title?

✓  Have I used a clear, high-quality image with no writing on it?

✓  Is my title 40 characters or less?

✓  Have I checked for spelling and punctuation errors, and that nothing’s written in caps lock?

✓  Does my event description provide essential information to the reader?

Now your event should be concise, eye-catching and professional. Go you!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you do to make your event listings great.

Line-Up, one of the UK’s largest networks of online “What’s On” guides, announced today that it will be providing all of the event listings content for Johnston Press’s recently re-launched WOW 247 site (wow247.co.uk). 

This is the latest in a string of new customers for the company who now power the ‘What’s On’ sections for four of the five largest regional media companies in the UK. This makes Line-Up one of the largest networks of event guides nationwide, spanning over 270 publications. 

Sean Griffin, Head of Digital Product at Johnston Press, commented, “WOW 247 is the only truly national what’s on platform in the UK so we needed a partner who can deliver great nationwide coverage. That’s why we chose Line-Up - their hyper local approach is perfect for our regional publications.” 

Since their launch in 2011, Line-Up has been transforming event discovery and promotion in the UK. The company’s technology automatically captures event data from websites around the world, enabling it to produce comprehensive and high-quality content at a fraction of the price of traditional listings. 

Line-Up also work with over 5,000 event organisers, promoters, and venues who add their events directly to its database for free, giving them access to the whole network of publications. As part of the redesign of WOW 247, Line-Up is pleased to announce the launch of their featured listings offering, allowing promoters to appear at the top of WOW 247’s listings. 

Barnaby Clark, CEO of Line-Up, said ‘We’re delighted to be powering the WOW 247 listings, and strengthening our position as the number one platform for event promoters in the UK’. 

The Line-Up Seedrs campaign is flying high with over 84% of our target reached already: www.seedrs.com/startups/line-up We're delighted that over 100 new investors will share in our future success.

About Line-Up

Line-Up powers event discovery. Traditionally, many 'what’s on' guides rely on the manual collection of event listings. This is costly, inaccurate, and slow. Line-Up has developed proprietary technology to collect this information automatically at a fraction of the cost. We use this content to power our mobile app and the ‘what's on’ sections of over 60 household titles such as: Magic FM, London24, Manchester Evening News, Irish Mirror and Daily Record which are owned by some of the world's biggest media brands; Trinity Mirror, Bauer Media, Archant and dmg media.

For people looking for a fun day out with the family, the next big band, a local art exhibition, or anything in-between; we believe that our network of 'what's on' guides offers the ultimate solution. For event promoters, Line-Up is an exceptionally powerful network through which they can advertise to a targeted audience of millions.

Our significant accomplishments to date:

We won Seedcamp London in January 2013.

We are generating significant revenue from some of the UK's biggest media brands, including Trinity Mirror and Bauer Media.

Our network of more than 60 titles includes household names such as: Magic FM, London24, Manchester Evening News, Irish Mirror and Daily Record.

Our mobile app, http://lineupnow.com/download, has been featured by Apple three times in ‘Best New Apps’, as well as by TechCrunch and the Daily Mail.

Monthly event views across our network have grown 100% in the last six months to more than 15 million.

Over 500 event promoters have signed up to the platform; including The Science Museum, Aston Villa FC and Phones 4u Arena.

Our platform is now processing some 40,000 events from more than 300,000 web pages per day.

We’ve built a high calibre team which is supported by strong investors including Seedcamp, Turi Munthe, Richard Fearn and Osman Mardin.

We're excited today to announce the launch of our crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, which allows anyone to become an investor in Line-Up for as much or as little as they like.  Click here to check out Line-Up on Seedrs.

We've come a long way in the 3 years since we set out to power 'what's on' everywhere. Line-Up is now one of the largest providers of event listings in the UK.   The technology that we've developed is automatically collecting and analysing over 40,000 events per day from thousands of venue websites all across the UK. 

This content is powering over 60 household titles across the country which are owned by some of Europe's biggest media brands.  If you look at the 'what's on' section on the website of your local newspaper, radio station or lifestyle magazine, chances are, it's powered by Line-Up.

