Globetrotting

London

With the Olympics just a matter of days away and the eyes of the world focused on London, the Tate Britain is hosting an exhibition to shed light on the many, often unseen, sides of the global city. The exhibition, titled 'Another London', opens on Friday and brings together 180 images, exploring the capital's identity through the eyes of international photographers who worked there between 1930 and 1980.

Amsterdam

Visitors to Oosterpark today should find it filled to the brim with music lovers for the 12th annual Appelsap Fresh Music Festival. Every year Appelsap brings together the best and the brightest from the worlds of hip hop, soul and electronica. This year, event organisers have added a third stage to accommodate all the talent, which includes School Boy Q, Danny Brown and French Montana.

Byron Bay

Kicking off on Friday is the weekend-long Splendour in the Grass Festival in the northern New South Wales town of Byron Bay. This year's line-up is crowded with big names in indie music and rock'n'roll. The main stage will host Jack White of The White Stripes, the most recent iteration of The Smashing Pumpkins, Bloc Party, At the Drive-In, The Shins, plus many more. And that's just the main stage.

Toronto

The Summer Music Festival has returned for three weeks of the finest classical music Canada has to offer. The event, which kicked off on Tuesday, runs until August 4. This year's programme boasts concerts nearly everyday including performances starting at 10pm. Guests include The Warhol Dervish (above). Music students can take classes with some of their favourite musicians at an academy.

Hyeres

This beautiful beachfront town, on France's Cote d'Azur, will play host to the Midi festival, bringing together groups from Europe, the US and New Zealand. Big names over the weekend starting on Friday include Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, melancholy-monger Bon Iver, Britain's SBTRKT, France's Zombie Zombie (above) and Willy Moon from New Zealand.

Beijing

The renaissance has come to Beijing in a big way: the National Museum of China is playing host to 67 works by Renaissance masters on loan from almost 30 separate collections in Florence, for its exhibition, 'Renaissance in Florence: Masterpieces and the Protagonists'. Moving beyond the artwork, the show - which runs until April 30 next year - will explore and explain the daily life and customs of Florentines in the 15th and 16th centuries.