Free things to do in London this weekend

Deptford X, SE8’s beloved contemporary visual art festival, is back – but this time with a brand new format. For the first time, it’s going biennial, expanding the festival to 18 days packed with art, exhibitions, events, and a street parade. Plus, fringe art events will leave almost no part of Deptford untouched. An artist callout is currently underway, head to the event website if you fancy applying. Otherwise, watch the space for the final programme.  

Dreaming of a Mediterranean getaway this summer but not got the annual leave or the spare cash to make it happen? This Sunday, you can spend the afternoon in Italy for the price of a tube fare. Just head to Clerkenwell Road, where the annual Procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel revives the spirit of what was once London’s Little Italy. A tradition dating all the way back to 1883, the procession starts at St Peter’s Italian Church (built in the 1860s for the area’s then booming Italian population) at 3.30pm, and forms the centrepiece Italian-style festival, or sagra, on the streets of Clerkenwell from 11am.  Join the crowds lining the roads to watch life-size scenes of saints, martyrs and other Biblical types cruise by on floats, then scoff arancini, prosciutto, gelato and cannoli at the stalls set up on Warner Street. Here’s hoping for a little bit of Neapolitan sunshine to make it even more like being on holiday. 

Get to know the surprising queer histories behind some of the art and artefacts in the British Museum’s vast collection on this free tour of the iconic institution. Led by a knowledgeable volunteer, the 70-minute tour takes in a huge variety of objects ranging from the ancient world to the present day, illuminating the fascinating stories behind some of the musum’s most famous artefacts and lesser-known gems, including the Townley Diskobolos, the Gilgamesh Tablet and the Warren Cup. Can’t make it to one of these dates? There’s also a self-guided version of the tour with free audio commentary you can access through your preferred streaming platform. 

Sophie Podolski’s work will be presented solo for the first time in the UK at this exhibition, with the display spanning the poet, writer and artist’s drawings, etchings, archival materials and texts. Although she died tragically at 21, Podolski made a huge impact on literature and culture and celebrated radical creativity and personal freedom through her work.

After getting her breakthrough as part of the renowned artist group BANK, Milly Thompson went on to carve out a place for herself in the art world as a painter, sculptor, video artist and writer in her own right. A selection of her work from 2010 onwards will be on display here, showing her trademark blend of irony and sincerity as the pieces tackle the hegemonic force of luxury consumer culture on women, the libidinal power of the middle-aged female body, and more.

A longstanting Soho tradition – it celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025 – this annual neighbourhood knees-up is organised by volunteers from the Soho Society, and sees the garden of Soho’s St Anne’s Church bursting with live music and entertainment.  The main draw of the day is the Soho Waiters’ Race. A tradition dating back to 1955, it starts at 3.15pm outside the French House, and sees a gaggle of waiters pelt through the streets of Soho, each holding a tray stacked with a bottle of champers, a glass and a napkin, all of which must be intact when they cross the finish line Another crowd favourite is the Soho Dog Show, which awards eight different prizes including ‘Dog who looks most like their owner’.  Alongside this, visitors can expect six hours of entertainment including live music, drag performances, snail racing, a spaghetti-eating contest, a tug-of-war, foodie stalls, tarot readings and a Pimms bars.  Best of all? It’s absolutely free to attend, although the gardens have a maximum capacity of 500, so turn up nice and early or be prepared to queue.

Are you a fan of plummy Spanish reds? Great news, if so. In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Rioja region’s ‘Denominación de Origen’, east London is hosting a huge new wine festival dedicated to Spain’s most iconic red. Visitors will be able to sample over 50 varieties of the wine by the glassa, take part in masterclasses with TV presenter and wine expert Olly Smith and some of the region’s top winemakers, try dishes from celebrity chefs José Pizarro and Omar Allibhoy and snack on pintxos and other Spanish fare from a variety of street food vendors. There’ll also be DJs spinning tunes (Rosalía and Bad Bunny, we’d imagine) and a competition where you can win a bottle of Rioja from your birth year. Best of all? You don’t eve have to pay for entry, or if you pay for entry you’ll get wine sample tokens worth more than the price of your ticket (including 2 for 1 entry on Sunday which gets you £24 of wine tokens for just a tenner). Salud to that!