On top of that, in May this year we launched our iPhone app in 19 cities, nationwide.  It's early days but the feedback from people using Line-Up to find things to do and organisers looking to promote their event has blown us away.  Not to mention being featured by Apple three times in 'Best New Apps'.

Across both the app and our media network, our content gets over 15 million views per month.  That's quite something. We're equally proud of the team we've built.  We're now six (seven if you include Alfie the puppy) and have a great mix of developers, designers and business brains with the know-how we need to take what we've done to the next level. We wouldn't be anywhere without the support from some of London's best angel investors and mentors.  Winning Seedcamp London last year was a turning point for the company as was receiving the backing of our fantastic investors; Osman, Richard and Turi.

But all of this has just been the start. Although we're already generating significant revenue, we think there's a massive opportunity to really scale Line-Up and we think now's the time to do it. In light of this, we've decided to invite further investment into Line-Up.  These new funds will be primarily used for two reasons: Network growth - we want to add to the 60+ titles we power in the UK.  We also want to grow our mobile audience and further develop our mobile products.  In addition, we're eager to start turning our attention to geographies outside the UK and to use our technology to create event listings for the biggest cities in the world.   Network monetisation - we want to enable event organisers to access our huge, rapidly growing audience.  We're building the tools to help organisers promote their event and investing in these now will help us get there more quickly.

We're really excited about the prospect of a whole new wave of people investing in Line-Up and sharing our success.  We would love for you to be a part of it. Thanks for all your support. Barnaby, Chris and James

So you’ll be pleased to hear that yesterday, lots of shiny new cities were added to Line-Up. This means that wherever you go in the UK, you can take Line-Up with you and use it to find out all the fun stuff going on in the area. The new cities we’ve got are Aberdeen, Brighton, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, and Nottingham. Round of applause, if you please. Anyway, in true Line-Up spirit, I thought I would tarry here a while and extrapolate over some interesting things about these new cities and divulge what makes them great (or, failing that, just discuss some silly fact about said city…that sounds practical too).

Aberdeen

Ah Aberdeen. The first of our Scottish cities. Upon conducting my very intense research, I have discovered three things of note about Aberdeen: Water polo was invented in the city (probably by accident after some ditch attempt to keep warm in the icy waters); Aberdeen is home to Scotland largest permanent funfair; the first self-seal envelope was invented in Aberdeen. So there you have it. Rollercoasters, pretentious sports, and stationery. And for that, Aberdeen, we thank you.

 Sandra is especially grateful.

Brighton

So we all know Brighton for the seaside, for Pride, and for arguably one of the best novels ever written, Brighton Rock (if anyone would like to debate that with me, please leave a comment at the bottom), but did you know that according to the 2001 census, the majority of the UK’s Jedis live in Brighton? I know, right? FURTHERMORE, the voice of the speaking clock (don’t pretend you haven’t called it for a chat…no, just me? Awks…) is a lady from Brighton AS WAS HER PREDECESSOR. Bloody mental in Brighton. 

Edinburgh

The Fringe is on, the panda’s pregnant, J.K. Rowling is writing HP spinoffs. Now is clearly the best time to be in Edinburgh. Other than the rain, the constant, constant rain, I don’t know anything about the city that people criticise (and no, I don’t live there so can’t be accused of bias). Plus I can’t imagine Edinburgh'd want to be independent so that's a big tick. Edinburgh is majorly haunted by the way. And I know this because I went on one of those ghost walks and almost certainly saw what were probably real ghosts. They also provided the walkers with a lot of vodka and an extremely disgusting club at the end of the walk. It was a good evening. I digress. Fun facts about Eds: apparently in the 17th Century, male citizens of Edinburgh believed that rubbing the burnt ashes of doves' droppings on their heads would cure their baldness. Hmm, maybe they will vote for independence after all. In other news, the first animal Edinburgh Zoo ever bought was a gannet. I’m not even too sure what a gannet is. 

I googled it. Seems like a pretty average zoo creature.

