Scenes from last year.

The Garden Party is heading to the Mason’s Arms this carnival weekend for their 8th fantastic year, featuring an incredible line up that will rock west London like a crazed nanny. The Garden Party will take place over the two days of Notting Hill Carnival and will once again see the Mason’s Arms completely transformed into a Balearic paradise, its garden terraces resplendent in plush décor as the whole place bounces to the sounds of booming top-notch sound system.

Both days, Sunday 29th and Monday 30th August, run from 2pm-2am with the first event taken over by Jon Carter’s Block at The Lock posse, while the second party is the nice and early, official Snowbombing 2011 Launch Party. Over the weekend such luminaries as Shy FX, Dub Pistols, Justin Robertson, The Whip and countless more will be gracing the stage.

If you want your carnival weekend’s festivities all sorted out in one hit, we’re giving ONE lucky winner a pair of tickets to each day. Strictly for the hardcore, enter in any of these simple ways: -

1. Email us with the subject line: “”I want to rock round the clock with block at the lock!”

2. Tweet us with the phrase: “Ahem @qypedoeslondon do you have something for the Notting Hill Carnival weekend?”

Competition closes Thursday 26th August, 8.00am.

Are you a film-making whizz? An expert at video-editing and other such techno-trickery? Maybe you’re a professional when it comes to making short films, but even if you’re only an enthusiastic amateur, you could still be in with a chance to win a whopping £10,000.

You see, BCS (the Chartered Insititute for I.T.) have teamed up with Sheffield Doc/Fest and Crossover Labs to present Digital Revolutions, a short film competition with a difference. It has categories for both professionals and amateurs, ten short-listed entrants will have their film featured at Sheffield Doc/Fest, the biggest documentary festival in Britain, in November and the overall winners for each category will then be presented with their grand cash prize during an awards ceremony.

Want a piece of the action? To help you on your way, Crossover Labs are running four all-day workshops across the UK, where the industry’s leading names will give you tips and advice on getting your ideas across in your video and ensuring its success. Places are strictly limited to fifty people, but luckily we’ve got six places up for grabs for the London workshop, taking place from 10.30am until 5pm at Conway Hall on Tuesday 31st August.

To be in with a chance to win, all you need to do is email us by 5.30pm next Monday 23rd August with the subject line “The revolution will be digitised in London” telling us in 25 words or less why you should be one of our chosen ones. We’ll let the winners know by Tuesday 24th, giving you a whole week before the workshop to swot up on what to ask. Good luck!

My mum lives near Glyndebourne, but not in the posh bit. It’s rather nice. Luckily, time travel is now with us (kind of) and rather than y’all needing to schlep down there, our cultured friends at Somerset House are participating in “the first-ever simultaneous nationwide celebration of Glyndebourne Opera“ and on the weekend of 20-22nd August bringing the operatic joys of the Billy Budd, Hansel and Gretel and The Rake’s Progress productions to their massive, high-definition screen.

All set “in the spectacular setting of the Courtyard at Somerset House“, you can dress up or dress down and stuff yourself to within an inch of your own opera-sized figure as you devour a Fortnum & Mason’s Hamper.

We have a pair of tickets to give away to Saturday’s night performance of The Rake’s Progress (pictured above), you’ll need to shell out for the hamper though! To enter simply: -

1. Email us with the subject line: “Come and have a Figaro if you think you’re hard enough”

2. Tweet us with the phrase: “Yo @qypedoeslondon can you lend me a tenor?”

Competition closes Friday 20th August, 8.00am. That’s when the fat lady sings….