London events in May

Wide Awake bills itself as a ‘musical melting pot’, and it’s easy to see why given the hugely eclectic headliners it has had in recent years, ranging from veteran alt-rockers Primal Scream in 2022 to ethereal indie pop singer Caroline Polachek in 2023 to psychedelic Aussie rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard in 2024. You can expect the usual mixture of leftfield indie, post-punk, electronica and techno at the 2025 edition, which sees ascendent Irish hip hop trio Kneecap headline, with Irish singer-songwriter Cmat, Mercury Prize-winning indie outfit English Teacher, and Canadian electroclash legend Peaches also on the bill. Further down the line-up, you’ll find DJ and producer Daniel Avery, experimental dance music maven Cobrah, NYC indie duo Fcukers, Philadelphia punk band Mannequin Pussy and many, many more. Tier three tickets are on sale now here. 

Two years on from the reopening of the Young V&A comes the next phase of the iconic museum’s building projects. Opening its doors in May 2025, the V&A East Storehouse is a brand new venue in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Purpose-built to house more than 1,000 archives from the museum’s collection, comprising more than 250,000 objects and 350,000 books, the storehouse promises to offer a peek behind the scenes to show how a working museum goes about cataloguing artefacts, from vintage footie kits and Glastonbury festival ephemera to a collection of samurai swords. It’s set to open on Saturday May 31.

A quarter of a century ago, Tate Modern opened its doors for the very first time. In the intervening years, it’s become a bastion of modern art in the UK, continuously hosting thought-provoking, eye-opening exhibitions and supporting artists from around the world. It would be remiss, then, not to celebrate such an icon’s birthday and, luckily, the celebrations are going to be plentiful. Across one long weekend in May, the institution will mark its anniversary with a series of workshops, talks, tours, free experiences, live music performances, DJ sets and food and drink offers.

Witness live tarot reading as part of Meschac Gaba’s ‘Museum of Contemporary African Art’ exhibition, or watch a specially commissioned performance by Abbas Zahedi in ‘Gathering Ground’, which explores ecological crisis and social justice. Over in the Tanks, Lawrence Lek will build a near future shaped by sentient AI using live gameplay and cinematic footage, while Marîa Magdalena Campos-Pons will lead a new performance responding to the history and architecture of the Tate Modern’s former power station shell.

There’ll be some blasts from the past, too, like Louise Bourgeois’ giant bronze spider ‘Maman’, which once greeted visitors when the gallery first opened in 2000. A new trail of 25 key works will take art lovers through the Tate’s collection and introduce them to important pieces by renowned stars like Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalî, plus artists with less household name status, such as Outi Pieski, Edgar Calel and Nalini Malani.

On the Friday and Saturday evenings, the gallery will come alive with the sound of music. On the former, the spotlight will be put on South London’s creative communities and young talent, while the latter will see Daytimers and Foundation FM take over with DJ sets across the building, alongside ive performances in Turbine Hall.

The whole weekend has been developed in partnership with Uniqlo, who’ll also host drop-in family workshops and, from May 5 to September 16, a special collaborative Uniqlo Tate Shop, featuring a customisable T-shirt station, personalised embroidery and a host of art-inspired activities and workshops.

There’s a lot to love about Ikea. Stylish furniture for affordable prices. Those tiny pencils that everyone steals. The iconic meatballs. Us Brits are big, big fans of the blue and yellow mecca, which is why we’re thrilled that the Swedish multinational is finally set to open its long-awaited Oxford Circus store on Thurday May 1. Anyone who has had the misfortune of having to schlep back from Ikea Croydon on public transport with a Kallax shelving unit, two houseplants and a Frakta full of ‘bits of the kitchen’ will understand quite how momentous an occasion this is. There’s no word yet as to what kind of opening celebrations IKEA might have planned for the new store, but after such a long wait we’re thoroughly expecting them to roll out the blue and yellow carpet to mark the occasion, so watch this space!

