Various locations around London

This programme of heritage events explores Caribbean traditions and the stories of carnival, six days after the first street party was held. Its six-month-long line-up of talks, walks and workshops has lots of events in the run-up to the big Bank Holiday weekend. These include 'Notting Hill Carnival: Past, Present, Future', a panel discussion with Leslie Palmer MBE (Aug 26), a pre-carnival walk through the historic streets of Notting Hill (Aug 27;Aug 29) and an evening boat party the night before the big Sunday parade (Aug 29).  Festival 60 continues until the end of October, with more guided walks and discussions, including a closing conversation with carnival costume designer Dexter Khan. 

This chi chi festival is a relatively new addition to London's cultural scene, but it's got an impressively high-profile line-up of names involved. After last year's inaugural edition, it's back with four days of events from the worlds of art, performance, music and literature. Things kick off with a conversation between Bella Freud and Susie Cave (Sep 16), talking about Nick Cave's new literary tribute to his wife. There's also an evening with Bernardine Evaristo and friends (Sep 17), a celebby reading of A Poem For Every Night of The Year with guests including Asa Butterfield, Tamsin Greig, Giles Terera MBE and Samantha Spiro (Sep 18), and an edition of Diaries of Note with Celia Imrie (Sep 19). There are also a series of big name comedy nights including shows by George Lewis and Sarah Keyworth, a Saturday morning show by dance company Rambert, and even a special line-up of arty in store events from local icon Peter Jones. 

London Month Of The Dead’s annual programme returns this spooky season to get you in the mood for Halloween with a programme of more than 60 fascinatingly macabre events investigating our city’s relationship with death. The line-up offers a plethora of ghostly tours that will take you around crypts, cemeteries, undertakers, execution sites and other eerie locations across the city, alongside talks exploring everything from Victorian child bereavement to anthropodermic leather. Highlights of this year’s programme also include a bat skeleton mounting workshop, a magic shadow show in West Norwood Cemetery, a five hour immersive forensics workshop, a screening of eerie classic The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari with live piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne, and creepy Halloween festival A Danse Macabre. It doesn’t get more gothic than that! Check out the full programme here.