This week, as sadistic White House lackeys do their best to roll back any remotely eco-conscious initiatives in the USA as part of their inhumane, out of touch agenda, meanwhile in Hackney Wick…

a new generation of fashion students are busy getting on with the task of reducing waste and improving our collective futures, inspired by the growing number of textile reuse facilities sprouting up in the area.

As The Wick’s recent deep-dive into the local scene attests, Hackney’s textile hub ecosystem is inspiring the fashion designers and trends of tomorrow.

Initiatives such as the Sustainable Young Makers programme - which just showcased its 2025 cohort in a special event at The Trampery Fish Island - demonstrate there’s an unstoppable momentum building around here.

With fashion students rubbing shoulders with tech innovators, creative artists, circular economy trailblazers and plenty more, whenever the depressing global news agenda is getting you down, take a step back and look around closer to home for a welcome dose of positivity.

🖼️ The work of Four East London-based artists - Anna Kolosova, Ben Wakeling, Graham Duncan Elder and Moisés Moreno - Gesture explores the language of abstraction. It’s the latest exhibition from Felstead Art being shows at The Trampery Fish Island, with a private view on Fri 25th Apr then runs to the end of May.

💡 Sun 27th Apr sees a free, ticketed immersive art experience where storytelling meets visual art, heritage meets design, and strangers become part of the narrative, at the debut event from Persian collective BONGEREH. Between Light & Time at Indra Gallery brings together a group of emerging Persian artists and cultural businesses, showcasing work that explores renewal, balance, memory, and transformation.

🧢 The Breakin’ Convention festival has celebrated hip hop dance and culture in London for 22 years, but the 2025 edition is the first one to be held at their new permanent home of Sadler’s Wells East. A week before the main event (which take place 2nd-4th May), this weekend sees the youth takeover Breakin’ Convention Family Jam across Fri 25th and Sat 26th Apr. Catch the next generation of talent take to the Dance Floor with rising rappers, singers, DJs and dancers showcase incredible skills on Fri night and workshops and more performances of Sat afternoon.

🥻 Fashioning Frequencies explores fashion as a transmission of identity, agency, and history, and a force that reverberates through time, carrying memory, enacting resistance, and shaping possibility. The exhibition takes over the front gallery and foyer at UAL London College of Fashion from this Fri 25th Apr.

🤖 As the boundary between the virtual and the real grows increasingly ambiguous and the relationship between the artificial and the natural is continuously redefined, Intergrade: Unfinished Migration explores what happens next. It runs to Fri 25th Apr at Indra Gallery.

The QEOP’s multi-storey car park becomes a sprawling treasure trove once more as The Giant London Flea Market returns this Sun 27th Apr. London's largest such event, it brings together over 100 of the UK’s finest traders of vintage home decor and preloved bargains, offering multiple chances to uncover unique finds and stumble upon unexpected oddities.

New on thisisthewick.com this week…

🥩 Meanwhile, there’s the return of a lockdown-era smash hit at Hackney Bridge (running until 5th May) as acclaimed Portuguese restaurant Bar Douro have brought back Roulote, their street food pop-up for a very limited residency. Look out for a menu featuring saucy pork Bifanas, crispy alheira croquettes and ice-cold Super Bocks, all inspired by the late-night food trailers of Lisbon and Porto.

Bucking the gloomy national trend spectacularly, not one but TWO exciting reborn nightlife hotspots have opened in Hackney Wick in the last month.

Number 90 Hideout is the complete reimagining of the Main Yard venue’s Studio 9294 space. Gone is the astroturf and swinging mushroom decor, replaced by a seriously well-designed, wood-paneled and acoustically engineered nightclub space that’s drawn praise from far and wide.

It opened with a boom, courtesy of first resident and beloved East London DJ Giles Smith (check out scenes from the party here) and there’s plenty to look forward to as the summer approaches, following a blistering multi-room edition of Half Baked over the Easter weekend.

Also kicking off over Easter was the next chapter for historic Stour Rd warehouse space Vittoria Wharf Studio, now brought to you by the hard-working team behind The Cause and All My Friends.

“Giving spaces a purpose, a place, is something we’ve become accustomed to over the years,” say The Cause team, “creating spaces for our community to take risks, incubating new ideas with room to let them grow.

