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Photograph: Time Out
Photograph: Time Out

August events in London

Prepare yourself for a spectacular month with our selection of the best events, exhibitions and things to do in London during August 2023

Liv Kelly
Written by
Alexandra Sims
Written by
Liv Kelly
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August in London is here and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about it. But, the main one? Notting Hill Carnival is back again, taking over the streets of west London for the bank holiday weekend

When you’re not having a riotous time dancing to tinnitus-inducing dance hall with a pocket full of Red Stripe, there are plenty of other ways to get your fill of live music this month. All Points East, Field Day and Eastern Electrics will all be pitching their tents and blasting music across various parks in London. UK Black Pride is also back this year with an exhibition exploring misinformation surrounding the Black trans community in association with Christies. 

Fill your peepers up with even more culture as big fixtures on the summer arts and theatre scene like Greenwich + Docklands International Festival come back for another year of experimental fun. Or, Jamie Lloyd’s return to the National Theatre for the first time in over a decade for Lucy Prebble’s ultra cerebral romcom ‘The Effect’. 

Before September hits, let’s hope there’s enough sun for a London lido swim, lazy days in the city’s parks, beer-garden pints, outdoor-cinema sessions and all the other alfresco pleasures that summer in London has to offer. 

August is a month for long holidays, a time for winding down, lying around and discovering that mint Cornettos are just as delicious as you remember. But it’s also a time for making memories, so make the most of your days off with the help of this Big List of things to do in August in London 2023.

Plan your whole year with our BIG London events calendar.

Our August 2023 highlights

  • Music

For a lot of Londoners, Notting Hill Carnival on the August Bank Holiday Weekend flashes by in a blaze of feathers, Red Stripe and tinnitus. To those who make it happen, it’s a year-round operation to create one of the biggest and oldest street parties in the world. This Carnival weekend, it's expected that more than two million people will flock to west London to dance in the streets of W11. It’s free to join family day on the Sunday and the Monday which is for the hard partiers. It’s a celebration of freedom and Caribbean culture, with an iconic parade showcasing the best of mas, soca, calypso, steel bands and soundsystems. What are you waiting for? 

  • Art
  • Art

As sure as the sun will rise and winter will turn into spring, Hyde Park will play host to a new Serpentine Pavilion every year, and 2023’s was designed by French-Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh and is inspired by the Mediterranean urge to sit around a dining table and put the world to rights with the name À table’. It’s a big, broad, light, open structure that’s intended to look at ‘food as an expression of care’ and be a ‘space for grounding and reflection on our relationship to land, nature and environment’. It also has a Benugos. 

 

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  • Things to do
  • Walks and tours

Nothing says summer quite like the towering stalks and glowing yellow petals of the noble sunflower. Get neck-deep in heliotropic heaven at these golden fields full of custard-yellow blooms, which are at their peak from August to September.

  • Bars and pubs

Beer gardens are one of the best things about London. There’s no finer way to spend a sunny (or even not-so-sunny) afternoon in the capital, than supping on a couple of cold boys under the city’s azure-ish sky. If you’re looking to sink some pints in the breezy great outdoors, we’ve got you covered with our tried-and-tested list of the city’s best beer gardens.

 

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