Exeter

Rhod Gilbert went to Exeter uni. He’s funny. So did J.K. Rowling. She’s come up twice in this post so far. Crazy. Also, in Exeter, a very nice looking lady painted her already pink house even pinker and then one of her neighbours complained so she had to paint it mildly less pink. But still pink nonetheless. Make of that what you will.

All pinks are created equal but some are more pink than others.  

Glasgow

Apparently the patron saint of Glasgow and also the founder of said city is St. Mungo, despite the fact that his name was not in fact Mungo but Kentigern. To be honest, I feel he was probably better off with Mungo. That said, Glasgow was once the European Capital of Culture and just hosted the Commonwealth games so that was nice.

Looks rather nice really

Nottingham

Ah Nottingham. Not only is it home to a cracking university but it also gave the world HP sauce, tarmac, and traffic lights. And who isn’t grateful for traffic lights? And the list goes on: Torvill and Dean, Paul Smith, and VHS recorders are also things for which we should be grateful to Nottingham for. I seem to remember there being a fair few lovely vintage shops in the area as well. Oo and Sat Bains. That's a great restaurant.

            He seems nice.

So Line-Uppers, if you fancy taking a trip to any of these cities, take Line-Up with you to find out the best stuff going on. After all, you wouldn’t want to miss out.  

Download Line-Up here: bit.ly/UwZuea

And get your stalk on: 

While some might argue that the title of this post is hyperbolic, to them I say no, no it is not. Not only is GBBO the pinnacle of television, western civilised culture and cookery, it is also the greatest thing to happen to the UK ever and is reason in itself for Scotland to stay with us (can we ban them watching it if they vote for independence? #controversial). 

Mildly terrifying.

Before we go down this road, I should probably caveat this piece with the following: at Line-Up, we’re all about going out and discovering the best stuff to do in your city. And don’t get me wrong, there are so many events on the app, you could be doing a different thing every hour of every day. But sometimes, just go home and watch GBBO. And tonight is one of those times. 

So what is it about this show that justifies locking up your front door, grabbing some cake, and watching twelve amateur bakers produce patisseries you’ve never heard of?

1. Norman

Norman is my very favourite thing about the new series and possibly about all things ever. He is the most salubrious chap in existence (and that’s saying something when it comes to GBBO). He’s a retired merchant navy radio operator (of course); he goes hiking with his dog, Lucy (great name for a dog); and, naturally, he makes clocks and pottery in his own kiln. Any of you got a kiln? No, didn’t think so. Oo and he’s Scottish so here’s hoping when he inevitably gets to the final, he’ll bake in a kilt. 

  A king among cakes.

2. Some of the other contestants who seem nice but are obviously not as good as Norman

My personal highlights from the collection of all non-Norman contestants include their wholesome hobbies: Luis has his own bees and uses their honey in his baking; Diana has been in the WI since the age of 12; Nancy rears her own turkeys for Christmas. I mean, it slightly beats ‘Fran likes jägar bombs and watches reruns of Gossip Girl’. Well, mere mortals, we can only aspire to these levels of domestic perfection.

3. The gigantic 3D cakes that make you wonder what sort of minds could come up with that stuff

Remember that Dalek cake from last year? I mean, seriously? How do you just think 'I’m going to make a cake that kind of looks EXACTLY like a Dalek'? My personal highlight of the new series so far goes to Norman (natch) who was concerned as to the geographical consistency of his Black Forest Swiss Role (Germany and Switzerland in one cake….what fresh hell?). I’m excited for when they start building GIGANTIC cakes that look like they themselves could eat you. Then it gets really fun.

Paul Hollywood just knocked this thing up between takes.

4. Mary Berry retaining every ounce of dignity and poise while eating loads of cake….

….and this blog that has formed as a result: 

http://maryberrybitingintothings.tumblr.com/ 

5. The fact that eating cake during this programme cannot be considered greedy

Interactive experiences are what it’s about these days (hello, Secret Cinema), and therefore consuming copious amounts of cake while watching GBBO serves the purpose of creating an immersive and therefore holistic visual sensation (and a selection of other hipster related words that I don’t really understand). If they could just come up with The Great British Cheap Wine Tasting and show it immediately after Bake Off, then my life would pretty much be complete.

