We bring you our guide to living well in the world’s capitals, from exhibitions to cinema, food, drink, fashion, music and beyond. Just call it culture and take it, it’s yours.

LONDON, FRIDAY 28th AUGUST – MONDAY 31st AUGUST 2015

“Suppose I shot you. How’d that be?”
What better way to wave in the weekend then with a romantic road trip killing spree? Based loosely on the real-life nine-day, 10-victim murder spree carried out by the 18-year-old Charles Starkweather (Martin Sheen) and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Fugate (Sissy Spacek), Badlands is director Terrance Malik’s seminal moment.

The film’s anti-hero, with a copycat haircut and attitude stolen from James Dean’s onscreen persona, is a vision of rebellious adolescent energy. After falling in love in South Dakota the young couple hit the road with an ‘us against the world’ attitude’. Self-penned by Malik at the height of the Vietnam War, Badlands is full throttle. And if you come away from the film not pining for that ‘black as the night’ ’51 Merc, you need your head checking.

Badlands, 94 mins, is showing at BFI Southbank on Friday at 20:15, buy tickets here

Hit play
The sudden downpour of grim weather in London may be the final nail in the sun-freckled coffin that is the British summer, but Notting Hill Carnival is here to see it out in style.

We don’t have to sell this one to you, Carnival should be a mainstay on everyone Londoner’s calendar. So dig out your sequinned head dress and booty shorts, crack open the Red Stripe tinnies and blast the air horn to the sky.

HERO weather update: at the time of writing the reports are suggesting that it’ll be sunny and dry. But we take zero blame for a washout weekend.

Notting Hill Carnival takes place 30th August – 31st August

Just like mama used to make
Carnival and stuffing your face with jerk chicken go together like rice and peas, and Mama’s Jerk Station is THE hotspot for a hefty dose of Caribbean cuisine. Scoff down a mountain of the usual Carnival delights: lots of corn on the cob, lots of chicken and lots of Jamaican patties.

Build up your energy between sets – it’s a well honed art staying on your feet for the entirety of carnival.

Keep track of Mama’s Jerk Station‘s carnival pop-up stall on their Twitter

Midnight mass
Can’t wait until Sunday to get your fill of dancefloor bangers? Do not dispair, start the carnival celebrations early and head East on Saturday evening, for soul maestro Norman Jay is on duty at St John-at-Hackney church to see you into the morning.

Expect a ‘hit after hit’ funk and soul medley. Skank the night away.

Norman Jay’s Good Times takes place on Saturday 29th August, buy tickets here

A band, in a band, in a band
And if soul really isn’t your cup of punch, no problem, just head to The Lexington on Friday night, for The Moonlandingz are in town.

Allow us to introduce you to The Moonlandingz, a warped band concocted from the zealous imagination of the Eccentronic Research Council, and featuring Fat White Family members Lias and Saul. Hailing from Valhalla Dale (a fictitious place on the outskirts of Sheffield) the band, a “cosmic-synth-krautabilly group doing fuzzy Joe Meek-style pop” is fronted by Johnny Rocket, “all shaded eyes and golden hair”.

The Moonlandingz first came alive via Eccentronic Research Council’s concept album Johnny Rocket, Narcissist and Music Machine…I’m Your Biggest Fan, a first person account of the band from the view of an obsessional, stalking fan, voiced by actress Maxine Peake.

This is the band’s debut London gig, sparks will fly. Move aside Sgt. Pepper, there’s a new conceptual band in town, and they’re not the type of people you’d want to mess with.

The Moonlandingz play at The Lexington, Pentonville Rd, 19.30. Purchase tickets here

Keep it alight
Nevada’s infamous Burning Man festival takes place this weekend. If, like us, you’re pining for the desert and pissed off that you’re stuck in rainy London this weekend instead here’s a (somewhat meagre) remedy to this, Lights of Soho are showing Art of Burning Man, an exhibition dedicated to the iconic festival.

Prints from photographer NK Guy will be on display, alongside bespoke installations and sculptures from Shuster + Moseley.

Glimpse the epic Wickerman-esque ‘Burning Men’ effigies

Art of Burning Manis currently running at Lights of Soho, W1F 0RX