30 brilliant ways to celebrate the August bank holiday in London

Summer in London wouldn't be summer in London without Notting Hill Carnival. Taking place on August bank holiday weekend each year since 1966, it’s grown into Europe’s largest street festival, attracting more than two and half million people annually. With parades, masquerade, floats, dancing, steel bands and soundsystems, as well as the outstanding Caribbean food stalls, Carnival is a feast for the senses. 

All Points East returns to Vicky Park for its seventh edition in 2025. Since debuting in 2018, the festival has garnered a reputation for building some of the most exciting line-ups in the UK. Its headliners are often indie or dance-focused big-hitters, while its undercards are packed with cult heroes and rising stars you can say you saw first. As well as the ticketed weekend events, look out for All Points East In the Neighbourhood, the festival’s free midweek programme of community activities including film screenings, live sports, theatre, family fun and more. 

There are few more striking spots to catch a movie than the iconic surrounds of the Barbican Sculpture Court. As usual, the City of London’s temple of the arts has an inventively curated line-up in store for the final week of August. Cineastes can revel in the cult sci-fi extravaganza that is David Lynch’s 1984 Dune while music lovers have an outdoor screening of Björk’s mesmerising new concert movie Cornucopia. Standard tickets are £18 (£12 for under-25s and £10 for under-18s) and there’s street food to feast on while you sit back, relax and enjoy the show. 

Having outgrown its first home in Hackney Wick, London’s queer nightlife festival Body Movements levelled up last summer, making a dazzling debut in Southwark Park with five stages showcasing the great and good of the LGBTQ+ party scene in the capital and beyond. It was easily the best edition yet of the groundbreaking festival, so we’re thrilled that the great and good of the London queer scene will once again come together in the same location for its 2025 edition, on the Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend.

On the line-up for 2025 are a host of new and returning queer nightlife collectives, from London stalwarts like Adonis, Pxssy Palace and Little Gay Brother to international crews including Berlin’s Power Dance Club and Brooklyn’s Function. The likes of I.Jordan, HAAi and Mura Masa will be DJing, while there’ll also be live sets from US rapper Cakes da Killer, experimental Parisian artist Coucou Chloe and anonymous London pop maverick Lynks.

Early-bird, first and second-release tickets are sold out already, so snap one up if you want to be there this summer!

Fashion icon, model, club promoter, musician; Leigh Bowery was a multi-hyphenate before multi-hyphenate became a thing. But above all else, he was a muse, as the Tate Modern’s extensive new exhibition tracing the Melbourne native’s life and legacy does an excellent job of portraying. 

Starting with his arrival onto London’s New Romantic scene in 1980, we’re whisked through Bowery’s many different eras in loose chronological order, from his early days as a club promoter for the short-lived but influential Taboo, through to his later practice as a performance artist, clothes designer and life model for Lucian Freud. 

There’s a lot going on in this exhibition, and sometimes it’s hard to identify exactly what point, if any, is being made about Bowery’s cultural impact. But maybe that is the point: it’s not quantifiable. It is vast, dynamic; a testament to London’s creative community and a vision of a true artist who was not afraid of pushing the limits.

Seasoned London festival-goers have been singing the praises of this 10,000-capacity Southwark Park festival since it debuted in 2023, thanks to its boutique size, community vibe and collaborative line-ups created with help from some of the city’s best culture venues. So we’re pleased to note that Rally is returning for its third edition in August. Headlining in 2025 are electronic DJ and producer Floating Points and Brit Award-winning rapper CASISDEAD, with south London-born experimental outfit Speaker’s Corner Quartet, DJ Ben UFO, Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep and indie rockers Porridge Radio also on the bill. 

The Bank Holiday weekend is the perfect time to take in some cricket as The Hundred takes over Lord’s and Kia Oval. The 100-ball format is in its fifth year and sees plenty of fast-paced games, entertainment on and off the pitch and has the men’s and women’s matches side-by-side. Over the long weekend, Saturday will see London Spirit take on Southern Brave at Lord’s Cricket Ground, and on Monday, the Oval Invincibles will play London Spirit at The Kia Oval. Plus, there’ll be musical entertainment from BBC Introducing artists BombayMami and Common Goldfish, as well as plenty of street food to keep you going throughout the day. 

Now in its fourth year, South Facing might still be a fledgling festival compared to some of the other events on the calendar, but it continues a long and impressive legacy of live music events at the Crystal Palace Bowl, which has previously hosted the likes of Elton John, Bob Marley, Vera Lynn and Pink Floyd. South Facing brings the same level of thrilling eclecticism with its line-ups for summer 2025. Multi-platinum Dutch dance duo Tinlicker play their biggest London show yet on August 16 while Basement Jaxx will also play two headline shows on August 22 and 23. The series also features takeovers from Flackstock, an intimate day festival celebrating the life of TV presenter Caroline Flack while raising money for mental health charities, and Love Motion festival, whose line-up features Nile Rogers and Chic, Louie Vega and Dimitri From Paris.

