Things to do: Seafront sauna, Barbie, free bike fixes

New Neapolitan restaurant Porto Neale opened in Ramsgate this week. Run by the team behind Partenopei in Broadstairs, the new location takes on the building previously occupied by Little Ships. Promising a menu of food authentic to Naples, you’ll find it at 54-56 Harbour Street. Book your table here. 

Haeckels Community Sauna at Walpole Bay, Margate is back open again. The sea bathing machine-style cabin is open to all for free on Friday lunchtimes, Saturday mornings and all day Sunday. Full details on Instagram.

Located on Margate’s Marine Parade, Xylo’s fifth birthday is rapidly approaching on Saturday, July 20. Celebrations include a new NEIPA on tap (and of course brewed on site), plus DJs late into the evening. Pop in, bring them a cake, have a beer, and maybe even catch the sunset on the mezzanine. It all kicks off at 1pm.

Fern Brady is returning to Chump's comedy night in Margate following two sold out shows earlier this year. She will perform two tour warm-ups at Where Else on August 4-5. Tickets £20 from Dice.

Ramsgate Festival Of Sound is on the hunt for volunteers to help keep the event running smoothly. It all takes place from August 22-25. Email volunteers@ramsgatefestival.org for more information.

Thanet District Council will be running free bike fix events and guided bike rides every Sunday from this weekend until August 18. Get your bike fully working from 9.30am before a two hour ride starting at 10.30am. Meet at Walpole Bay shelter. And if that gives you the bicycle bug, check out our guide to Thanet’s best coastal rides here. 

Comedy night Tickle My Clam returns to Ramsgate’s Salon Du Miel next week on Thursday, July 18. The night will include performances from Kit Proudfoot, Maja Bloom, Beck Walker and organiser Jezebel Pye. Tickets are £7.

Daisy in Margate now has a two-for-one offer on wine by the glass on Wednesday nights. Buy one glass of wine and they’ll hand you a second one for free. We know you know what two-for-one means, but it felt worth repeating it slightly differently. If all goes well, they promise to “get some posh bottles in” too. 

Margate Soul Festival returns on August 2-4. Discounted tickets for local residents in postcodes CT7 to CT12 have just gone on sale. For those eligible, a weekend ticket will cost £77 rather than the usual £99. Single day tickets are also available. Performances and DJ sets will be spread across venues throughout Margate with an X-Press 2 headlined after party lined up at Margate Leisure Centre. Book here. 

Sète in Cliftonville has announced its next kitchen takeover will be by London chef Paris Rosina. She’ll set up her utensils from July 24-27. A menu of retro classics is on the cards. Book your table now.

When a movie just isn’t enough, the Design Museum in Kensington, London, has opened Barbie: The Exhibition, to coincide with the doll’s 65th birthday, not that she’s aged a bit over the years. Containing 250 dolls, objects and things, the exhibition is a comprehensive look at Barbie’s evolution, from 60s dream girl, to totally problematic, to chubby mermaid of The Global Majority with skin conditions. Pity Ken’s still just Ken. On now until February 23. Tickets £14.38. 

Feast Club is back on at Cliffs in Margate, 7pm, July 26. For £45 hungry folk get a cocktail, and delicious sounding nosh of the likes of baked salmon and basil and lime risotto, vegetable tart tatin and goats cheese, sticky balsamic onions with mascarpone and clams with garlic and cream on toast. DM to nab a spot at the table. 

Bottleneck in Broadstairs will have an in-store wine tasting on Wednesday, July 24, at 7pm. Quaff some nice wines and eat some nice nibbles, and compare tasting notes with the connoisseur next to you. Tickets are £30, pop into the shop to book or DM. 

Broadstairs is loved by The Sun (lucky ducks, you). Murdoch’s paper particularly likes the Royal Albion Hotel, the Dickens House Museum, Morelli's, pubs The Royston and Tartar Frigate and is looking forward to Broadstairs Folk Week in August and Broadstairs Food Festival in September. The paper also rates restaurants Albarino, Kebbels, Posillipo and Stark. Is this the endorsement Broadstairs wants? I don’t know, but they are all good calls. 

ICYMI - previously tipped events happening this week

Sète and Updown Farmhouse will be hosting a Bastille Day BBQ this Sunday, July 14 at the Margate wine bar from 2pm. Book or walk in.

The annual Folkestone Sandcastle Competition also takes place on July 14. Entry is £10 and it all starts at 10am. 

Also in Folkestone, the town’s inaugural Folkestone Live festival is currently up and running, with theatre and comedy being staged at the Grand Burstin Hotel and the Quarterhouse throughout the weekend. Tickets start from £5.