August events in London

Yam Carnival, a new festival celebrating Black culture created by the team behind Afronation, was meant to debut in Clapham in 2020, but didn’t go ahead, for reasons we don’t have to explain. But it’s all systems go for August Bank Holiday weekend 2021. Featured in the BIG FONT on the Yam Carnival poster are Davido, Kehlani, Femi Kuti (yes, that’s the eldest son of Fela) and American DJ Honey Dijon. It’ll be a ground-shaking mix of afrobeat, dancehall, hip hop and R&B, and they’ve promised that the food trucks will be worth your attention too. 

When is it? Aug 28. Where is it? Clapham Common. Book your ticket here. 

Wait, there’s more. Here are all the best music festivals taking place in London this summer and beyond.

Miraculously, there are still some tickets going for APE’s August Bank Holiday fest in Victoria Park despite its hefty line-up with Jamie XX, Kano, Little Simz, Jorja Smith and Bombay Bicycle Club. The set-up is a little different this year. All Points East will take place the Friday, Saturday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday, with the Sunday reserved for Field Day, an entirely separate festival in the same park. 

Want more? These are the best music festivals in the UK this year. 

Featuring more than 40 different makers of the spicy stuff, Hot Sauce Society is a two-day celebration of the king of condiments. Taking over Peckham’s Copeland Park, the August weekender will also welcome a number of street-food traders, including barbecue chicken wing slingers Only Jerkin’, Indian-inspired vegan eats from En Root, tacos from Dos Mas and a special guest appearance from Dishoom, which will also be bringing its Dishoom IPA to soothe any overstimulated taste buds.  

When is it? Aug 21-22. Where is it? Copeland Park. Find out more here. 

The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival is returning for a bumper end-of-summer edition with big, bold, mostly free outdoor events. The full line-up has just been announced and it’s pretty damn spectacular. Most audacious is surely ‘Borealis’, Swiss artist Dan Acher’s recreation of the Northern Lights over Greenwich and Woolwich – we’re not exactly sure how he does this but it involves lasers and stuff and sounds amazing: it’ll run from 8.30pm-10pm in the skies above Greenwich August 7 to September 5, and then Woolwich September 9 to 11.

When is it? Aug 27-Sept 11. Where is it? Various events across Greenwich, the City of London, Canary Wharf, Thamesmead and the Royal Docks. 

Find more outdoor theatre in London this summer

There are a hell of a lot of musicals running in London at any given time, from decades-long classics like ‘Les Miserables and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to short run fringe obscurities. But August will see the arrival of some golden-age gems like ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, ‘Anything Goes’ and ‘Carousel’, which all open in the capital within a week of each other. Remember, the oldies are goldies for a reason. 

Not into musicals? Find some great August theatre shows that involve no singing whatsoever. 

A good retrospective exhibit should take you on a sort of ‘This Is Your Life’ journey through an artist’s work, and that’s exactly what you have here, a huge display of more than a hundred pieces, grouped into very different Paula Rego epochs. The Tate Britain exhibition of this renowned British-Portuguese artist is far from her first solo show, but it is the biggest of her 60-year career. 

When is it? Until Oct 24. Where is it? Tate Britain. Book your ticket here. 

Somerset House is dedicating a whole exhibition to skateboarding’s impact on British culture. ‘No Comply’ (which will be free to check out) focuses on the subculture’s huge influence in the UK, featuring photography, film, fashion, design and archive objects, as well as fantastic stories from the skateboarding community.

When is it? Until Sep 19. Where is it? Somerset House. Find out more here. 

Part of the Wellcome Collection’s ‘On Happiness’ season, ‘Tranquility’ is a new show that will explore all things cool, calm and collected. Along with its sister exhibition, ‘Joy’, it’s part of a season of free events that will question how to rebuild happiness during a time of major political and social change. After the year we’ve all had, it feels like a good time to explore the meaning of ‘chill’ itself. 

When is it? ‘Tranquility’, until Jan 2022, and ‘Joy’, until 27 Feb 2022. Where is it? Wellcome Collection. Find out more here.

Twenty life-size replicas of the nation’s favourite paintings (including Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ and John Constable’s ‘The Hay Wain’) are going on display in Trafalgar Square in August as part of the National Gallery’s late-summer outdoor celebration of art, ‘Inside Out’. You might be thinking ‘Hold on, can’t I just go see the originals right there, inside the National Gallery, for free?’ and you’d be right, of course, but we’re sure the NG has its reasons. Alongside the exhibition, there will be free daily outdoor art classes in the square. 

When is it? Aug 3-Sep 2. Where is it? Trafalgar Square. Find out more here.

Want art, but don't care if it's outdoors? Here are the best exhibitions in London right now.

Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp didn’t blur boundaries, she just lived her life like they didn’t exist. The borders between art, design, craft, textiles, architecture and any other creative endeavour the modernist turned her attention to were just semantics to her. This Tate Modern restrospective of Taeuber-Arp’s work is a chance to explore her genuinely-radical art in one go. 

When is it? Until Oct 17. Where is it? Tate Modern. Book your tickets here. 

