This free London art festival is massively expanding this summer – it’ll take over a whole borough

Hackney Art Week is back, and in 2026 it’s going to be even bigger than last year’s event. 

The east London art festival has promised it will ‘expand across the borough’ this summer, with the fair taking place in Hackney from June 4 to 14. The extravaganza will bring together 60 artists and creatives across 50 venues in the borough, taking place across Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington, Haggerston, and Hackney Wick. 

Hackney Art Week was founded in 2025 by local residents Lisa Baker and Anna McHugh. Across 10 days, the borough will be taken over by exhibitions, markets, workshops, performances, immersive installations, street parties and even an art treasure hunt. Venues getting involved include Raleigh Chapel, Chats Palace, The Rose Lipman Building, St Augustine’s Tower, ESEACC at The Old Bath House and more. It will also take over pubs, bakeries, delis and other well-loved Hackney spots. 

Highlights from this year’s programme include the Dalston Cultural Quarter Takeover, on June 6 and 7, where workshops, artist open studios, a ceramics market and a street-level sound system will take over Arcola Street. The Sandwich Walk by Jeanne Gourlaouen will be a surreal installation on Wilton Way where absurd shoe-slash-sandwich sculptures will cause visitors to look twice.

The Collagism™ Art Hunt will see the streets around London Fields transformed into a living collage, becoming a borough-wide art treasure hunt where participants seek clues via hidden QR codes. For live music, composer Gabriel Prokofiev has curated more than 100 different events that will take over clubs, warehouses and everything in between. 

Hackney Art Week takes place in June. Events are free and open to all. Find out more on the Hackney Art Week website. 

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