Whenever we all have a collective day off, you can always count on Walthamstow beer hall Big Penny Social to mark the occasion with a sud-filled party, and the late August Bank Holiday weekend is no different. This big ’ol 12-hour-long shindig will fill the venue with beats, eats and plenty of fun. Hear DJs in the garden from 7pm, live music from Laville in the beer hall from 9pm and then DJs carrying on the party ’till late. The venue’s very own sandy beach Walthamstow-on-Sea will also be open for deck chair lounging, ice cream eating, and Aperol sipping. 

London’s spectacular free outdoor Greenwich + Docklands International Festival is back for 2025, taking place over three consecutive weekends starting with the August bank holiday.  Celebrating its 30th edition in 2025, the festival will kick off with Above And Beyond, a breathtaking acrobatic feat that will see eight parkour performers from French company Lézards Bleus traversing landmark buildings around Woolwich accompanied by music from the Greenwich-based Citizens of the World Choir. The beloved Greenwich Fair (Aug 23 and 24) then returns after skipping last summer, bringing family friendly games and street performance to the heart of the borough, including all-female Belgian circus company Cie Des Chaussons Rouges’s high wire show Epiphytes in Greenwich Park. As always, everything at GDIF is free to attend, and you don’t even need to book in advance. 

It’s been three years since Secret Cinema had a show on in the capital, but they’ve finally found a new home in Battersea Park, where they’ll be staging Grease: The Immersive Movie Experience this summer. It sounds like the immersive London legends are going for something slightly different, with a two-and-a-half-hour show in which the immortal 1978 film musical will play around you as you move through the show’s environment. Truly it’s hard to get one’s head around it without seeing it, but it basically sounds like the film and the theatre elements will be fully integrated rather than a case of first one, then other. As ever you’re encouraged to dress up as an extra from the film. And if you worry you’re too young to pass as a pupil at Rydell High then don’t worry – that didn’t stop the film’s casting director.

Party alfresco to a soundtrack celebrating 50 years of HipHop and its place in British club culture. DJs will be taking over the Southbank Centre’s Riverside Terrace for a party where each set tracks the development of the genre, taking listeners from its 70s funk and soul foundations through to the explosion of house and then the power of jungle, garage and grime. Guided by a host who threads the story together live on stage, it’s an afternoon of music and memories. 

After a successful first two years, this charming August bank holiday festival is making its return for a third time in 2025, transforming Battersea Park into a serene space to take in some majestic orchestral renditions of your favourite tunes. 

This year’s line-up sees the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra perform two concerts. Symphonic Disco (Saturday August 23) traces the history of disco music, featuring hits from the likes of Abba, Chic, Kool & The Gang, Donna Summer, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Dua Lipa. The following evening sees the Royal Philharmonic’s 60-piece concert orchestra return for A Night at the Movies (Sunday August 24), where they’ll perform soundtracks from some of the most iconic film franchises in history. And the final evening of the three-day festival sees Jools Holland and his famous Rhythm and Blues Orchestra headline a full day of lazy afternoon jazz, accompanied by longstanding vocalists Louise Marshall and Sumudu Jayatilaka.

As usual, spectators are invited to pack a blanket and some picky bits for a Bank Holiday picnic, with gourmet hampers, street food stalls and bars also available on the site too.

Even the most lavish Tudor banquet couldn't compete with the bountiful array of flavours you'll find at Hampton Court Palace's annual food festival, which features more than 150 stalls groaning with culinary delicacies. There are also pop-up bars, kids’ activities, and an array of local musicians taking to the bandstand to soundtrack your culinary adventure. And if you can summon up the energy after your mammoth feast, your ticket also gets you access to Henry VIII's former gaff so you can waddle in his footsteps. 

On Bank Holiday Monday, immerse yourself in a cinematic cocoon of fog, black coffee and red dreams watching every episode of the first series of David Lynch’s cult show Twin Peaks at the ever eclectic Prince Charles Cinema. Starting at 2.15pm, episodes will run back-to-back until 10.30pm, so you can follow the first instalment of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper visit to Twin Peaks, Washington as he investigates the murder of high school student Laura Palmer, and uncovers a web of secrets and supernatural mysteries. Worried about staying awake that long? Don’t worry, there’ll be some damn fine coffee to hand to see you through! 

Fashion icon, model, club promoter, musician; Leigh Bowery was a multi-hyphenate before multi-hyphenate became a thing. But above all else, he was a muse, as the Tate Modern’s extensive new exhibition tracing the Melbourne native’s life and legacy does an excellent job of portraying. This show is vast, dynamic, a testament to London’s creative community in the 80s and a vision of a true artist who was not afraid of pushing the limits.

