The London events we’re looking forward to in 2022

June marks the seventieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne, and London will play host to several major events to mark the occasion in early June over the extended four-day bank holiday. Thursday June 2 will see the first Trooping the Colour since before the pandemic, involving more than 1,400 parading soldiers, 400 musicians and 200 horses. There’ll also be a commemorative service at St Paul’s on Friday June 3, followed by a special BBC concert broadcast live from the gardens of Buckingham Palace on the evening of Saturday June 4. It all culminates with a massive Jubilee Parade around the palace on Sunday June 5, involving street art, theatre, music, circus and carnival performances from more than 5,000 UK and Commonwealth citizens. London won’t know what’s hit it.

Pride 2022 is set to be massive, not only because it’s the first one since 2019 thanks to the ’rona, but also because it will be the fiftieth anniversary of the first Pride in the UK. Expect the usual parade from Oxford Street to Whitehall, a festival-like atmosphere around the stage at Trafalgar Square, plus smaller outposts around central London and a huge variety of fringe activities and nightlife events across the entire city. And since its a big birthday, there’ll likely be plenty more commemorative events over the summer. Watch this space!

ASMR has taken the internet by storm in recent years, with millions of users being newly introduced to the concept of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response: a physical sensation of tingling, euphoria or calmness brought about by sound, touch and movement. Produced in collaboration with ArkDes, the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design, and opening in May, this world-first exhibition outlines how people are creating sensory responses using new and existing tools and materials, and explores the emerging field of creativity that has sprung up around the internet phenomenon. Be prepared to feel all tingly, too, as the exhibition lifts the world of ASMR out from the screen and into an ‘acoustically tuned physical environment’. We’re not exactly sure what that means but it sounds cool as hell.

Europe’s biggest street festival couldn’t go ahead last year, and after months of speculation it ended up going online for 2021 too. So we’re thrilled that soundsystems are finally set to reappear on the streets of west London over the 2022 August bank holiday when the raucous Caribbean festival returns IRL for its fifty-sixth year. After so long out, you can expect it to be a belter, with more feathers, steel bands, Red Stripe, jerk chicken and dancing than ever before!

England will be hosting next summer’s women’s Euros, and just like the men’s competition this year, there’ll be several matches taking place in London, including group stage games at the Brentford Community Stadium and the final at Wembley. Which is especially exciting considering how well England have been playing since their new manager Sarina Wiegman took over in September. As well as a couple of 10-0 victories, they recently set a new national record by thumping Latvia 20-0 in qualifying. At this rate, there’s a fairly decent chance they could go one better than Southgate’s lads.