19 things to get really excited about in 2019

Waltham Forest has nabbed the accolade of being the first ever London Borough of Culture, which means it’s throwing a year-long programme of celebratory events. The opening spectacle, ‘Welcome to the Forest’ (Friday January 11-Sunday January 13), is fronted by former Mercury Prize winner Talvin Singh, who will tell the story of the borough in an original audiovisual piece. Also look out for Walthamstow Jazz Festival, a performance from Damon Albarn with Africa Express and a major exhibition marking the centenary of the Bauhaus movement. It’s the biggest thing to happen to E17 since ‘Stay Another Day’ got to Number One. Alexandra Sims

Anybody lucky enough to drink at the American Bar at The Savoy will have been charmed by white-suited staff. Heading up the team until recently was Erik Lorincz, one of the world’s best bartenders. That’s why we can’t wait to see what’s in store when Lorincz launches his own bar as part of the revamp of Mayfair restaurant Momo. We don’t know much about El Bar yet, but it’s billed as ‘a refined nineteenth-century-styled cocktail bar’. Bring on Savoy-style service and earth-shattering drinks (hopefully without the price tags). Laura Richards
25 Heddon St. Tube: Piccadilly Circus. From Feb.

London concrete meets techno for Re-Textured, an avant-garde invention from party promoters Krankbrother. The multi-venue, multi-sensory bash will take over London’s most arresting brutalist architecture with experimental light installations and leftfield electronic and ambient music. More than 30 acts have already been confirmed, all playing in a roll-call of iconic buildings, such as Walthamstow Assembly Hall and the Southbank Centre. Prepare for four days of dazzling visuals and brutal beats. AS
Various venues. Mar 28-31. From £15. 

Drop a mention of the ‘The Crystal Maze’ into any stagnating thirtieth-birthday conversation and by 2am you’ll be standing arm-in-arm shouting ‘Start the fans, please!’ So enduring is the power of the  ’90s TV challenge show that a live version launched in London in 2016. That Live Experience proved so popular it’s moving to an even bigger, mazier location – the Trocadero. It’ll have 32 new challenges, more places to be locked in when you fail your task, and a bar. Your bomber jacket awaits… KM
The Crystal Maze Live Experience, 22-32 Shaftesbury Avenue. m Piccadilly Circus. From Mar 29. Early bookers from £49.99 per person.

The art world has a bit of an erasure problem when it comes to the work of women. That’s why ‘Sixty Years’ is a reason to bounce off the walls with excitement. The show – one of the biggest at Tate Britain this year – will be a retrospective of British art from 1960 to now that features only work produced by women.  It will celebrate some of this country’s most important artists – like Susan Hiller and Bridget Riley – and it’s  curated by a woman too (Sofia Karamani).  The gallery’s also putting on a Van Gogh show in March but who cares about him, eh? Kate Lloyd
Tate Britain. Tube: Pimlico. From Apr 22. Price TBC.

Snap on those sweatbands and set your Spotify to Olivia Newton-John – things are about to get physical. After the success of the Hackney Festival of Fitness last year (which saw 50,000 runners and spectators descend on the borough), the organisers decided to turn the event into a massive three-dayer in Hackney Marshes. There’ll be a 5k community run on the Saturday and the half-marathon on the Sunday. With exercise classes, a market and an open-air cinema, it’s set to be the biggest outdoor fitness festival ever to take place in the UK. KM
Hackney Marshes. Hackney Wick Overground. May 17-19. Friday Weekend Warmup ticket, £15. Saturday Sweat Sessions ticket, £35. Sunday Hackney Half entry, £49.

Street food giant Kerb is getting its first permanent space bang in the middle of town this year. Seven Dials Market – housed in a former banana warehouse – is going to be Kerb’s biggest venture yet. Once the hoardings come down, it’s set to serve delish dishes to Covent Garden. Start training your your stomach now. Stephanie Hartman
Thomas Neal’s Warehouse. Tube: Covent Garden. Due to open this summer.

London’s river is set for a serious glow-up in 2019. Huge light installation ‘Illuminated River’, designed by artist Leo Villareal and architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, will get 15 bridges twinkling  – and they might stay lit for a decade. The first four – London Bridge, Southwark Bridge, Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Millennium Bridge – will get switched on this summer. Beam me up, Scotty! 

Projectors will roll in Hoxton in 2019 for the first time since 1956, as the former Gaumont cinema reopens as the Curzon Hoxton. Plans to redevelop the building have been in the works for years, with controversy raging about the cinema’s ornate art deco frontage, and Jarvis Cocker objecting to the attached office block (something about not wanting people to see him in his PJs – he lived across the street at the time). As the façade wasn’t in great nick, a new one has been recreated from moulds of the original structure, so the Curzon Hoxton retains its grand old face. KM 
55 Pitfield St. Hoxton Overground. Exact opening date TBC.

Stockholm’s Fotografiska is opening not one but two new outposts in 2019. The first is on New York’s Park Avenue, the second is focused on Whitechapel. In its own words, it promises ‘world-class photography, an avant-garde restaurant, a buzzing bar scene, a learning academy and a modern conversation hub’. Get practising your ‘modern conversation’. SH
10 Whitechapel High St. Tube: Aldgate East. Due to open this autumn

Last year, a crowdfunder was launched for a London festival marking the fiftieth anniversary of the 1969 Apollo moon landing. Now the Moon Festival has finally got the sponsorship it needs for blast off. This July sees General Gordon Square in Woolwich host a three-day party of moonwalks, fireworks,  a night-blooming garden and a talk from Margaret Atwood in a secret location. Sheer lunacy – in the best possible way. KM
Multiple venues. Woolwich Arsenal rail. Jul 19-21. Price TBC.

Look, nobody wants to be the kind of person who gets piss-in-their-disco-flares excited about the launch of an Abba-themed restaurant at The 02, but some of us were Björn this way (especially Abba member Björn Ulvaeus, who has been working on this for years). At ‘Mamma Mia! The Party’, you’ll be transported to a taverna on Skopelos where the waiters burst into ‘Does Your Mother Know’ between courses. Let’s hope they can raise the money, money, money to book Cher. KM
The O2. Tube: North Greenwich. Aug 29-Nov 18. Three-course meal and show from £151.20.

Magazine London is not an upstart publication trying to rival Time Out. It’s a fresh new venue for our city. The team behind Printworks is bringing this mega-site on Greenwich Peninsula to fruition. Billed as a  blank canvas, expect exhibitions, concerts and parties coming soon… SH
Greenwich Peninsula. Tube: North Greenwich. Sep 1.