London events in June

Her unibrowed face has been plastered over everything from tattoos to fridge magnets. Now, London's getting a rare chance to get to know the towering artistic talent behind the kitschy merch, with the first major Frida Kahlo exhibition in eight years. The Tate Modern's massive summer exhibition will feature over 130 of her works alongside documents, photographs and memorabilia taken from Kahlo’s archives. It'll explore how she created the images that captured so many people's imaginations, as well as looking at the fans that spread her image all over the world.

Taking place in the middle of the iconic London institution’s 75th birthday celebrations, we expect this summer’s edition of the Southbank Centre’s summer festival, Meltdown, to elicit one of the most exciteable reactions to date, seeing as it’s being masterminded by none other than former One Direction member, multiple BRIT and Grammy Award-winner and all-round pop superstar Harry Styles.

A World Cup summer is right around the corner, and we’re gearing up for loads more thrills, spills, beer-soaked highs and crushing disappointments. This year, 16 stadiums across Canada, Mexico and the United States will host this epic tournament, which plays out from Thursday June 11 - Sunday July 19 2026.

The Three Lions and the Lionesses have made it all the way to the final in the last four consecutive international tournaments, and with elite coach Thomas Tuchel now managing the boys, England fans will be praying it’s finally time to end their 58 years of hurt. Scotland, meanwhile, while be aiming to make it out of the group stages in their first World Cup in 28 years. 

Practically every pub and bar in London will be getting in on the action and vying for your attendance during the World Cup’s biggest games. So we’ve whittled it down to the places that offer the best atmosphere and the best view of the screen, wherever you station yourself...

As the sun goes down this summer, explore after hours at London Zoo for an unmissable evening, that's just for adults. From 6 pm every Friday evening in June and July, guests are invited to come and see the Zoo in a different light, without the kids around.

Explore a world of wildlife in the heart of the city with talks, games and over 8,500 amazing animals. After you’ve worked up an appetite, discover the street food market serving up fantastic flavours from across the globe, with plenty of choice for herbivores and carnivores. Then grab a drink from one of the watering holes or the cocktail garden and chill out surrounded by relaxing music.

Get tickets, through Time Out Offers

Marilyn Monroe would have been 100 this year. So National Portrait Gallery is throwing an arty party in her honour, gathering together hundreds of images of the Hollywood legend. This exhibition will showcase works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists and photographers, including Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, Marlene Dumas, Milton Greene and Eve Arnold. And you'll also get to peek at scripts, books, and even clothes owned by the legend herself.

A stated part of Indhu Rubasingham’s plan as the new artistic director of the National Theatre is to shake up the smaller Dorfman a little, and here’s the first fruit of that policy, as Matthew Warchus directs Stephen Beresford’s adaptation of their own acclaimed 2014 film. Based on a true story and real characters, Pride tells the story of the solidarity the British LGBT community offered the striking miners in the ’80s, with the story revolving around yoiung gay activist Mark Ashton, who brokered the unlikely alliance. The film is a modern queer classic and it’s exciting that this musical comes from the team who made it, including Warchus, a very seasoned director of musicals. A fine ensemble cast includes Samuel Barnett and Chris Jenkins. 

BST will be back again next summer, bringing some of the world’s biggest pop stars to Hyde Park for its 13th edition. Already announced as headliners for 2026 are Lewis Capaldi, Pitbull and Garth Brooks, with more to be confirmed. Taking place across weekends in June and July, Hyde Park will host an upmarket festival vibe complete with food, drink and a posh VIP area.

And there are also a number of free community events taking place throughout the weeks as part of the BST Open House series. These usually include things like Wimbledon screenings, an outdoor cinema, outdoor theatre shows, DJ sets and gigs.

The Open Air Theatre started out life as a Shakespeare only venue. These days you're more likely to find musicals on its tree-framed stage, but all that's changing with a summery staging of the Bard’s ultimate crowd-pleaser, as directed by Atri Banerjee. We’ve no massive steer for how this one will play out, but it’s described as ‘blissful’, indicating it’s probably not going to do anything too outre, and it’ll have an original folk-infused score from Maimuna Memon.

Tucked inside the five-star Andaz London Liverpool Street by Hyatt, the Oak Room is one of London’s most intimate and atmospheric hidden spaces. Between May and October, award-winning magician Tony Middleton ‘Sonic’ invites audiences to a series of exclusive drawing room performances, exploring sleight of hand, mind-reading and feats that seem impossible.

With 12 years of The Magic Hour under his belt, Middleton is a master of close-up and parlour magic — and this new show promises something darker, more secretive and utterly spellbinding. It’s a rare chance to experience magic up close in one of the city’s most elusive and atmospheric venues. 

Get 30% off tickets, only through Time Out Offers

A few years back, wildly popular French playwright Florian Zeller (‘The Father’, ‘The Mother’) had his plays plastered all over the West End. If you missed his work the first time round, here's your chance to find out what all the fuss was about. This zippy, witty farce explores the ever-shifting layers of infidelity as experienced by two middle-aged Parisian couples, with lots of laughs with painful truths behind them.

