Local London Summer events

There are fantastic free and low costs events all over London this summer to enjoy. 

BLACK VENUS - until 24 September 2023

Curated by Aindrea Emelife, celebrates and explores the many faces of Black femininity, with over 40 contemporary and primarily photographic artworks. The exhibition’s contemporary works offer a radical affront to a centuries-long dynamic of objectification, showcasing all that Black womanhood can be and has always been.

This exhibition is Pay What You Can. 

Roman London Family Quest – 25 and 26 August 2023

Go back in time to Roman Londinium on this fun, interactive family day. London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE and London’s Roman Amphitheatre are hosting a Roman London Family Quest linking these two Roman City sites. Follow a fun bespoke map highlighting Roman points of interest as you walk between them. Each site will also have family activities and quests for visitors to complete on the day.

Celebrate the birth of hip hop in Camden - 26 August 2023

Come along to Inverness Street Bloc Party to pay homage to hip-hop across the decades. They’ll be DJ’s, live performances and street art.

Planet Summer - until 21 September 2023

The Southbank Centre hosts a summer of climate care, hope and activism takes its inspiration from our pioneering Hayward Gallery exhibition, Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis, a group show inspired by artist Otobong Nkanga’s suggestion that ‘caring is a form of resistance’. 

Planet Summer also delivers a season of artistic and communal responses. Events include REPLAY: A Limitless Recycled Playground, Bird Rave’s ‘dance floor ornithology’, The SpongeBob Musical and the return of Jeppe Hein’s ever-popular Appearing Rooms fountain.

Explore legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and its abolition – 23 August

Join the National Maritime Museum for their annual commemoration of International Slavery Remembrance Day. This year there will be choir performances, storytelling, expert talks and procession to the River Thames, where petals will be scattered in commemoration of the lives affected by transatlantic slavery.

Fashion City - 13 October to 14 April 2024

The Museum of London Docklands will open Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners shaped global style, putting the museum’s extensive Fashion & Textile Collection front and centre for the first time in two decades. The exhibition represents all levels of the fashion industry at key moments throughout the twentieth century,  allowing visitors to step into the world of a 1960s Carnaby Street shopping boutique and a traditional tailoring workshop from the East End.

Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender – until 10 September

The first major exhibition of fashion designer Ashish Gupta showcasing over 60 designs created by his eponymous London-based fashion label over the past 20 years. Synonymous with glamour, maximalist design and painstaking craftsmanship, Ashish’s designs have been worn by global icons including Beyonce, Debbie Harry, Hunter Schafer, Rihanna, Charli XCX and Taylor Swift.

WAVE: Currents in Japanese Graphic Arts until 22 October

Explore the vibrant diversity of Japanese graphic arts in this bold exhibition which bridges the worlds of fine art, commercial illustration and counterculture.

The work of a selection of 60 Japanese artists is presented, with late 20th-century innovators Tanaami Keiichi and Yumura Teruhiko featured alongside a number of emerging artists being exhibited for the first time in the UK.

Kensington and Chelsea Festival until 31 August 

Experience a host of activities across the borough including indoor performances, art installations and free outdoor pop up family shows.