Ah, the dream.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. But in this case, there actually is.

We’re giving away £50 to spend at Byron. With Byron’s Smoky (6oz hamburger, smoked cheddar, streaky bacon, crispy onions, shredded iceberg, pickles & smoked chilli BBQ sauce) now a firm fixture on their menu, we know what we’d be spending the winnings on...

To enter the competition, just join our mailing list using the form above. It’s that simple. And, you’ll get additional entries for liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

The winner will be announced next Friday at 5pm. Good luck.

At Line-Up, we like to discover the more unusual events going on in your city. While arena tours and mainstream cinema are delightful, there’s so much joy to be found in events that are less mainstream. That’s why we’re such fans of fringe theatre, and lucky for us, we’re right in the middle of the Camden Fringe this very week. Now, Camden Fringe might not be without its administrative faults but it produces some bloody good productions. One such piece is Where Nothing Arrives, which is on at the Tristan Bates Theatre until Saturday night.

The piece is reminiscent of Waiting for Godot. Two men, affectionately termed Chimp and Knuckle, are sitting somewhere, waiting for something. Daylight? Pay day? Judgment day? That’s pretty much all the background we get. There’s a limited set, few props and no costumes. Essentially, there’s nothing to carry this piece aside from the writing and the acting.

So I suppose it’s pretty lucky then that, despite both actors being at the cusp of their careers, the acting is remarkable. Between Nick Armfield and Peter Watts, there is some serious talent on the stage. The pair manage to delve through the depths of human emotions and explore just about everything they’ve got, from the most basic human physicality as they hurl punches at one another to the complex emotions surrounding love, life and death. And not that it's terribly relevant, but Watts can do a lot of press-ups in a very short period of time. I liked that bit. 

These two actors have the most marvellous script to which to be applying their talents. Personally, I was really excited about the writing of this piece. Writer Abram Rooney, who currently understudies Christopher in the West End’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, has that rare skill found among the most prestigious of authors, enabling him to write beautiful and compelling scenes that include next to no action.

The hour-long piece considers what it means to be a man in the twenty first century and how one should cope with boredom. What is so clever about the piece is the extremes it hits. Nothing is middle ground: the language is either basic grunts or high philosophy; the dynamic stretches from intimate camaraderie to aggressive brawling.

So it’s hot. It’s really hot. It was hotter than Hawaii last week (only slightly less relaxing and with fewer rum cocktails) and this weekend is set to be another toasty one. So with that in mind I bring you here a brief run down of some tip top summery places to keep cool this weekend:

Cardiff Bay Beach, Cardiff

So this is a pop up beach. As in, not always there but built purely for the purposes of summer and your enjoyment. Ideal. Especially in this heat. There’s sand and water aplenty as well as bars, food stands and sort of fun fair style attractions. Personally, I’m thinking good book, sand, deck chair and sorted for the weekend – alas I think I might have to contend with twenty million other people with the same idea.

Camden Beach, London

In the Roundhouse in Central London is, unexpectedly, a beach. It’s only open for the summer each year but includes the finest imported sand (and that’s important) plus a bar, ice cold beer, ping pong, beach huts, and a rooftop garden (which I don’t think is terribly beachy but still sounds pretty fun). If you’re going as part of a large party, you may want to book out a beach hut just to make sure.

Bristol Lido, Bristol

Ok so maybe this one is cheating because it’s not technically just for summer but trust me, swimming outdoors is considerably more pleasant in hot weather. These crazy people who go outdoor swimming on Christmas Day are kind of mental, just FYI. If swimming isn’t so much your thing then there’s also a hot tub as well as a restaurant, bar, sauna and steam room. Ideal.

This cat picture adds nothing

Open Air Rooftop Pool – Bath Spa, Bath

Now you may have to visit this pool as part of a spa day (any excuse) but essentially this pool gives you amazing views over Bath and the water has healing powers (probably). If that’s not enough, there’s also a sort of in-built jacuzzi for you to enjoy while glancing casually over the surrounding hills and stunning architecture. I mean, I could literally spend the entire day in this pool.