From swanky skyscrapers to casual warehouse hangouts and hidden pub terraces, London has a real crush on a rooftop bar. Here's our pick of the best places to enjoy a natural high along with your bevvies, from Soho to Peckham to Shoreditch. 

In our age of mind-boggling CGI and AI-optimised everything, it’s easy to forget how much pleasure can be had from the simple optical tricks of mirrors and lights. But not for Julio Le Parc. A key figure of the Kinetic and Op Art movements of the 1960s, the pioneering Argentinian artist has been making illuminated, kinetic and participatory works for seven decades, and is still making art at the ripe old age of 97. This major retrospective celebrates his visionary seven-decade career, spanning from from his arrival in Paris in the late 1950s to his resurgence in the 2010s, with over 60 colourful, immersive (and extremely Instagrammable) works.

In a grimly timely stage adaptation of a major Iranian work, Nadia Latif directs Carmen Nasr’s adaoptation of Babak Anvari’s Bafta-winning horror film. Under the Shadow is set in ’80s Tehran, at the height of the Iran-Iraq War, and follows a mother and her daughter who are haunted by a mysterious entity after they refuse to evacuate the city, with Leila Farzad starring in the lead role of mother Shideh. Stage horror has been having a terrific run of late; this is a powerful and unsettling cult classic that deserves more attention.

This glossy Frank Sinatra bio-musical may have had its original try-out run in Birmingham last year, but Sinatra the Musical follows the increasingly common path of a big new American show working its kinks through in the more forgiving UK before chancing Broadway.

A much bigger deal than those Ratpack concert musical things that have done the rounds before, it’s a big glossy affair. Directed and choregraphed by Broadway big name Kathleen Marshall, and with a book by Broadway big name Joe DiPietro, this is a production stacked with talent, and sounds like it’s going to tell a 'proper’ story, honing in on a piviotal concert on New Year’s Eve 1942 as a 27-year-old Frank tries to turn around a career – and personal life – that seems to be on the rocks. Brit actor Joel Harper-Jackson will play Frank.

Alexandra Palace will erupt in mayhem in June as dozens of DIY taboggans dart down the hill for the downright absurd Red Bull Soapbox Race. The annual race challenges adrenaline junkies to create the whackiest vehicle they can, then ride it down the track powered only by gravity. Along the way, they’ll encounter obstacles like The Water Roller, The Wedge, The Bone Rattler and The Kicker – it’s very rare that cars make it to the bottom of the course unscathed. Best stick to watching safely from the sidelines!

If you thought Jamie Lloyd’s hipster, prosthetics-free production of Edmund Rostand’s classic play had killed off the classic big-nosed take on Cyrano de Bergerac, you’d be very wrong. Nonetheless, to suggest this RSC production from director Simon Evans just an old school trad take would be off the mark. Co-adapted with writer and poet Debris Stevenson, it won glowing reviews in Stratford-upon-Avon for its bitter intensity and moreover for superb lead performances from Adrian Lester as the dazzlingly witty but physically ugly soldier Cyrano, and the wonderful Susannah Fielding as his love Roxane, unaware that the poetic letters purportedly sent to her by her hunky suitor Christian are in fact written by Cyrano.

Understand the history of HIV and the major global health challenge it still poses in the world today through stories of protest and care, photography, film and archival material in this new Wellcome Collection display. Across two rooms, Tenderness & Rage will explore the UK’s 1980-90s AIDS epidemic, contemporary experiences of HIV in the Global South and reveal how activist groups and volunteer-led organisations have supported and campaigned for those living with HIV. It will also spotlight the much-overlooked experience of women living with HIV in the UK and globally.

This literary festival focuses on one of our era’s most exciting genres: crime. Now firmly part of London’s literary calendar, each year it hosts a top-notch line-up of crime and thriller authors in a rich programme of talks, panels and interviews. Over 100 authors and experts will feature over the three-day programme of panels, Q&As, book launches and industry networking events, culminating in the Fingerprint Awards, an annual reader-voted awards ceremony celebrating the very best new writing in the genre. Details of the 2026 line-up are yet to be announced, but we’ll be conducting a thorough investigation in due course.

West End Live is the two day outdoor festival that turns some of the most expensive forms of entertainment in London into the cheapest fun going. Each year, casts of some of London's best West End musicals emerge blinking into the open-air for a weekend of free alfresco performances in Trafalgar Square, accompanied by fun photo ops, merch stalls, and bags of showbiz atmosphere. Expect pretty much every musical in London to be represented in the two-day event, with members of the casts performing a song or two from their show in the allocated timeslots.

Munch your way through dishes from the great and the good of the capital’s restaurant scene at this sprawling culinary festival in the picturesque surroundings of central London’s Regent’s Park. New Syrian brunch joint Aram, hyped Dalston gastropub The Prince Arthur and masters of Pan-Pacific cuisine Los Mochis are among the restaurants peddling plates and appearing at the event for the first time this year. If you’re not in a food coma by the end, there’ll also be kitchen masterclasses, chef talks and tastings to get involved with. Our advice? Have some Rennies on hand. 