“Beginning its life alongside our gaffer Stuart (he threw the first ever edition of the legendary, though now defunct ‘London Loft Party’ in this exact space almost a decade ago), we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes and come full circle, shaping the loft into a fully functional, multipurpose club and arts space.”

Details of upcoming events via RA.

🔊 Bass and Garage specialists 23 Degrees & OUTRO team up to present a B2B for the ages at Colour Factory this Sat 25th Apr. Two of the hottest tips on the circuit right now, Soul Mass Transit System and Silva Bumpa join forces for an all-night-long session.

🎶 One of India's most celebrated music directors and performers lands in Hackney Wick for a night of live music as Vidyasagar - The Musical Revival takes over the Copper Box this Sun 27th Apr. He’s joined by his son, Harsha Vardhan, who is a piano and keyboard virtuoso, with deep roots in Carnatic music nurtured since childhood.

🍸 Cadogan Terrace bar and restaurant Carbobar are claiming their new Happy Hour is the longest available in all of Hackney Wick, clocking in at a dangerous four hours. That means that every Tuesday to Friday, you can quaff cocktails for just £6.50 between 4pm and 8pm, guaranteed to get any evening off to a bit of a flyer.

🏀 The latest fixture in SuperLeague Netball season at the Copper Box Arena sees London Pulse V Cardiff Dragons on Sun 27th Apr.

⚽ Two teams battling in out in a battle to be promoted to the highest Futsal league in the UK lock horns at the Copper Box on Sun 4th May, as LDN Movements FC meet MK Mavericks.

🏃🏻‍♀️ You can still register to join the Wings For Live World Run in the QEOP on Sun 4th May, the unique race where everyone starts at the same time, worldwide. Professional athletes, fun runners and total beginners are all in it together against the virtual ‘Catcher Car’ - the moving finish line. The Car begins its pursuit 30 minutes after the start, passing runners and wheelchair users one after the other until the race is over. 100% of all entry fees and donations goes directly to spinal cord research.

♨️ Ahead of opening their local ‘social wellness’ spa, offering sauna rituals, breathwork, meditation, and curated social experiences, AUTM HAUS will be popping up at The Bath House daytimes this week, Thurs 24th - Sun 27th Apr. They’ll be launching a special presale and founding members scheme, limited to the first 90 sign ups, and offering a taste of what to expect, where you can interact with the cute miniature model pictured above and enjoy free 3-minute breathwork demos.

👟 With a beautiful waterfront location on Rookwood Way, Fish Island, On-U-Training is the neighbourhood’s brand new one-to-one and small group personal training studio, due to open its doors for the first time in early May. They’ll be offering regular yoga classes, a weekly run club and nutritional coaching, too, with discounts for those signing up early.

🗣️ If you run an alternative education organisation or project at secondary school level, join CIVA (the Centre For Innovation In Voluntary Action) for a knowledge and idea sharing session: Educational Alternatives idea and business model exchange. You have the chance to engage with others on various topics, including critical income generation on Wed 30th Apr at Proposition Studios.

♻️ Hackney Council want to hear from local residents, charities, and community groups to help shape the borough’s circular economy strategy by filling in their Making Things Last survey. It takes less than 10 minutes and you can give your views on repairing, upcycling, reusing, and sharing so the Council can better support local action on waste and climate change. You’ll be entered into a draw to win one of five £20 Growing Communities veg boxes.

👩🏻‍💼 Join business strategist and leadership coach, Felix Riley, for an evening of powerful insights and entrepreneurial inspiration at The Trampery Fish Island Village on Thurs 1st May for the free event Brilliant Thinking: How to Think Bigger in Business (And in Life). Felix will help you break free from limited thinking, maximise opportunities, and unlock your creative potential via practical brainstorming techniques, motivating stories, and a chance to ask him your burning questions in a Q&A session.

👗 V&A East Museum, the exciting new East Bank cultural destination opening in 2026 is looking for a Senior Operations Manager to help deliver and lead a world-class visitor experience, with a particular focus on engaging a new audience of local 16-24-year-olds. Apply by 11th May.

Bow Arts is looking for a Client Facilities & Studio Coordinator to manage the commercial facilities and tenants at Royal Albert Wharf. You will manage both the commercial and creative facilities at one of the Trust’s key sites, situated in Newham’s docklands. Apply by 15th May.