With the 🌞 shining, it only feels right to be outside watching the daily Olympics action unfolding live from Paris, right? (Or at least that's the next best thing to hopping on a quick Eurostar to attend in person, anyway.) And with the area's indelible historic reminders of its ties to the Games all around us, there are plenty of ways to soak up the excitement and excellence of Paris 2012 right here, too.

🏅 New food hub Riverside East has a screen that sits under a merciful giant marquee, making for a very pleasant way to watch sport on the hotter days. They are showing the Games as part of a huge summer of sport programme including as many events as they can possible fit in. Look out for their Breaking Olympic Watch Parties (Fri 9th and Sat 10th August) with DJs from BBC 1Xtra, spontaneous cyphers and panel talks with hip hop media platform The Capsule, ahead of the big competitions live from Paris.

🏅 There’s also a screen up in Victory Park at East Village, showing action daily from 10am-9pm. A selection of local retailers are doing special Olympics offers on food and drinks to take over to the screenings, too; from sushi platters at Bamboo Mat to ice creams from La Gelateria and picnic pizza and pastas from Santi.

🏅 Watching by the water is always good, and the big screen at Here East canalside is dependable al fresco spot to catch the sporting action over the weeks ahead with occasional movies and live music too. Catch Toy Story (1pm) or Barbie (6.30pm) on Tuesday 13th August or the next live band to appear, Ibiza Nuevo on Thursday 15th.

🏅 The London Aquatics Centre is an official Olympic Fanzone where you can watch live broadcasts of the aquatic events while also having a chance to do activities including fun giant inflatable pool sessions, and Tom Daley and Noah Williams-inspired diving taster courses.

🏅 The huge garden at Hackney Bridge is another fine spot to drop by anytime to catch the Games up on their own giant screen, and you’ve got masses of street food and bar options to choose from on site too, plus loads of seating.

🎧 Talking of Hackney Bridge, this Sunday 4th August sees a brand new record fair with labels, shops, dealers and private sellers across all music genres offering vinyl treasures in the vast Block C space. It runs 11-5pm and costs only a quid to get in.

🖼️ The first Bow Open Lates of the summer, this Thursday 1st August, offers an afterhours chance to explore this year’s exhibition curated by Lindsey Mendick, alongside two exclusive live performances by exhibiting artists. Sadegh Aleahmad will be activating his installation Poems for Keeping Warm, inviting visitors to write poems, observations, messages, or even a shopping list on pieces of kindling, before ceremonially burning them to ashes, in an act of metamorphosis and transformation. Harriet Richardson will be revisiting the ‘90s, recreating her 2007 home teenage computer set up in the gallery space. She will then invite visitors to chat with her on MSN Messenger, unravelling the possibilities of text-based dialogue and the collective creation of digital moments in time.

🧠 Living archives: a trans-local conversation is the latest special event at Memory Work, a free exhibition exploring the themes of memory and showcasing the research of UCL East’s Urban Lab Steering Committee. It’s a bilingual hybrid discussion taking place across continents via Zoom with the collaborators of three projects questioning and engaging with Living archives from Colombia, Mexico and UK on Friday 2nd August, with the show running until 16th August. 

😎 The arrival of summertime temperatures proper happily coincides with a rash of outdoor daytime parties, including this Saturday, August 3rd, from 4pm when Lost In Music: London is back at HWK & The Lot for another of their popular all-day events featuring disco, house and techno played by an extensive line-up of residents, friends and fam.

🎶 This Saturday (3rd) also sees Delay Grounds celebrating the release of his debut album Digital Spiritual with a day-into-night summer release party at The Bath House featuring special B2B sets from the main man himself and loads of talented selectors.

🥳 Hot new promotion Just A Party launches this Sunday afternoon (4th) in the garden at Colour Factory with ‘For The Summer Lovers’, a day party that swerves any VIP, tables or guestlist nonsense, to bring you a down to earth bash for the people and an unannounced, but promised to be ‘legendary’ DJ line-up.

🎸 Queer Edge launches a brand new monthly QE Live event tonight, Wednesday, 31st July from 5pm bringing an exciting mix of live music, dance, art and comedy to Nico's Cocktail Bar at Hackney Bridge. Check out the video from the debut QE Live.

🎪 Sustainable Wallis Road business hub The Loop has a pop-up space out front that they are currently offering to local entrepreneurs, and with the sun out, it’s a prime spot. It costs just £50 a day for the pitch, with no minimum period. Ethical and circular businesses are preferred, although all welcome. Email: [email protected] for info and bookings.

👚 There’s just today left if you want to apply for the Innovate UK Textile Fund, which is open to applications from businesses in the UK fashion and textile sector looking to develop new solutions to pressing industry challenges. Themes the grantees will be engaging with include circular business models, novel technologies, sustainable manufacturing and other areas where many businesses in Hackney Wick & Fish Island have already been early adopters. Application details are all here.

🛒 The London Made Me retail development programme is back for 2024 with applications now open from the capital’s Creative Enterprise Zones, and that - of course - means Hackney Wick & Fish Island needs to represent. If you’re a local artist, maker or creative looking to grow your business by running a pop-up shop, you should definitely check it out, after the success of successful editions in Regent' Street and Carnaby Street in previous years. Applications close 9th August.

🎬 UCL East is running a free two-week film making course for LGBTQ+ youth (16-20) based in East London. You’ll learn how to use a camera, record sound and edit, creating a short film based on personal and local themes. At the end of the course there will be a screening of all the films to family and friends. It starts on Monday 12th August, so register your interest now.

🏢 Urban Frontiers is a pop-up exhibition from SHIFT and UCL exploring the new technologies and approaches to data that will shape the way we live, but are often invisible. These curated artefacts show how startups, researchers and communities are already building tomorrow's city and include physical solutions that will act as the building blocks of our cities, digital solutions tackling pressing issues, and experimental interventions straddling both the physical and digital. It runs on three select dates in August: Fri 9th, Fri 23rd and Tues 27th at UCL East’s One Pool Street building.

🥻 If you live, work or study in Redbridge and are 16 or over then creative art and fashion educators Caramel Rock have teamed up with free summer events programme Colours of Redbridge for a series of Stich Your Style: Fashion Design Taster Sessions. It’s an 8-week course over weekly Saturday mornings where you’ll draw, upcycle, dye and create your own clothing designs, then bring the to life on a catwalk.

🤝 Social Founders, the organisation that supports people running projects that aim to make a real social impact, is running an event specifically for Hackney-based founders on Thursday 8th August. The day is all about developing collaborations and joint proposals in order to secure more resources than they individually could. It’s open to creative entrepreneurs and businesses from all sectors, and includes guest speakers, an interactive workshop, lunch and networking opportunities. Find out more and register for free here.

Sadler’s Wells are recruiting four freelance Assistant Artists to work across their Learning and Engagement programme starting this September. To apply you need to be over 18, have lived, worked or studied in one of the four Olympic boroughs (Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Hackney or Newham), and have up to two years of experience in community dance. They are particularly interesting in dancers with experience in Ballroom (in particular Waltz, Foxtrot, Jive, Swing), Musical Theatre, Samba or Waacking. Applications by 4th August.