London events in February
Our guide to the best events, festivals, workshops, exhibitions and things to do throughout February 2021 in London
February 2021 in London is going to be great. We've said goodbye to January and now London is beginning to brighten up. Use the - slightly - longer days to enjoy the month's brilliant batch of events and celebrations. Get loved-up or celebrate being single on Valentine’s Day in London or join in the heaps of brilliant events, fun pop-ups and exciting new exhibitions happening. Here are our February 2021 highlights. February in London is also the month of Kew Garden's Orchid Festival, London Fashion Week Festival, the London Classic Car Show and Brew LDN.
Hey, and while you’ve got your diary out, remember that it's never too early to start planning for March either.
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Pancake Day in London
Have your frying pans at the ready because Pancake Day is just around the corner. In 2020 Shrove Tuesday falls on Tuesday February 25 and London's best restaurants will be going flipping mad for it.
Vault Festival: a survival guide
Vault is massive. That’s the first thing to know. The Waterloo-based arts festival stages theatre, comedy, cabaret, dance, drag, spoken word, site-specific stuff, lates… and more, way more.
‘Leopoldstadt’
Legendary playwright Tom Stoppard’s alleged final play about the devastating rise and fall of Vienna’s Jewish community in the twentieth century. To see a vast cast and an enormous amount of history crammed into its two-and-a-half hours. It’s a powerful and sincere tribute to a vanished people.
‘Steve McQueen’
A heavy-hitting art exhibition from Turner Prize- and Oscar-winning Steve McQueen. Go for a painful, moving and totally amazing show about racism, violence, greed, oppression, manipulation and sadness. It’s truly eye-opening stuff.
‘Picasso and Paper’
Works on paper by the world’s most famous painter. Picasso could make art out of mashed potato and it would be brilliant.
Pretty Woman: The Musical
Every hit romcom is destined to become a musical, and while the whole it’s-about-a-prostitute-who-falls-for-her-client, er, thing possibly stopped 1990 enormo-smash ‘Pretty Woman’ being adapted earlier, the inevitable has now happened.
Forgotten Masters: ‘Indian Painting for the East India Company’
See stunning nineteenth-century paintings of the subcontinent. These names have been forgotten, but it’s time to start remembering now.
‘Les Misérables’
‘Les Mis’ is back after a light refurb. It’s the same madly OTT masterpiece.
British Baroque: ‘Power and Illusion’
A collection of saucy courtly paintings from the seventeenth century British Baroque period, featuring fat men in wigs, women with translucently white skin and pompous portraits of Charles II. Go for the drama, intrigue and sex. It’s like the best Netflix series ever, but on canvas. Well, if it ain't baroque...
‘Mary Poppins’
Brolly-clutching supernanny Mary Poppins is floating back into the West End. The refreshed cast is led by Zizi Strallen ('Strictly Ballroom') and Charlie Stemp ('Half a Sixpence').
‘The Four Ages of Woman’
Art by women about women. And so much more. It’s topical, political, emotional – and well worth the length of the train journey to get there.
‘Cars: Accelerating the Modern World’
A supercharged journey through the history (and future) of automobiles. Go see all types of special cars. From the Latino low-riders of LA to Hitler’s pet project, an olive VW Beetle. It’s going to be a great ride.
Find great things to do all year round
101 things to do in London
London is a treasure trove of brilliant days out