Kirsty Wark, KT Tunstall, Victoria Miro and many more offer their top tips for free summer arts fun
Nina Raine, playwright and director
Go to the National Theatre. When I was an assistant director there, I was struck by the National's similarity to an ocean liner, an entire world in itself, an impression heightened when you know the codes on the doors to take you backstage into the warren of long, windowless, neon-lit corridors beyond. But even when you're restricted to front of house, you can easily spend an entire day there undiscovered as a stowaway.
First, leave any heavy bags and coats for free at the cloakroom. Set up camp at a table on the first floor on the right-hand side of the Lyttelton circle: it doesn't get as crowded as the long bar ? and listen to whatever live music is playing pre-show floating up. Sometimes (repeat: sometimes) it's good. If you want sun, sit in the square outside, where a fake lawn has been laid down, and take in whatever acrobatic performance may be scheduled there, or if this is all too juggler/stilts-heavy for you, simply watch the teenagers snogging.
Inside, catch the free exhibition: there will be one curated by Jonathan Miller on his use of visual arts in his productions, another on press photography. If you find the (very good) coffee in the small coffee bar fronting on to the square and the NT sandwiches too expensive, here is my top tip: head down the side of the National, where the barrier for the car park is, and across the road you will see a small Londis where you can buy your Coke and Mini Babybel much more cheaply. Then, head back up to stage door and loiter because here, most exciting of all, you see the actors go in and out pre- and post-show. Look up and you will see them on the first-floor concrete balcony, going out for a fag and gossiping. It's the next best thing if you can't afford a show.
KT Tunstall, singer-songwriter
I love a good bandstand in summer ? you can find some interesting things going on. I once saw King Creosote do a cracking free bandstand set in Regent's Park. There's always a lot of free music around Embankment and the South Bank too. If the weather's nice I like to get the tube to Embankment and see who's playing on the bridge, then go to check out a brilliant old guy who plays violin outside the NFT. At the end of July there's a free festival in the area, Vintage at Southbank Centre, with lots of musical acts.
Away from music, my absolutely favourite free thing to do in the summer is to go swimming in Hampstead Ponds. It's such a good feeling to swim in natural water with plants surrounding you. I remember drying off on the hillside of the ladies' pond, hanging out with all these great old women, and taking in the stunning view over the city in the sunshine. Go and say hi to the frogs.
KT Tunstall's Scarlet Tulip EP is out now
Will Gompertz, BBC arts editor
Here are my three to see for free this summer. Countryside: check out the New Art Centre at Roche Court in Wiltshire. My daughter loved it, especially Michael Craig-Martin's pop art sculptures in the landscape, which are eye-catching, surreal and amusing. Lakeside: Grizedale Arts in Coniston in the Lake District is a hidden gem, part artists' residence, part visitor attraction. Its latest project is a School for Tourists with some free events. Get in touch via the website for details. Seaside: at Folkestone Triennial wander along the beach and wonder at Cornelia Parker's mermaid. And if you can't get away, perhaps just stop and look up ? you might see the clouds that inspired Constable or, in London, a Barbara Hepworth sculpture (on the side of John Lewis, Oxford Street).
www.sculpture.uk.com
www.grizedale.org
www.folkestonetriennial. org.uk
Sam West, actor
I'm currently filming a telly programme for ITV in York, playing a grumpy angel. My favourite free place to go while here is the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which has the largest outdoor collection of Henry Moore sculptures in Europe. Moore was the son of a Castleford miner, and his bronzes sit particularly well in their native county. The other work changes and return visits always show up something new.
My favourite London free thing is the Cocteau chapel, Notre Dame de France, Leicester Place (just off Leicester Square). Cocteau painted this crucifixion scene in 1960. It contains, to one side, a grumpy angel.
Tom Morris, artistic director, Bristol Old Vic
Overlooking the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol is the best children's slide in the country. It's solid rock, polished by the bums of Bristol children for 250 years (maybe more), and is fantastically fast.
Bristol seems to pride itself on its free entertainment. The fabulous recession-bucking M Shed has just opened an entirely free museum and archive of stories and memories of the city ? and there is a constant deluge of eye-popping art on show at Spike Island and Arnolfini (Bristol's Tate Modern, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year) and an extraordinary range of free festivals: St Pauls this weekend, the Harbour festival at the end of July and the Bristol balloon fiesta (an unmatchable spectacle of 100 balloons rising in unison over the downs) on 11-14 August.