Kings Cross-based brewery Two Tribes are taking over canalside spot Hackney Bridge for a two-day-long mini-festival to celebrate the Bank Holiday. The indoor-outdoor shindig will have a stacked line-up curated by some of the capital’s finest party starters. On Saturday, London DJ Moxie will join the Voices Radio crew for a live, alfresco community radio show. On Sunday, the Voices gang will be back with a TBC special guest. Got more wind in your sails? Stay out for the closing party DJs SICARIA, Elijah and SP:MC and Firmly Rooted Soundsytem will be spinning tunes in the venue’s new Block C to close the mighty knees-up. Oh, and of course there’ll be plenty of cold pints available all weekend long. 

How do you rebuild your sense of self after a traumatic event? There lies the question at the heart of Eva Victor's charmingly sincere and very funny feature debut – a nuanced, character-driven story that Victor wrote, directed, and takes the star-making lead in. Agnes is an English literature lecturer at a liberal arts college in New England, and she’s stuck in a rut. Still living in the same house as she did while a grad student. It opens in the present day, with her best friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) arriving for a visit after a long separation. But there’s underlying tension in the fact that Lydie’s life so far has more propulsion. It’s a captivating comedy-drama that avoids the reductive binary of hero or villain. Instead, it articulates the flaws of humanity, of people, but also the hope we can find in each other and ourselves.

Nicholas Hytner’s exuberant 2019 take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream was simply too much fun to leave to the history books: what a joy it is to have it back.

It’s a show in the same lineage as the Bridge’s recent Guys and Dolls: designed by Bunnie Christie, half the audience sit in the round, while the other half stand on the floor where the fairy-filled action of Shakespeare’s comedy unfurls on mobile platforms that rise and fall around them.

It is joyously queer: pretty much everyone in it gets a crack at snogging everybody else. And Hytner’s key textual intervention is swapping the bulk of fairy monarchs Oberon and Titania’s lines, meaning that it’s JJ Feild’s Oberon – not Susannah Fielding’s Titania – who has it off with Emmanuel Akwafo’s exuberant Bottom.

There’s enough textual rigour for the Bard-heads, but really it’s a production that just pelts you with cool stuff for three hours and wins your heart that way. If you’re not cooing at the virtuoso staging you’ll be gawping at the circus work or goggling at who is kissing who. And if all else fails, it ends with three giant inflatable moons dropped into the auditorium for us to pummel around. You’d have to be dead not to enjoy it.

Southbank Centre's summer festival Dance Your Way Home is all about the transformative power of dancing, and the way it brings people together - not just on big stages, but in house party kitchens, wedding discos, or raves. So why not make a move there this bank holiday weekend? As well as free installations, you'll find History of Hip Hop (Aug 25), a show/dance party with a host who'll link together sounds from soul to funk to grime.

During the big men’s sports tournaments, you can count on practically every pub in the city to broadcast matches and fill up with fans. When it comes to the upcoming Women’s Rugby World Cup, though, public places fans can gather at to watch matches remain relatively few and far between. But this year, there is at least one place where you’re guaranteed to catch every single game: the brand new Asahi Open Arms. The fan-focused pub, backed by Women’s World Rugby Player of the Year Ellie Kildunne, is taking residency at The Queen’s Head in Shoreditch for the duration of the tournament. Besides the live screenings, it promises to host grassroots events, like Q&As and exclusive launches. A full programme is on its way soon.

Islington theatre The Little Angel is a haven for puppet lovers all year round, but it takes things to the next level with its annual Children’s Puppet Festival. Head along this bank holiday weekend and you'll find a performance of The Elves and the Shoemaker, aimed at kids aged three to eight. Or if you're looking to try your hand at this ancient artform, there's a two day workshop for adults that'll teach you hand and rod puppetry, the style made famous by much-loved tv shows like Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.

The UK's naval history is inextricably entwined with the slave trade, so it's fitting that Greenwich Maritime Museum is hosting a day of events for Slavery Remembrance Day (Aug 23). A line-up of free film screenings, creative workshops, talks and panel discussions will culminate in an emancipation ceremony on the banks of the Thames, in a powerful moment of shared remembrance. 

Edinburgh isn't the only place with a bursting, brilliant fringe, and indeed as the Scottish capital’s iconic annual event becomes ever more expensive, the once scrappy outsider Camden Fringe looks ever more like a serious alternative for the London-based. Returning for its nineteeth edition, it’s smaller than Edinburgh by a long shot, but still boasts hundreds of events all over Camden, taking in everything from the expected stand-up sets and experimental theatre to kids’ shows, dance, and even magic. Runs tend to be for a night or two rather than the entire month, and prices are bargain basement by London standards: many shows are less than a tenner, none are much more than that. Check out their website for all the details on the programme, as there’s far too much to gather here.

You don't really need an excuse to go to Kew Gardens, which is always a gorgeous spot for a day out when temperatures soar. But Marshmallow Laser Feast's new installation is still a bit of an added lure: this six metre tall artwork is inspired by the inner workings of the famous Lucombe oak at Kew, letting you peer under the bark of this historic tree and see how it changes with the seasons. There are even guided meditations you can play through your headphones, so you can take do a bit of forest bathing with a deeply relaxing soundtrack.