Six years after it was first mooted, Soho Theatre’s Walthamstow outpost opens on Friday May 2, with a run for LA clown genius Natalie Palamides’s superb new show Weer. The 970-seater venue takes over a former Granada Cinema built in 1930 and closed in 2003, restoring the Grade II-listed property to its former glory with a £30 million building project. Like the Dean Street venue, there will be a focus on comedy in the programming, with visitors also promised an annual panto, film screenings, theatre and community-focused education projects. And if you live locally, you can claim one of 15,000 £15 tickets available over the theatre’s first year open. 

Although most news coming out of America this year is hysterically awful, we are, at least, getting Stereophonic. The most Tony-nominated play of all time, the drama by David Adjmi with songs by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler is a fictionalised account of the legendarily tense sessions that led to the birth of Fleetwood Mac’s all conquering Rumours album, written and recorded while the various couples in the band were in the process of splittling from each other with degrees of prejudice. Hugely acclaimed Stateside, it’ll go straight into the West End for its London transfer.

After a knock-out event last year, pop festival Mighty Hoopla has just announced its 2025 line-up, and it’s just got even more raucous. Known for showcasing the best of pop and queer culture in the UK, the two-day weekender launched in 2016 with a mission to celebrate pop classics and give a platform to established and emerging LGBTQ+ performers. 2025 will see resurgent pop icon Kesha and noughtiesa hitmaker Ciara headline, with support from Kate Nash, Pixie Lott, Jojo, Loreen, Vengaboys, Erika Jayne and a special surprise guest. 

This feels modestly momentous: while Arthur Miller’s classic is revived relatively frequently, Ola Ince’s take on the alem witch trials drama-slash-McCarthyism allegory will be the first time a playwright other than Shakespeare has been revived on the Globe’s famed outdoor stage. There is, one suspects, a subtext: new writing was intended to make the Globe more than a museum to the Bard, and to give living playwrights a chance to write for its idiosyncratic space, but it can be a hard sell to a tourist-centric crowd. Ticking the ‘non-Shakespeare’ box while likely offering a decent box office return, The Crucible feels like a tremendous fit for the Globe: set in a superstitious New England just a few decades after Shakespeare’s death, its sprawling cast and epic structure demand a huge space, and by heck the Globe is going to give it one. 

It’s been six years since the Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta was able to take place, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, bad weather. Fingers crossed, then, the 2025 edition can take off without a hitch. The troupe will be hoping to take off on May 11, but will instead attempt to soar high in July 20 and, if necessary, July 27, should May be unfeasible. Should they be able to take off, you’ll be able to spot them soaring past some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, from Buckingham Palace and the London Eye to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. The regatta isn’t just an excuse to brighten up London’s skyline, but part of a charity initiative that has raised more than £250,000 since 2015.

For two decades Ceramic Art London has been showcasing – and selling – the most exciting pottery from the UK and overseas. As ever, the work on show has been rigorously selected by a panel of experts at the Craft Potters Association resulting in a remarkable display of contemporary works that sets it apart from other ceramics fairs. Makers come from across the world and you can buy ones that take your fancy (prices start at well under £100 and go up to £10,000 for museum-quality pieces). A programme of talks on ceramics techniques and aesthetics by leading ceramicists is free with event entry. 

Is it just us or does Field Day feel way younger than 17 years old? Time flies, eh? The electronic-heavy festival returns to Brockwell Park in 2025 after a stint in east London, with a line-up that leans more heavily towards DJs and producers than the spread of live acts and selectors we’ve seen at the festival in recent years. Major acts on the 2025 bill include Peggy Gou, Jungle, Bubble Love (a new project from Ross From Friends), James Blake (DJ) b2b Mala, VTSS, Special Request b2b Yung Singh, Jayda G, Fatima Yamaha, Skream and Benga, and Mall Grab alongside plenty more globe-trotting selectors, for a full day of non-stop dancing. 