‘Sadie Sink and Noah Jupe have stunning chemistry in Robert Icke’s sure to be divisive take on Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy,’ is what Time Out’s theatre critic Andrjez Lukowski said of the West End’s latest take on the star cross’d lovers. If you want to see the widely acclaimed rendition for yourself, you have until mid-June. 

South London’s beloved anthropological museum is going big with the birthday celebrations this year. To mark its 125th anniversary, the Horniman is hosting a series of fun-packed, family-friendly events completely free of charge this June. 

Visitors can flock between three stages hosting local and young musicians, DJs and musical storytelling for youngsters, take part in craft workshops, and sample street food from an array of vendors, as well as checking out the new ‘Animals Everywhere’ AR trail, which allows you to interact with a series of 3D-animated creatures around the museum, including the Horniman’s most iconic resident, the overstuffed walrus. 

Tickets are free but are being snapped up fast – grab yours  here before they’re gone!

Ever watched Finding Nemo or Inside Out and wondered what it would be like to exist inside those marvelous worlds created by Pixar animation studio? Well, wonder no more – the Mundo Pixar Experience is a travelling immersive show that has been transporting Pixar fans to some of its most beloved universes. And this year, it‘s coming to London. The show essentially a journey through a series of 14 rooms, one dedicated to a different Pixar film. You shrink down to toy size in Andy’s Room from Toy Story, explore the Monster, Inc Scare Floor, race into Flo’s Café from Cars to meet Lightning McQueen, visit the Headquarters of Riley’s emotions from Inside Out 2, and journey from Coco’s Land of the Living to the Land of the Dead. To make the experience all the more ‘immersive’ there will be ‘specially crafted scents’ filling each space. 

Hollywood star Sandra Oh is a very good get indeed for the National Theatre, as she takes on the title role in NT boss Indhu Rubasingham’s revival of Moliére’s The Misanthrope. The adaptation is by the veteran playwright Martin Crimp, in a latest iteration of a version that first debuted in 1996. Previously the title character was Alceste, a male playwright who alienates himself from wider society after he starts to tell the truth about how corrupt and venal it all is – Damian Lewis took it on in the 2009 revival, opposite Kiera Knightley as rising starlet Jennifer. All we really know about Crimp’s latest update is that Oh will here play a novelist named Alice, with Paul Chahidi and Abigail Cruttenden co-starring opposite the Killing Eve star.

Bethnal Green community centre St Margaret's House is once again hosting a free one day festival in honour of both Refugee Week and Pride Month. This Sunday afternoon fest will offer well-being sessions, workshops, activities, talks, screenings and performances from and for queer migrants, as well as stalls from LGBTQI+ activists and services. 

The Southbank’s graffitied skate mecca is about as iconic as skate parks get. This spring, the Southbank Centre is celebrating 50 years of the concrete space beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall that was first adopted by skaters in 1976. To tell the story of the legendary park, the Southbank centre has collaborated with the skate community to identify key events, figures and moments that have shaped the space, bringing all the stories together in one mega exhibition. Skate 50 comprises of photographs, films, sound art and animations, featuring contributions from Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee, Lev Tanju, Jack Brooks, the Keep Rolling Project, Beatrice Dillon and Sofia Negri. 

If the West End version of Les Misérables somehow isn’t bombastic enough for you then you should probably see a doctor to find out if you’re actually alive. But before that maybe check out this amped up arena touring version, which features an all-star show veteran cast headed up Alfie Boe, Killian Donnelly and Gerónimo Rauch (splittling the role of Jean Valjean across the nights) and with Samantha Barks as Fantine and Matt Lucas as Thénardier. 

There are few better ways to make the most of a sunny (or even just slightly warm) afternoon in London than by spending it in a beer garden. Drinking cold pints (or spritzes, or white wine with a couple of ice cubes) with your mates feels good anywhere, but there’s something seriously special about pints under London’s skies. Our top picks include the gardens at the Fultering Fullback, the Duke of Edinburgh, the White Swan and the Bank of Friendships. 

Steven Spielberg has created some of the most epic movies of our time. He gave us the magnificent shot of the bikes floating in front of the moon in E.T., the insanely tense shot of the shark fin poking out of the water in Jaws and the magical first reveal of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. In May and June, Spielberg superfans will get the opportunity to experience those legendary scenes and more at the BFI IMAX. The special programme is to mark the release of Disclosure Day, the director’s latest sci-fi blockbuster. It’ll include screenings of Jaws (May 31), E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (June 7), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (June 14), Ready Player One (June 21) and Jurassic Park (June 28) alongside nature documentaries Shark Kingdom 3D and Dinosaurs of Antarctica 3D, introduced by wildlife and natural history experts. 

Dyke Marches have long been held all across the US, but they’ve been harder to find this side of the pond since the demise of the Lesbian Strength marches of the 80s. London’s very own Dyke March has been going from strength to strength in recent years, though, and is back for a second year in a row after a more than decade-long hiatus. 

More than 10,000 attendees are expected at this grassroots, non-commercial and firmly trans-inclusive event that’s designed to be welcoming to all dykes and their allies. Full details are yet to be announced but it’ll take place in London on Saturday June 20 2026, and the organisers are looking for both groups and individuals to march.