Hidden treasures require more sleuthing but some of these are free, too. Hogarth's vast triptych Sealing of the Tomb is hung in an old church, now the archaeology office of Bristol city council. And just to join in the spirit of things, the first five Observer readers to email me at tickets@bristololdvic.org.uk can have a free pair of tickets to Bristol Old Vic's open-air production of Treasure Island on 12 July.
Jessie Dyer, co-owner of Nelly Duff Gallery
My free and arty moments this summer will centre on my three children. We spend heaps of time at Columbia Road Flower Market in east London as it is on our doorstep. The kids love collecting the flowers left behind at the end of the day by the traders and dancing to the busking double bassist who can sing everything from Ella Fitzgerald to "The Bare Necessities". A quick walk away lies St Mary's Secret Garden. En route, Eine's bold art works, Sweet Toof's grimaces and mushroom sculptures from Christiaan Nagel keep us all entertained, and they are one of the many reasons we love east London so much. It's is an organic garden offering natural woodland, fruit trees, vegetable plots, a herb and sensory garden and bee keeping! There is even a stone built area for a barbecue ? the perfect way to spend a summer's evening.
www.stmaryssecretgarden.org.uk
Peter Conrad, writer and critic
Opera and ballet release emotions that ought to be too large for any theatre to contain. The big screen magnifies faces ? or, in the case of ballet, elegant arms and strong, shapely legs ? and lets you ogle them at closer range than would ever be possible indoors. You might even be able to study the expensive throats that pour out air and turn it into an aria. And add to all this the priceless pleasure of sharing your enjoyment with a like-minded crowd, rather than sitting stiffly to attention among rows of dozing toffs and corporate slimeballs.
The Royal Opera House will broadcast Madama Butterfly live at 7.30pm on 4 July and Cinderella on 13 July at numerous locations around the UK.
James Yorkston, musician
Unbound, a series of free evening talks and gigs at the Edinburgh international book festival, held in a spiegeltent, a very pretty Dutch mirrored tent, will definitely be worth attending. Everyone appearing at Unbound is literary in some way, because they've all got something to do with the books festival itself. Performers include Irvine Welsh and Kristin Hersh, and I'll be there too, with the Pictish Trail.
In the middle of August there's also the Pittenweem arts festival in the East Neuk of Fife. There are loads of artists up there ? potters and painters and so on, and they hold open studios in which their houses become galleries. And there's a great chocolate shop there! I know that's not free but if you like you can steal something?
Kirsty Wark, broadcaster
I can't think of a better place in Edinburgh to picnic than in the beauty of Charles Jencks's swirling, whirling green garden landscape that complements the neoclassical building of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. The gallery is free and, until mid-July, you can enjoy August Sander and Jeff Koons as well as the permanent but ever changing collection.
George Perrin, co-artistic director of Paines Plough Theatre Company
I'm going to be up in Manchester directing our co-production of Paul Heaton and Ch� Walker's The 8th with Manchester international festival and very much looking forward to Lavinia Greenlaw's Audio Obscura in Piccadilly Station in which the poet and novelist invites you to eavesdrop on the crowd. I adore the intimacy of private theatrical performances. There's something wonderful about shifting an audience's perception of what constitutes a dramatic experience.
mif.co.uk/event/lavinia-greenlaw-audio-obscura
Mariella Frostrup, writer and broadcaster
Summer evenings on a picnic blanket in the park are a staple of our London life and living between Kensington Gardens and Holland Park, we're spoilt for spots. While the background bass of booming bands can be quite obtrusive now that Hyde Park's concert season is in full swing, the opera drifting through Holland Park is all pleasure. This summer a meander among the peacocks and then a picnic to the strains of Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz is our favoured activity. The all-weather covering for the theatre, no doubt installed at great expense, has slightly reduced the listening pleasure for gatecrashers like us ? but the sound is still clear enough to feel the vicarious thrill of something for nothing!
www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/operahollandpark.aspx
Joe Dunthorne, author
My family live in Gower in Wales, which is kind of like Cornwall except that because of the great badness of the Welsh Tourist Board it's never really made a name for itself. We're all grateful for that ? it means there are loads of very secret beaches. I'm a beach reader, and Tor Bay is the best for that. Tor has proper golden sands and if you go there at high tide it's the most beautiful little Hawaiian-looking beach. Gower's other beaches, like Three Cliffs, are more famous, but they're more walk-y, more about strolling the extraordinary landscape. Tor is ideal for settling on your towel for a read.