If you have kids, godchildren, or an exhausted sibling who desperately needs you to entertain their child during the long, long school holidays, we’re here to help. Our writer has gathered 15 brilliant new things to do with kids over the summer break in London. Cool off in a giant fountain at Waltham Forest Town Hall, draw all over the walls at the Tate Turbine Hall without getting in any trouble and take your dinosaur-obsessed child to the Jurrasic Encounter dino experience at Grovelands Park. 

Need more ideas? Here are 101 things to do in London with kids.

The first ‘proper’ Old Vic show back in front of a live audience is the always-magnificent Emma Rice’s interpretation of this classic 1987 indie film about two women who forge a friendship in an obscure, desolate diner on Route 66. Its impressive cast features seasoned London performer Le Gateau Chocolat.

When is it? Until Aug 28. Where is it? The Old Vic. Book your ticket here. 

Despite the inevitable August heat, we still all need to eat. But maybe a sticky leather restaurant banquette seat into which your sweat will pool mercilessly around your clammy arse isn’t quite ‘the vibe’. So instead of staying in with a nowt but a bowl of ice-cubes and a frozen towel for company, we’ve got together a list of the seven coolest restaurants in London – places where you can eat, drink and be breezy.

Want more? Here’s where to go when London is just too damn hot.

Underbelly’s upside-down cow tent has moved to Earl’s Court for a summer of circus, cabaret and comedy. One of the main acts this year is 360 All Stars, a high-octane show with acrobats, break-dancers, beatboxers, a basketball freestyler and a BMX rider. Not your bag? Go and see an improvised Jane Austen novel with ‘Austentatious’ or experience an ultra-extravagant drag night at ‘TuckShop Live: Kings vs Queens’. 

When is it? Until Sep 26. Where is it? Empress Place, Earl’s Court. Find out more here. 

German artist Bernie Dieter is part of the vanguard of the London cabaret scene. She’s come a long way from the 2010s, when she could be found delivering debauched ballads in quiet East End bars. Now the ‘Queen of Weimar Punk’ has got her very own touring show, ‘Bernie Dieter’s Berlin Underground’, featuring a ‘cast of misfits’ performing in a sexy underground comedy circus. If you’ve never been to a cabaret club night before, you’re in safe hands with Bernie (unless you’re in the front row when she starts talking to the crowd – then you’re fucked).

When is it? Until Aug 29. Where is it? Underbelly, Cavendish Square. Book your tickets here. 

Amber list this, green list that… going on holiday is possible right now, but it’s mainly just a massive faff. So instead of crossing your fingers and booking a flight that might not happen, why not have a holiday experience a little closer to home with these five London restaurants that give you all of the holiday vibes, with none of the holiday bother? 

Want more? Follow our ultimate guide to London’s best restaurants.

Lolita Chakrabarti’s ‘Hymn’ was originally supposed to run at the Almeida at the start of 2021 – and it did, just to an online-only audience after the third lockdown scuppered the original plans. Now, hopefully, a live audience will get to see Adrian Lester’s Benny and Danny Sapani’s Gil, in a drama about male platonic friendship that follows two unhappy strangers who meet at a funeral and go on to form a troubled bond. Blanche McIntyre directs, her second show for the Almeida after the incendiary ‘The Writer’. 

When is it? Jul 26-Aug 13. Where is it? Almeida Theatre. Book your tickets here. 

Bernardo Bellotto’s five views of a hillside city south of Dresden are brought together here for a monumental, panoramic, dramatically visual experience. This was the Italian landscape painter at the absolute peak of his powers, and each work is a bold, eye-tingling, ambitious statement of his talent. 

When is it? Until Oct 31. Where is it? The National Gallery. Find out more here. 

There’s no night tube right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have after-hours fun in London. To help you avoid the hapless post-midnight plod around town looking for more liquor, consult our list of late-night bars and pubs in London that rounds up all the capital’s drinking spots that stay open into the wee small hours, arranged by closing time. There’s even a couple that never close at all. Cocktail hour can be any hour in London.

RECOMMENDED: The 50 best cocktail bars in London.

It may be known for its sleepy scent and soothing properties, but there’s nothing dozy about the explosion of colour – an astonishing crop of mauves and indigos – happening right now in London’s lavender fields.  Lavender season peaks in August. For those wanting to lay their eyes and nose on this year’s epic bloom, here’s a list of the best spots. 

The Proms are finally be returning to the Royal Albert Hall with a live audience. There are 52 concerts planned over 44 days with the usual offerings of Mahler, Beethoven and Mozart, but there are some stand outs too, like this jazz concert from British saxophonist Nubya Garcia. There are also four ‘mystery’ proms, which will be revealed at a later date. The pricing remains accessible (there are seated tickets from £7.50 and Promming day tickets at £6), but the main difference this year is that all attenting will need to show proof of their Covid status. Can’t make it? You can catch every prom on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds. 

When is it? Jul 30-Sep 11. Where is it? The Royal Albert Hall. Find out more here.  

Londoners love a rooftop bar. They’re the best places to escape the claustrophobic heat of the city and they provide a brilliant skyline backdrop for drinking – especially at sundown. And now, we love them even more. Outdoor spaces have been deemed the safest for socialising. Here are the sky-high bars taking bookings this summer.