Something for the Weekend (February 17th - 19th)

It's the first weekend of the school holidays in Paris, so expect larger than normal queues at family-themed events in the next two weeks. Alternatively, you may find other places slightly quieter as Parisians make their annual pilgrimage to the country's ski resorts. 

Activities

Musical Spiders
In celebration of the current Au fil des Araignées exhibition at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, the Orchestre national de France will be playing a special concert geared towards children this Saturday. The concert, held in the museum's ampitheatre, will be based around a story on a spider theme!

Saturday February 18th, 4pm
Tickets can be bought here: http://billetterie.mnhn.fr/Offres.aspx
See a video preview of the event here: http://vimeo.com/35755060

Fireworks Festival

No explosions in the sky perhaps, but plenty of light and sound on stage during this new festival in Paris over the next 10 days. The concept is perhaps a little forced (with special 'psychedelic' visuals), but the line up includes some of the most spoken about groups of the moment, including Tune Yards and SBTRKT.


More information here.

Le Carnaval de Paris 

Not to the level of Venice or Rio perhaps, but Paris too has its carnaval in February. This year's edition, with the theme 'they came from elsewhere' will run from the Place Gambetta in the 20th to the Place Baudoyer in the 4th on Sunday, from 1pm - 6pm.

Full information (and a teaser video!) here.


Back in the Days
Now perhaps the city's leading hip-hop culture event, Back in the Days mixes music and photography at its regular day-long sessions at the Bellevilloise. This Sunday, discover the pictures of Janette Beckman, a photographer who made her name with the London punk scene before moving to New York and capturing the nascent hip hop movement in the early 1980s 

Full details on the event here: http://bitd.wordpress.com/