What's on in Thanet: the best upcoming events

Big congratulations to Ramsgate bar and kitchen Seabird, which made it into The Good Food Guide 2025, having only opened last summer. Open all day and for lunch and dinner, drop in for a coffee and a pastry during the day, a smattering of tasty small plates such as beetroot-cured salmon or pan or Moroccan lamb croquettes with romesco sauce or something heftier like some sea bass with Tuscan beans and pangrattato. It’s the only Ramsgate venture to make the list, and joins fellow Thanet restaurants Bottega Caruso, GB Pizza, Sète, Dory’s, Mori Mori and Angela’s in Margate, and Twenty Seven Harbour and Albariño in Broadstairs.

After months hidden behind hoarding, the restoration of Margate’s grade II listed Nayland Rock Shelter has finally been revealed. It looks amazing. Famously the location where TS Eliot wrote part of his poem 1922 The Waste Land, it’s an important part of Margate’s cultural history. Go and have a sit and a ponder.

Independent Venue Week 2025 is fast approaching, celebrating grassroots music venues around the UK from Monday, January 27 to Sunday, February 2. There are a number of IVW gigs around Thanet to check out. Gilles Petersen at Margate Arts Club, Kent Pop Exchange All-dayer at Where Else, Poseidon Sound Club and Wellness Rave at Faith In Strangers, Ajay Srivastav at Rosslyn Court, and Keg at Ramsgate Music Hall.

Look out for Thanet Experimental, soon to open up in Ramsgate. Doing what it says on the tin, it will be a funded gallery space for artists to play, experiment and explore ideas that aren’t money-oriented. Its first project is a collaboration with musician Benjin. Follow on Instagram for further updates.

Another new project set to open this year is the Margate Queer Library and Archive. Set to open in May, it will be a small DIY space for sharing LGBTQI+ second hand books of all genres. Right now, it's calling for donations of books to be made available on its shelves. Get in touch.

Margate Pride celebrates LGBT+ History Month with a programme of good stuff. In January, there's The Lonely Thanet Guide to Queer Margate with Shelly Grotto & Special Guests (Jan 22) and a Crafty Queer session (Jan 23). There's also a letter writing session (Feb 2), the talk Me and HIV – An Intergenerational Talk About the Changes, Wins, and Struggles of Living (Feb 11), and a Margate Pride’s History Month Special Legendary Quiz & Raffle (Feb 20). Just to name a few events. Find most tickets at outsavvy.com and more info at margatepride.org.uk. Prices start from pay what you can.

Folkestone Pride also celebrates LGBT+ History Month with a screening of But I’m a Cheerleader, in partnership with Folkestone's Silver Screen Cinema. The camp cult comedy is a coming of age flick about Megan (Natasha Lyonne), whose parents force her to go to a conversion camp, even though she has a boyfriend. It’s also a sharp satire on internalised homophobia, conversion therapy and gender binary. On February 1 at 7.30pm, tickets are £6 and funds raised go to Folkestone Pride.

Is the cost of seeing three quarters of the original Sex Pistols line up at Dreamland this summer a bit much for you? How about seeing just one of them for a fraction of the price? Glen Matlock will be playing Ramsgate Music Hall on Saturday, March 1. He’ll be playing tracks from his impressive solo catalogue with a band also featuring Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s Neal X. Tickets are £27.50.

Dancer Jodie Cole leads a six-week contact improvisation course. Photo: Hydar Dewachi

Whether you want to try something new or brush up on some performance skills, dancer Jodie Cole, is leading a six-week contact improvisation course that’s suitable for beginners and experienced movers. Held at The Space on Margate High Street, participants will visit the fundamentals for contact improv like developmental movement, strength and conditioning, stretching. through guided improvisations and fun and playful exercises. Sessions are held Sunday, 10am-11.30am, from January 26 to March 9. Places are £90 or what you can afford.

Following an enthusiastic response to the idea, rock and metal club night Kerosene is experimenting with a daytime edition. Go and bang your head from 3-8pm on Saturday, March 22 at Salon Du Miel in Ramsgate. Then your evening’s spare for knitting/sleeping/bat biting. Tickets £5.

If daytime dancing is up your street but you're not into the rockier sounds at Kerosene, take a look at Day Fever. Created by Vicky McClure, Jonny Owen and Reverend & The Makers, it'll have you dancing to the greatest hits of the 20th century. Madonna, Madness, Pulp, Prince, The Rolling Stones and more. It's coming to Dreamland on Saturday, March 22, kicking off at 3pm and kicking you out in time for dinner at 8pm. Tickets are £12.20.

The next Crimp supper club will take place at Oast in Cliftonville on Tuesday, February 11. Enjoy a four course India-inspired pie-based menu. Places are £40 per person. DM to book.

Transglobal Underground are coming to Thanet, with a full live show booked at Ramsgate Music Hall on Saturday, April 5. Pioneers of mixing electronic and world music, they have a revolving line up of 20 members. So you’ll never know quite what to expect. Tickets are £22.50.

Neurodivergent performance night MixMatched is putting on its last event for the foreseeable future at La! in Margate on Friday, January 24. Headlined by comedian Don Biswas, it will also feature comedy from Danny Scott and Sham Shakil, poetry from Zara, and music from Angel Dee. Tickets are £5.

This seems like a long way offer but apparently more than half or the tickets for it have already been sold. The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever returns on Sunday, July 27 to mark Kate Bush’s birthday. As ever, the Margate event will take place at the Oval Bandstand, where over 200 people (it’s hoped) will recreate the dance from the Wuthering Heights video. Joining in the dance requires a minimum charitable donation of £10.

DJ and producer Eats Everything will be at Faith In Strangers in Cliftonville on Friday, April 4 to play an extended set. His shows span a broad spectrum of electronic music, ensuring the energy is kept high without being constrained by genre. Tickets are £24.93.

Two charity gigs are coming up at Ramsgate Music Hall to raise money for local charities Arts In Ramsgate and St George’s Community Meal. Punk band Blyth Power will play on Saturday, February 22. Then Phil 'Swill' Odgers from legendary folk rock band The Men They Couldn't Hang will headline on Saturday, March 8.

Sindhu Lee headlines Chump's new night at Folkestone's Quarterhouse. Photo: Matt Crockett

ICYMI - previous tipped events happening in the next week

CatVideoFest is coming to Folkestone’s Silver Screen Cinema this weekend. Watch a 75 minute compilation of the world’s best cat videos at 3.30pm today and tomorrow. Get tickets.

Shelley Grotto will be launching The Lonely Thanet Guide to Queer Margate at Margate Arts Club on Wednesday, January 22. Book free tickets.

Chump’s Comedy will be at Folkestone’s Quarterhouse on Thursday, January 23. Telling the joke will be Sindhu Vee, Daniel Foxx, Jack Skipper and Lou Wall. Tickets are £16.

Poetry night Setlist is on at Salon Du Miel in Ramsgate on Thursday, January 23. On stage will be The Repeat Beat Poet, Seb Reilly, Jake Nathan, Clair Meyrick, Melissa Todd, Zack Davies and Setareh Ebrahimi. Tickets.