Harrow Arts Centre's mini fringe has two Saturdays to run: alt-pop set CTRL + ALT + OVERWHELMED on 22 August and clown show The Great British Husband Hunt on 29 August. £9, concessions £7.

Harrow Arts Centre’s Boiler House Festival is halfway through, with two of its four Saturday night shows still to come: an evening of alt-pop from Emma Elizabeth, CTRL + ALT + OVERWHELMED, on Saturday 22 August at 7.30pm, and Youyang Song’s solo clown show The Great British Husband Hunt on Saturday 29 August at 7pm. Tickets for each are £9 standard or £7 concessions, plus a £1 booking fee per transaction, according to the Arts Centre’s listings.

The festival is what the centre calls its “mini-fringe”, a showcase for “up-and-coming local talents, writers and artists from Harrow and beyond”, and it runs “throughout August, with a show every Saturday evening” in the Boiler House space at the centre, 171 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, HA5 4EA. Harrow Council announced the programme on 6 August. The first two shows, Three Men on the Edge on 8 August and I’m Just a Girl on 15 August, have already been performed.

What is left

CTRL + ALT + OVERWHELMED, Saturday 22 August, 7.30pm. A 45-minute music set with no interval from Emma Elizabeth, described on the event page as “an alt-pop artist whose music sits at the intersection of vulnerability and clarity”, whose songs “explore themes like autism, mental health, identity, loss, loneliness, and the quiet ache of trying to fit in”.

The Great British Husband Hunt, Saturday 29 August, 7pm. About an hour, no interval, suitable for ages 12 and over. Created and performed by Youyang Song and directed by Georgia Murphy, it is billed as “an absurd and hilarious solo clown show” in which a young Chinese woman with seven days left on her visa “sets out to become the perfect British bride”, with a wedding dress ready, the ceremony under way and no groom. The listing says audience participation “is always optional, and no two performances are ever the same”, and flags themes of migration, identity and cultural belonging.

Both are booked through harrowarts.com or the box office on 020 3773 7161. The centre also sells a £24 festival pass covering all four shows, but with two already gone it now saves nothing over buying the remaining pair singly. Access seats are booked by phone.

The venue

The Arts Centre occupies a site that opened as a school in 1904, and its Rayners Building, originally a workshop, is in line for a full refurbishment after the council secured a £630,014 award in June from the Creative Foundations Fund, backed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. The council says the work will include insulation, double glazing, roof lights, doors and new heating and lighting. No completion date has been given.

What it means for you

If you want a cheap night out, this is about as low-risk as live performance gets in the borough: under a tenner, under an hour, and a short walk from Hatch End station on the London Overground’s Lioness line. Our Harrow train times page has the timetable pattern for getting home afterwards.

If you are bringing younger teenagers, note that the 29 August show carries a 12+ age guidance; the 22 August music set lists none.

If you are a local performer, the festival is the Arts Centre’s stated route for new local work. Keep an eye on the Take Part section of its website for the 2027 call. For more on the borough’s arts venues and days out, see our things to do in Harrow page.