Victoria Miro, gallerist
Whenever I visit the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park I always make time to revisit a permanent work by the great Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay located in the grounds. I worked with Ian for more than 25 years and he was a philosopher, sculptor and poet who reinvigorated the classical tradition. His ongoing endeavour throughout his lifetime was to expand and challenge our understanding of the written word. He achieved this through poetry rendered in many materials and forms. The permanent work at the Serpentine comprises eight engraved benches, a tree plaque, and a carved stone circle at the gallery's entrance. Give the work a little time ? it will be richly rewarding. It is also a lovely place to sit and think awhile, before walking back through the park.
Kitty Empire, Observer music critic
Now in its fifth year, the annual iTunes festival series of gigs at the Roundhouse in London consistently mixes up music's big beasts with some intriguing stalking horses. This year, there's everyone from Katy B to Noah and the Whale, with plenty of rock action besides, in the form of Foo Fighters and Kasabian. The might of Apple means it is all free (although you do have to apply for tickets) and, of course, app-ed to the hilt. If tickets elude you, all gigs are being streamed for free, worldwide, to the various Apple-branded gadgets. And, in stark contrast with the queueing-in-a-field type of festival, the Roundhouse boasts toilets and bars galore. As the mother of young children, I'm looking forward to next weekend's Pop Up ? a free books festival for kids that includes appearances from Rastamouse and Michael Rosen.
www.itunesfestival.com
www.pop-up.org.uk
Hardeep Singh-Kohli, broadcaster
The joy of a city like Glasgow is how concentrated the beauty can be. My free day would begin at the Kelvingrove art gallery, a place I have visited since I can remember remembering. I'd gaze at Dal�'s St John of the Cross and the massive tusked mammoth (who possesses more than a passing resemblance to a late maternal aunt). I'd pop over the road to Mother India cafe and smell the food, which I still believe to be a free activity.
www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums
Justin Young, lead singer, The Vaccines
There's a beach called New Polzeath in Cornwall where you can wade out, go under a peak and get to a little secret beach where you can pick cowry shells. In the past, in places like the Caribbean, they were used as currency. They're really pretty but hard to find. It's a very therapeutic pursuit, trying to sift through all the stones to find them. I used to do it when I was younger.
Rachel Trezise, author
Treorchy festival, the first annual carnival-style town festival of its kind in south Wales celebrates the cultural centre of the Rhondda valley on 9 July, and is organised entirely by the community: local shopkeepers, cafes and pubs. More than 30 musical acts will play in seven venues across town, from DJs and unsigned rock bands to brass bands, operatic societies and male voice choirs. Think of it as a miniature Camden Crawl with less townie posturing, and no need for wristbands.
Rob Da Bank, Radio 1 DJ and founder of Bestival
Frank's Caf� and Campari Bar is set in an insalubrious multistorey car park in Peckham, but don't let that put you off. It's the coolest space in London, with newly commissioned artworks from Bold Tendencies and a new cinema project, and is free to get in. You pay for great grub and a sublime Campari while watching the surprisingly smog-free sunset. At Shoreditch festival on 16-17 July you can experience the best of east London across 3km of historic Regent's canal with live music on three stages, a floating stage, street dance, boat trips, a floating forest, food markets and much more. Meanwhile, Free Range, the UK's largest graduate art and design show is back at the Truman Brewery and is free! Sod Picasso and Mr Dyson ? these guys and girls are the future.
www.frankscafe.org.uk
www.free-range.org.uk
Iwona Blazwick, director, Whitechapel Gallery
For free access to contemporary art and culture, Britain leads the world. This summer even the rubbish-strewn no-place of an underpass under a main road will be transformed into a Folly for a Flyover. Young architects Assemble's pop-up cinema and event space underneath east London's grim A12, will have free entry during the day and weekend workshops and performances at no cost. Just a little small change gives access to boat trips on hidden waterways by day; and screenings of experimental cinema, with "live scores, light show and performances" by night. And don't forget the Whitechapel Gallery for sculpture made from "air and edges" by Fred Sandback; and an insight into politicians' choices of art, with the Government Art Collection.
www.follyforaflyover.co.uk
www.whitechapelgallery.org
Joanna Hogg, film-maker
There's a myriad of happenings to entertain your ears and eyes on London's South Bank. You can listen to live blues, if it's raining you can shelter inside Black Pig Lodge, a sculpture on the roof of the Hayward Gallery made from polished coal, or go to the beach. My particular obsession is with the uncurated, unplanned mini-events that are the human statues dotted along the riverbank: those long-suffering individuals who cover themselves and all their clothes in silver-grey paint (though there are numerous variations on this) and don't move a muscle. The only way of breaking the spell is money of course. But if you don't have the cash on you, you can watch other people throw down their coins.
Amanda Bynes Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman
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