See No Evil takes over the streets of Bristol

We love a spur-of-the-moment holiday, so we’ve teamed up with lastminute.com to bring you great ideas for things to do this weekend. Here’s our round-up of the hottest events, festivals and exhibitions coming up. Perfect for a short break!

Bristol: See No Evil 2012

Urban artists from all over the world have descended on Bristol, working throughout the week to transform the previously grey Nelson Street and the Bristol Enterprise Zone for the See No Evil 2012 festival,  turning it into an enormous living urban art work bursting with colour and life. In its second year, the streets will throng with people wandering among the massive digital projections, pop up galleries, live painting and music stages. On Friday, it’s Hear No Evil with Resident Advisor presenting A Taste of Bristol, which features a list of up-and-coming as well as established Bristol dance music acts. Saturday sees a New York style Block Party with breakdancing, market stalls and five music stages set against a dazzling backdrop of a new visual landscape emerging before your eyes. The day will climax in the evening with Bristol Soundclash presenting Bristol’s Finest and an array of world-renowned drum and bass and disco djs. The weekend culminates with the See No Evil Viewing day on Sunday where the public can stroll through the closed off streets to take in the kaleidoscopic landscape of freshly completed art surrounding them.

Robin Hood Robin Hood riding through the glen!

Nottingham: Robin Hood Festival

Celebrating the life and times of the world’s most famous outlaw, the Robin Hood Festival will play host to a range of colourful characters, fun and games and medieval dare-doings in Sherwood Forest. A cast of characters wearing medieval costume will bring the weekend to life as they gallop their way through the woods. Visitors can either get involved, watch open-mouthed or jump out of the way. Battle re-enactments, archery, falconry and jousting are all on offer beneath the mighty boughs of the oak forest. Amid all the raucous fun you may even encounter the main man himself!

Check out David Griffiths’ Babel Fiche in Manchester

Manchester: Babel Fiche Exhibition at Castlefield Gallery 

To celebrate its eagerly anticipated re-launch, Castlefield Gallery has Babel Fiche, a solo exhibition of new work by artist Dave Griffiths. The exhibition runs from 10 August to 30 September and features two ambitious new works: Deep Field [The Photographic Universe] and the film Babel Fiche. For the past few years Griffiths’ work has involved the use of ‘cue-dots’, microdots and microfiche, exploring a fascination with what was conceived of as ‘redundant’ technology with the advent of the digital era. While you’re in town, drop in to see the Alan Turing and Life’s Enigma exhibition at Manchester University. Alan Turing, persecuted by the authorities during his lifetime over his sexuality, was a genius whose contribution to science and biology has only recently begun to receive the recognition it deserves. Drawing on 1950s design and mixing Alan Turing’s notes with museum objects, this exhibition documents Turing’s investigation into one of the great mysteries of nature: how complex shapes and patterns arise from simple balls of cells.

Book your weekend break at lastminute.com