Gigs in London tonight

Created by the minds behind Brainchild Festival, Colour Factory, Orii Community and Voices Radio, Jazz on Wick is a new festival for 2025. Taking place across multiple venues in Hackney Wick, the day-to-night celebration of jazz and adjacent astral sounds features neo-soul singer BINA, genre-blending quartet oreglo, multi-instrumentalist Allexa Nava and a special edition of the Orii Jam (complete with special guests TBA). 

Organised by the people behind Percolate and Love International festival in Croatia, mid-September’s electronic music one-dayer Waterworks is a final chance to squeeze every last drop of festival fun out of the summer. Returning to west London’s Gunnersbury Park for its fifth edition, the festival’s line-up features DJs playing just about every genre of dance music, including the likes of Two Shell, Yung Singh, Special Request, Palms Trax, Skee Mask, Lukas Wigflex, Octo Octa, Eris Drew, Tash LC, DJ Stingray and Djrum. You’ll struggle to find a festival line-up more packed with world-class selectors than this. 

Another year, another spectacular line-up of classical music. This year, the orchestral extravaganza will feature 86 concerts across eight weeks, with over 3,000 artists taking to the stage, with the majority of the action taking place inside the grand surroundings of London’s Royal Albert Hall.  Sakari Oramo will conduct the First Night of the Proms, with tenor Caspar Singh, baritone Gerald Finley, violinist Lisa Batiashvili – including the world premiere of The Elements by Master of the King’s Music Errollyn Wallen. The Last Night of the Proms will be conducted by Elim Chan and features trumpeter Alison Balsom and soprano Louise Alder, with two world premieres, by Camille Pépin and Rachel Portman.  And there’s plenty more in between. See international orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Look out for major soloists, such as pianists Yunchan Lim and Sir András Schiff, violinists Hilary Hahn and Janine Jansen, and soprano Golda Schultz. Plus, there’ll be plenty of special events, including: Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Chineke! Orchestra for the first time, in their tenth-anniversary year; the first overnight Prom since 1983, featuring pianist and YouTube sensation Hayato Sumino; The Traitors Prom hosted by Claudia Winkleman hosts and exploring themes of treachery and betrayal in classical music; a new CBeebies Prom titled A Magical Bedtime Story; non-classical artists will present their...

The Arcola Theatre's alt-opera festival Grimeborn returns for its eighteenth year in 2025 and it’s as eclectic as ever, from a stripped back reworking of Wagner’s magnum opus Tristan und Isolde (Aug 13-16) to the first ever full staging of John Joubert’s final opera Jane Eyre (Aug 6-9)  and the return of last year’s bit of fun Sense & Senibility, The Musical (Aug 19-23) which is, you know, a bit more musical-y, and also last year’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which is, you know, bleak. See Arcola website for all shows and timings.