Another classic cat in swimming pool photo. 

Coq D’Argent, London

Ok, enough pools. For those serious city dwellers, rooftop bars are going to be the go to this weekend for the cool down. Londoners, try the classic Coq D’Argent. It has a different vibe at the weekends when it’s not full of bankers (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but the views are stunning. Plus all that greenery gives it almost a rural edge.

Hmm, these pictures are getting more and more tenuous

Roof Garden Playground, Manchester

If you so happen to be in Manchester this weekend, head to St. John’s Hotel and go straight up to the top for some roof top bar fun. The aesthetics are ideal for a summery afternoon and the comfortable chairs and patio heaters mean you can park yourself for pretty much the entire weekend. Get the drinks in and marvel over all the heat and the stunning views. Remember the sun cream.

It's funny because it's a beach dog

Let me know what your summery plans are this weekend, Line-Uppers.

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So I don’t know if you’ve heard but this Sunday night is the World Cup Final. Kick off is at 8 and it’s Germany vs Argentina. Ok, I’ll stop patronising you now. I’m rooting for Argentina. No offence to Germany but if Argentina win, I win money and that’s enough to get my support. Anyway, if you’re looking for some way to escape your wife/gf/kids/responsibilities and watch the final in peace (of sorts), here are some thoughts on where you can do just that.

Me when Argentina win. Probably.

London

Sadly, Boris, as in Johnson, has put his iron fist down (oo, mixed metaphors) and deemed that we mayn’t have any outdoor parties, big screens etc. because we’ve all been naughty and we all drink too much and behave badly and he doesn’t want this sort of behaviour encouraged. While this is mildly sad, it is totally fair enough. Londoners, we really need to sort our lives out. However, Sunday night is not the time to be worrying about our livers (do that right now while you’re at work and have nothing better to do). So instead, check out The Vaults near Waterloo station. There’ll be live music and a cheap bar so pretty much a party. Then, of course, they’ll be screening the match but after the sixteenth caiprinha it’ll all seem a bit irrelevant.

                                If you’re looking for something a little less earthy and Brazilian, how about Sushisamba on the 39th floor of the Heron Tower? If, like me, you’re a sucker for a good view, this seems like a pretty good place to hang out and watch said football match. Plus, what with it being a Peruvian-Brazilian-Japanese fusion restaurant, you can eat Rio themed food. Might not be the cheapest option for the night (£75/person) but then again staying in is probably the cheapest option and that’s no fun.

Liverpool

New kid on the block Camp and Furnace has been championing world cup screenings for the entire month and the final is going to be no different. In fact, it’ll be bigger and also better. Expect a full scale Rio street party including Djs, street food, cocktails, and coverage. And if that’s not enough for you then the Brazilica festival starts this weekend which is all about celebrating everything Brazilian. This should ward of the post world cup blues for a while.

He knows what I'm talking about.

Manchester

I mean, sure, Fever Pitch is great and I can’t recommend it enough but if you’ve already done it and are looking for something a bit different you could try Night and Day Café. There’s not much to it other than just the football on a giant screen but it’s a cool venue so should have a good vibe to it. Plus no theme so no bias. Just pick a side. But preferably Argentina owing to the aforementioned reasons.

Bristol

So, just to pay some mild attention to the fact that Germany will also be playing in this final, Bavarian Beerhouse in Bristol is probably a good destination. I mean, it’s an amazing place anyway (so much wurst. Just so much wurst) and on Sunday it’ll be in full on mode: thinks sausages a plenty served by charming frauleins and so much German beer and lots of football. You’d better be supporting Germany though. Although if you do, I will judge you:

Ladies and gentlemen, summer has arrived. Though having said that, there was something mildly autumnal in the air as I walked to work this morning so maybe summer has been and gone. That’s a depressing thought. And renders this blog post slightly redundant. I’m going to write it anyway. Essentially, I have done some beautiful, Line-Up based, research for you and found my tip tops picks for FREE, that’s right FREE, summer events across the UK. Enjoy. O and it’s in alphabetical order because I am just so bloody organised.

