What’s on in Hackney

Friday

Dance your heart out to music from The University of London Big Band which specialises in sounds of the 1930s and 1940s. From 7.30pm, at Hackney Attic, Hackney Picturehouse, 270 Mare Street, E8. Costs £8, email hackney.attic@picturehouses.co.uk.

Listen to troubadour Sasha Ilyukevich and The Highly Skilled Migrants create an incomparable brew of post punk electric energy and folk lyricism. From 8.30pm, at The Dentist, 33 Chatsworth Road, E5. Costs TBC, call 07985732285.

Check out art at the annual Moorfields Eye Hospital’s patient and staff art and photography exhibition. From 10am, at Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, 14 Wharf Road, Hoxton, N1. Free, email nicola@parasol-unit.org.

Saturday

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Hackney Singers with a 1970s themed party and buffet. From 8pm, at Hackney Marshes Centre, Homerton Road, E9. Costs £10, email hackneysingerssocials@gmail.com.

Take the children to mobile community play resource Hackney Playbus to celebrate another successful year, find out more about it and have your say. Lunch and creche provided. From noon, at Morningside Community Centre, Cresset Road off Well Street, E9. Free, call 020 8510 3335.

Enjoy a Christmas Fete with a bouncy castle, Santa Claus, a book stall, homemade cakes and Christmas gifts. From 1pm, at St Michael’s and All Angels Church, Lansdowne Drive, London Fields, E8. Costs 50p, call 020 7249 2627.

Sunday

See Lea valley’s architectural gems – from Victorian cult temples to 21st century designer shanty towns and the regeneration and investment surrounding the Olympics – by bike. From 10am, at Clapton Railway Station, Upper Clapton Road, E5. Costs £24.50, call 020 3006 7008.

Listen to cappella group VOCES8, who will be singing hits spanning 500 years as part of the Hackney Proms. From 11.30am, at Stoke Newington Town Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street, N16. Costs £12, tickets via www.hackneyproms.co.uk.

Enjoy some free family activities including Georgian Christmas themed crafts, decorating your own mince pie and letter writing to Santa. From noon, at Sutton House, Homerton High Street, E9. Free, call 020 8525 906.

Listen to three film, theatre, TV and radio scripts delivered by professional actors in character to develop new scripts read to an audience. From 3pm, at The Vortex Jazz Club(upstairs), 11 Gillett Square, N16. Costs £5, email scriptreadeast@gmail.com.

Hear how Soho was abuzz with jazz music and artists after 1945 and how it compares with Dalston’s evolution as a creative hub from Babel Records founder and owner Oliver Weindling and one-time manager of jazz club Ronnie Scott’s John Jack. From 6pm, at The Vortex Jazz Club, 11 Gillett Square, N16. Free, email joe@downstairsvortex.co.uk.