Hello, followers of fine cultural diversions and advance tickets thereof. Plenty of wonderful stuff on this week in our fair city as we march triumphantly onward into October. This is all unmissable, people! You will die if you miss these events! You absolutely need to get some advance tickets from SmartTicket, Shanghai's most balls-out terrific ticketing platform! Jazz? Oh heck yes! Tennis? Of course! Disco? You better believe it! Click on the jump for details.

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Ongoing

The premiere tennis event of Cbina, the annual Shanghai Masters is a pro knockout tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It's part of the ATP World Tour Masters and sees the world's greatest tennis stars battling for prize money in excess of four million US D's Distinguished star lineups, who have great influence on the city's young people. Maybe they'll be partying on The Bund after. Matches started yesterday and tickets start at just 160rmb. Tickets here. Cirque Du Soleil is in town with their Kooza show. Since its debut in 2007, it has toured in 18 countries, mixing acrobatic performance with the art of clowning. Clowns. So hot right now. As always, Cirque Du Soleil grounds the performance in a narrative -- this one’s about exploring fear, identity, and power. But more importantly, there will also be body-bending-gravity-defying performances, pretty costumes, and state-of-the-art set design. Tickets range from 28rmb to 1,980rmb and the show will run through the month of October. They will set up a tent as a temporary venue for the first run of performances. You can find the address here. Tickets here. *

October 14 and October 15

What can you say about the JZ Festival? It's a Shanghai institution. Although it's arguably become way, way too sponsored in recent years -- Hello, Lays Chips stage -- with its solid programming, it's the large-scale music event of the year in Shanghai. Even if you're not that into jazz, it's a solid afternoon out in the park. From rock, jazz, folk, blues, and electronica, its always an eclectic mix of artists from around the world, many of whom can boast 30, 40, 50+ year careers. Kool and the Gang is playing this year. Need we say more. Get down on it. Tickets here. *

October 14

W Shanghai - The Bund welcomes Horse Meat Disco into their poolside Wet Bar for the day. The UK’s finest disco operators, for a disco-tinged afternoon. Horse Meat Disco began in a basement in London’s Chinatown where co-founders James Hillard and Jim Stanton created a safe queer space for the disenfranchised disco citizens of London. Now reaching its fifteenth year, their parties evoke the halcyon days of New York nightlife and the collective’s events have been billed as “the queer party for everyone”. Musically, it’s a glittering disco behemoth of classics, italo disco, house, oddities, Afro,and punk funk, all combining to achieve Horse Meat Disco’s mission of dedicating itself to “the industry of human happiness”. James Hillard was in town a few years back and rocked the party. Disco fans, this is on not to be missed. 150rmb at the door, available on SmartTicket. 180rmb at the door. Party runs poolside 3pm to 8pm. Wear something sinful. Tickets here. Fans of Daft Punk-ish retrogazing, fluttering synths, this one's for you. French synthpop artist Anoraak returns to China behind his new album Black Gold Sun. Expect smart retro rhythms and warm synth tones that draw on synthwave and disco genres. Drive soundtrack-core. Gonna feel this one all around. Retro wave for the future from this revered French artist, back for a second, more involved show in Shanghai. Tickets here. Ladies and gentlemen, The Pearl invited a city icon back to the stage. The “Old Shanghai” jazz band is back performing modern pop classics as jazz swing standards at this 1920s swing dancing party. They’ll be adapting the hits from Nirvana, Daft Punk, Katy Perry, Pharrell Williams, and Fergie for a bygone era at this unique dance party at Shanghai’s favorite theater. Here they are now, entertainers... who know it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. 9pm till late. Tickets here. Konstantin Lifschitz is an accomplished Russian pianist and a dedicated chamber musician, with over 30 studio albums to his name. Lifschitz has performed with artists like Gidon Kremer, Misha Maisky, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Lynn Harrell -- your favorites -- as well as world-renowned orchestras like the Moscow Virtuosi, the Lux Aeterna Orchestra and the Gabrieli Choir. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and has been sharing his skills as a professor at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2008. In recent years, Konstantin Lifschitz’s new recording of the Goldberg Variations has received international acclaim. Tickets here. ***