Birmingham Brindley Film Festival  Until 14 July

So outdoor film screenings seem to be in vogue this summer (and, kind of, all the time). Birmingham has jumped aboard this band wagon with elegance and joie de vivre. The Brindley Film Festival, which is in full swing until this Sunday, showcases Birmingham’s favourite films, as voted by the general public. This year, the festival includes a competitive edge as it’s 80s films versus 90s. Oo and they’ll be free popcorn. Blankets and beanbags will be available so that you can outdoor-film-it in style and comfort. If you get down to Brindley Place this very night, you can catch Top Gun.

Bristol Bristol Harbour Festival 18-20 July

The Bristol Harbour Festival celebrates the city’s musical and performance roots by showcasing the best in music, dance, and, ahem, maritime events. I don’t really know what a maritime event entails. I know it’s something to with Bristol’s proud history surrounding its harbour but that’s pretty much where my knowledge ends. Hmm, maybe I should get down to the festival to be enlightened. O and I think there might be morris dancing involved. It is free though.

Cardiff Cardiff International Food and Drink Festival 11-13 July

Head down to Cardiff Bay this weekend and experience local, national, and international food and drink. Entry is, that’s right, free, and they’ll be tons of tasters. Indulge in some champagne and excessive amounts of food while reveling in the live music blaring from the bandstand. Here’s hoping the weather gets good because I think this all sounds rather lovely.

Coventry Anne Hathaway’s Big Picnic Day 26 July

The dreamy Shakespeare Centre is hosting its annual Anne Hathaway picnic. Enjoy the beautiful surroundings and the, hopefully, scorching weather. Plus they’ll be tons of free entertainment and family activities, including the highly contested 'best dressed teddy'. O and the kids can learn to garden while you soak up the sun and champagne. Sounds kind of dreamy, right?

Leeds Film Making and Animation for Young People 4-27 July 

These sessions are aimed at teens between 16-19 so are a great way to amuse them during the summer holidays and for them to learn some pretty great skills at the same time. Doesn’t that sound salubrious? They’ll learn film making, photography, and animation without spending even any money at all. And they’ll be given free pizza so that’s a plus.

Leicester Bands on Parks Until 14 September

So this event covers lots of parks throughout Leicester, including Evington Park, Wester Park and Abbey Park. Basically it’s just all sorts of jolly live (and free) music being played in dreamy surroundings. Mostly classical so you get to feel all sophisticated while soaking up the sun.

Liverpool Brazilica Festival 11-19 July

I appreciate that this morning, Brazil is probably not the place to be. I think they might be observing a day of national mourning. That aside, Liverpool is hosting an entire festival to the country that used to be not bad at football. It takes place over 9 days and includes music, dance, exhibitions, film, and, of course, the final day carnival. It’ll be bright and there will be samba and probably lots of bad jokes made about football. Sounds pretty fun.

             London Vauxhall Village Presents Summer Screening Until 22 July

Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens is hosting FREE films every Tuesday until the end of July. There will be popcorn and street food vendors as well as blankets and deck chairs so you can get all kinds of cosy. The film on next Tuesday is Spinal Tap so get praying for rain. Also, Vauxhall is like an alarmingly cool part of London so hanging out there will make you a better person.

Manchester Fever Pitch Until 13 July

I appreciate the World Cup is nearly over but there is still time to make the most of Fever Pitch. Basically it’s a gigantic sand pit where they show the matches on a 40 square metre screen. To get you into the Brazilian vibe, there’s also samba dancing and food from Bem Brasil. If you head down before the final, you’ll be able to catch live beach soccer to get you into the mood. It’s basically like being in Rio. Only less depressing.

Newcastle Pride 2014 18-20 July

3 days, 2 venues and an 5k, optimistically termed, ‘fun’ run. All of that plus main stage acts, a fun fair, talks, stalls, a parade, pet shows and a candle lit vigil, all alongside the best atmosphere you will find at any summer event. Pride is just so much fun and you should make sure you don’t miss out. This year, Pride Newcastle is bigger and better than before yet somehow still free. Ideal.

