Well, are they? Chair: Aleks Sierz, Panel: Nina Caplan, Shaun Hutchinson, Ben Holland more info

Unseen Tours provide a totally unique and exciting perspective on well-known landmarks and the lesser-known nooks and crannies of London. Led by homeless guides with their own distinctive styles and life histories .. Unseen Tours continue most days August 29. Click for when and where

The Press Launch for the London Fringe 2010 was held on Tuesday evening 6 July 2010 in The Actor's Church, (also known as St Paul's Church, Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ED) in the centre of Covent Garden, London. There were performances by various fringe artists to give a flavour of the tremendous variety of art and performance in the London Fringe. more by FringeReport

Starting a public debate with a performance could kill the evening's pace; with a poet even more so. With a performance poet it could be much, much worse, even for 10 minutes. Some may feel that the main task of a performance poet is to make 10 minutes feel like a lifetime. But this is a good one, with an exciting and precise use of words. more by FringeReport

Theatre is where our thoughts and feelings are expressed in the most creative and direct way to an audience. These discussions are inspired by plays performed in London. Influential writers/thinkers in the world of theatre will discuss and argue these important issues in front of an audience. More here

It'll take you through what you need to do to do a show in London in August, from potential budgets, venues, marketing, press, to the London Awards. Arranged with a lot of help from Felicity Jackson at Surviving Actors.

Okay, this is still very early, but we are talking about running a few late night debates on social issues raised in theatre pieces performed in the Fringe. For example, these could be gender, equality, race issues, or something more philosophical, say, meaning and purpose in what we do. A lot of contemporary theatre tackles these themes/has something to say about them.

We'd invite art critics from newspapers along to discuss these issues in front of an audience of artists and performers. The Institute of Ideas is very good at running debates. Need a suitable venue. And a sponsor.

before and during the London Festival Fringe. Equity has been looking after the interests of actors for 79 years.

The Big Debate @ the Tate Modern. Good points made by Ed Vaizey, Shadow Culture Secretary, and Claire Fox, institute of Ideas, Radio 4's The Moral Maze.

Hazel will also be reading at the Reading Performance of the Short Fiction Award shortlist on July 24, at the Old Operating Theatre
B/w photo: Lucy Hewes, color: Greg

Lidija Mavra runs a volunteer network which engages with and supports homeless people in London using the icebreaking power of socks and conversation to reconnect them with 'mainstream' society. She and her colleagues are training homeless people to work as tour guides during the London Bridge Festival, with help from consultants from social enterprise and King's College London.

These 'tours with twist' will provide a new and exciting perspective on well-known landmarks and the lesser-known nooks and crannies of London. It will challenge your view of what it means to be a person living in London. Related website: www.sockmob.org

Ten guides who will each be doing a different walk to show what interests them about the area. The guides are:

Mon 13 Sue Stirling
Tue 14 Alison Brooke Turner
Wed 15 Bruce Panday
Thur 16 Mike Murphy
Fri 17 David Woosnam
Mon 20 Jenny Stuart
Tues 21 Joe Studman
Wed 22 Judy Stephenson
Thur 23 Bernd Mueller
Fri 24 Sophie Wheeler
more

That's Charles, who organised the ride, with friends outside the hospital.

Start at St. Thomas Hospital, Cycle up the Strand through Fleet Street, to St. Paul, leading up to London Wall, Moorgate, Liverpool Street, and down to Monument and London bridge, ending south side of London Bridge at the 'needle' statue. Charity walkers and Climate campaigners would be there. Route and map

Meet south side of London Bridge at the 'Needle' statue. Walk to the Globe Theatre, back along the embankment and past the bridge to Tooley Street. Walk to Tower Bridge, and then back to the London Bridge again. Find a pub.

Approximate time of walk: one hour. Route and map

Organised by Charles who looks something like this.

Cycle ride: Start at 1 pm at St. Thomas Hospital, cycle up the Strand through Fleet Street, to St. Paul, leading up to London Wall, Moorgate, Liverpool Street, and down to Monument and London Bridge, ending south side of London Bridge at the 'needle' statue. Meet charity walkers and climate campaigners there.

Walk: Start 2.30 pm at south side of London Bridge at the 'needle' statue. Walk to the Globe Theatre, back along the embankment and past the bridge to Tooley Street. Walk to Tower Bridge, and then back to the London Bridge again. Find a pub. more info and map

There is still time to book into a meeting being held by 21st Century Network on the 'The New Media World' in London on July 7th at 6.30. We have a number of interesting speakers including Daniel Hannan MEP, Carol Haslam past commissioning Editor of Channel 4, Professor Barrie Axford author of the book 'New Media and Politics' and Sunny Hundal editor of Liberal Conspiracy and Pickled politics. If you are interested in attending or finding out more then you can at http://www.meetup.com/21stCenturyNetwork/calendar/10190092/

This should be a great event looking at some of the 21st century changes that are impacting on our political and media institutions by the technology and social engagement of the new media. Organised by Francis Sealey.

Lidija Marva runs a group which engages with and supports homeless people in London using the icebreaking power of socks and conversation to reconnect them with society. She and her colleagues are training homeless people to work as tour guides in the London Bridge area during the Festival. With help from consultants from social enterprise and King's college London they will be organising training sessions in mid June for two or three selected homeless people.

These 'Tours with a Homeless Guide' will provide a totally unique and exciting perspective on well-known landmarks and the lesser-known nooks and crannies of London.

It will challenge your view of what it means to be a person living in London. more

Please keep in mind July 19, the Sunday in the middle of the Festival, because Charles is getting a team together for the charity event, London Bikeathon.

Money donated will go to the Evelina Children's Heart Organization. It's part of the Guy's and St. Thomas' Charity and is located at St. Thomas's Hospital which can be fitted into the bike route from or on the way to London Bridge. The bike run should raise quite a bit of money for charity. Practice days to start in July. The theme is red wigs, red noses, and maybe a dash of white paint ..

The world of the media is changing as fast as everything else. A politician makes a speech ignored by the conventional media and it gets over 2 million hits on utube. The world of Blogs forces a resignation of a chief government advisor before the daily newspapers know what is going on! The new social media is challenging the conventional news elites as never before. Politicians and their established lobbies are running scared. The new social media has blown a hole through the existing elites. What does this mean for the future? This will be the topic for our July meetup which is being held in conjunction with the London Bridge Festival. Speakers include,

Daniel Hannan is an MEP and became famous overnight. A speech attacking Gordon Brown ignored by the conventional media had 2.2 million hits on utube. He believes "The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever."

Carol Haslam was the first Commissioning Editor for Education in Channel 4 and later Director of Programmes for Superchannel. She is a Trustee of both the Wildscreen Festival and the One World Broadcasting Trust.

Professor Barrie Axford is the author of the book "New Media and Politics" which makes a successful attempt to map the potentially transformative effects of new media on various aspects of political institutions and culture.

Sunny Hundal is editor of Liberal Conspiracy and Pickled politics - a current affairs magazine / group blog with the primary focus on British politics, current affairs, media and society. He has written articles for leading British newspapers including The Financial Times and The Independent.

You can find out more and register here

Art and entertainment is an effective way for people to deliver awareness and encourage commitment to positive change in our society. Many artists and performers use their work as a way to reach out to audiences with information about what is going on in our world and how we may bring about peaceful change.

We'd like social issues to be a part of the Festival. But, this will depend on people getting involved in this way.

King John opened 'Old' London Bridge in 1209, so, we're celebrating this year. On Saturday, 11 July, the bridge will be closed to traffic. We're looking for entertainers for the day. There will be a lot of press coverage. Here's the link.