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WHAT'S ON4–16 December, SerbiaWorld-classhandballPhoto EHF/Uros Hocevar16 November – 6 January, LondonLondon’s most glamorous ice rinkFor the twelfth year running you will be ableto go skating in the glorious surroundings ofSomerset House’s 18th-century courtyard.Located just moments from popular CoventGarden and the West End in Central London,this has become one of the city’s favouritewinter experiences. Skating at SomersetHouse is perfect for a romantic date, a familyday out or an evening’s entertainment withfriends. On some nights DJs will take to therinkside for late-night music-and-skatingsessions, and there will also be a ChristmasArcade and a skating school. And when youare hungry visit Tom’s Skate Lounge, devisedby Michelin-starred chef Tom Aikens, and theFernandez & Wells café and bar.www.somersethouse.org.ukUntil 30 November, BarcelonaBarcelonaInternationalJazz FestivalThe 44th edition of the Voll-Damm Barcelona InternationalJazz Festival is underway, and itis one of the Catalonian capital’sbest-established musical eventsevery year. Concerts are heldon various stages throughoutthe city. The line-up for 2012is strong and includes namessuch as Melody Gardot, Juanes,Marlango and EsperanzaSpalding. Almost 80 concertshave been confirmed and it issure to be a month of fantasticmusic, spectacular performancesand a really good time.www.barcelonajazzfestival.comPhoto Sandrine Lee/MontunoPhoto Barcelona International © Sergine LalouxAs usual in December, a major women’shandball championship gets underway. Thisyear Serbia serves as the hosts for the EHFEuro 2012 championships. The games willbe played in the cities of Belgrade, Vršac,Niš and Novi Sad. The teams that have qualifiedfor this year’s tournament are Serbia,Norway, Ukraine, Czech Republic (groupA), Sweden, Denmark, Macedonia, France(group B), Croatia, Hungary, Germany, Spain(group C), Romania, Montenegro, Russiaand Iceland (group D). So if you are intohandball there is no reason not to travel to thebeautiful country of Serbia and take in thebest handball Europe has to offer up close.www.ehf-euro.com© Marcus ginnsTour runs until 4 December, various European citiesKeane on the road14–20 January, TromsøFilm festival in TromsøThe Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) is one of Norway’s biggest filmfestivals and cause for an annual mass celebration in Tromsø. In 2012 thefestival sold over 53,000 tickets in just one week. TIFF screens the best qualityfilms from around the world for a local, national and international audience.The festival also has its own programme, “Film fra Nord”, for short films anddocumentaries from the Barents region. The festival is held towards the endof Tromsø’s dark polar night, and the organisers use this opportunity to showfilms outdoors on a massive snow screen, built specially every year on Tromsø’smain harbour-front square, Stortorget. In the mornings, children from the localkindergartens come to watch, and later in the day short films are shown for aslightly older audience. The whole city enjoys TIFF!www.tiff.noPhoto Fredrik Arff / DNS6 days a week until 22 December, BergenPre-Christmas musical for the whole familyThe much-loved Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen published his story The Snow Queenin 1845. In the National Stage’s magnificent family musical version of this classic fairy tale,the Snow Queen is evil personified, and a mirror is the source of her fury. Will our heroes, bestfriends Gerda and Kay, manage to stop the powerful Snow Queen? This new dramatisationfeatures not just excitement and drama, but also plenty of humour. Music specially composedby Bergen’s own Julian Berntzen will add extra local colour to this family musical, whichwill be performed in Bergen right up till just before Christmas.www.dns.noThe hit-makers of English band Keane are back onthe road with their latest album, Strangeland. Thetour that started back in March has taken them allover the world, and they are now wrapping it up withsome final shows close to home. The band behindhits such as Somewhere Only We Know, Bedshapedand Crystal Ball are known for being great live, andif you are in one of the cities they are visiting inthe next few weeks, be sure to get a ticket. The tourstops in Ettelbruck (16 November), Brussels (17),Edinburgh (19), Dublin (21), Belfast (22), Nottingham(28), Manchester (29), London (30), Brighton (2December), Margate (3) and finally Bournemouth (4).www.keanemusic.comPhoto Ingun A. Mæhlum/tromsø International Filmfestival20 Norwegian in-flight magazine21