Portsmouth Shopping Festival 12-28 September

This is the first time Portsmouth has staged such a festival, the aim being to promote their eclectic shopping experience. Shops from boutiques, to antiques, to top designers will be involved, offering discounts, special offers, and incentives as part of the festival. To make your shopping experience better, street markets will supply you with food and live entertainment. Plus there’s some sort of Sherlock Holmes trail being developed to encourage shoppers to move around the city. I don’t really understand what this has to do with anything, least of all shopping but, you know, I’ll be open minded.

Sheffield Sheffield Fayre 24-25 August

This 2 day event takes place in Norfolk Heritage Park. If you want to get your craft on, this is the place to do it as they have an entire tent dedicated to craft based activities, as well as trade stands, a horticulture show, and fairground attractions. So something for everyone really. O and entry is free.

Southampton Mela Festival 12 July

Celebrate Southampton’s Mela Festival, brought to you by Art Asia. It’ll be so multicultural that you’ll just love it. It includes music styles from South Asia and all round the world as well as dance acts including Indian classical, Bollywood and Bhangra. Plus you can design a mask. I am sold.

Lovely, lovely America. How I love the place. It’s just great. And the best of the best is celebrated in all its bestness on 4 July in Independence Day. But, unfortunately, we are not stateside and celebrations are somewhat strained in this country. So, ladies and gentlemen, I have trawled through Line-Up and have found you the best places to get your America on and celebrate that amazing Will Smith film and something that went on in 1776, London style.

Silent Disco – Altitude 360

Altitude 360 is the very top floor of the Millbank tower and so the views are pretty amazing. Add to that the exposed wood floor, amazing cocktails and A SILENT DISCO. Ok, so maybe it’s not traditionally American but it is a party and that is what the colonies would have wanted.

Silent Disco – The Shard

A very similar event to the one listed above except that this one is in the Shard. If you haven’t been to the Shard yet, then this is an ideal opportunity. Again, a silent disco is not a traditional Independence Day celebration but I think the theory is that you can basically see America from up there so it’s good enough.

Stage your own Hot Dog Eating Contest 

So it’s kind of sad that I can’t be in Coney Island to watch Joey Chestnut compete yet again for his hot dog eating title (for those of you not in the know, he’s won, like, 7 times. He can eat 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes. That’s a lot). It’s gross, it’s sickening and I love it. Anyway, to ward off any Coney Island blues, I suggest having your own competition. Get some hot dogs and water and get speed eating. If you need any tips, break the hot dog in half, dunk it in water and swallow whole. Don’t ask me how I know that, just do it. (I imagine there are probably some other more sophisticated techniques but that’s a good place to start).

What a beauty

Independence Day Party – The Blues Kitchen, Camden

A whole night of strictly southern music. Plus, check out the menu. It’s highly American and delicious. It’s also BBQ centric which is in keeping with the whole Independence Day thing so that’s a plus.

                         Independence Day Lunch – Boisdale, Canary Wharf

I have looked at the menu for this lunch and it looks amazing. We’re talking clam chowder, ribs, slaw, Mississippi mud pie, the works. I, for one, am excited. Just go and feel grateful that, unlike Joey Chestnut, you can enjoy your food, rather than swallowing it whole.

I imagine it probably won't look like this.

California Dreaming - Vinopolis City of Wine

Vinopolis claims that today is the day to celebrate everything great about America. And Vinopolis is not wrong. With that in mind, it’s time to celebrate American wine (mmm, wine) and enjoy an entire masterclass on the subject for a mere £35. What fun.

Annual American Independence Day Picnic 

So for the politically minded ex-pats among you, this picnic is hosted by the Democrats abroad. It’s not until Sunday so you’ll have to wait to get your Independence on but it will have live music and ‘American themed activities’ throughout the day.

So there you have it. No need to miss the stars and stripes and whatever else it is. Treat London as though it’s just an extension of the US today. Who’s ready for a rendition of Star Spangled Banner? Anyone?