There are some distinct signs of summer almost being here: the days get longer, the crucial final fixtures of the football season approach, and beer festivals start to take over our fair city. Crystal Palace Beer Festival combines two of the above for its 13th edition, taking place one day before Crystal Palace FC’s final game of the 2024/25 season at the club’s Selhurst Park ground. Celebrate by sampling the hundreds of beers and ciders on offer – from local breweries and beyond – while there’ll be plenty of entertainment, food and other refreshments to really ramp up that festival feeling. Tickets include two half-pint drink vouchers and a beer glass. Drinks tokens are £3.50. 

Celebrated Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh will be the subject of a new Tate Modern exhibition in 2025. The display will feature large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in his world and explore ideas of belonging, collectivity and individuality, and connection and disconnection. At the same time, the exhibition will transport you from Seoul to New York via London, with life-sized replicas of Suh’s past and present homes in each city.

All of London’s hippest and hottest people will once again be making the pilgrimage to Peckham for the tenth edition of electronic music bonanza GALA. Returning in its usual slot over the late May bank holiday, the festival is celebrating reaching double digits with a stellar three-day line-up curated in partnership with NTS radio, plus some of the city’s most acclaimed music and nightlife brands. Friday’s slightly mellowed line-up features headline sets from Floating Points, Moodymann and Theo Parrish, while Avalon Emerson, Ben UFO and KiNK get top billing on a Saturday line-up that leans towards the heavier end of the dance music spectrum, with curation from Chapter Ten and The Cause. Headlined by Caribou, Floorplan and Hunee & Antal, the festival’s closing day features artists from Rhythm Section, plus several stalwarts from London’s queer party scene.Also on the line-up across the three days are: Anz, Batu, Bradley Zero, Gideön, Heléna Star, Horse Meat Disco, Hudson Mohawke, Michelle Manetti, Surusinghe, Tash LC and many, many more. 

Following its acclaimed summer 2024 run at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Jordan Fein’s take on Fiddler on the Roof transfers to the Barbican as part of a UK tour. It’s a joyous, then suddenly very sad production that’s all about uprooting traditions. So for the famous opening image, where the fiddler would normally fiddle on a shtetl rooftop, instead he stands among wheat sheafs on a strip of land uprooted and peeled back like skin to hang threateningly above the stage. It’s a remarkable image in a production full of them; a production about reinventing a classic musical through small gestures and symbols, rather than radical high concepts. Famously, Fiddler was criticised when it premiered in 1964 as ‘shtetl kitsch’, but Fein, who co-directed the Young Vic’s ‘sexy Oklahoma!’ and helped strip it of any hokey old associations, eradicates the kitsch here, too. ‘Tradition!’, the cast chant in that proud opening number. In Fein’s thoughtful, hopeful take on the old classic, traditions change.

Taking place across a whopping 20 venues in and around Queen’s Yard in Hackney Wick – including The Yard, Colour Factory, CRATE brewery and 9294 – this day-to-night celebration of London’s vibrant dance music scene is becoming a much-loved fixture over the early May Bank Holiday weekend. More than 100 DJs or collectives feature on the whopping line-up, which ranges from beloved local selectors to more established international names playing everything from house and techno to garage and disco. But that’s not all, as there’ll be after-parties kicking off at Colour Factory and Village Underground, too. Artists include: Sports Banger, Percolate and Rhythm Labs. Check out the full line-up here.

Brilliant news for bookworms: London has a brand new literature festival. The Fleet Street Quarter Festival of Words will explore how words shape our world, while celebrating the area’s heritage as the home of London’s printing press. The headliners include Booker Prize-winning author Ben Okri and Kate Mosse OBE. Elsewhere there’ll be talks from screenwriter Ed Docx and author Mick Herron on the process of bringing TV hit Slow Horses from book to screen, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Iain Dale, and Sir Richard Evans will discuss history’s lessons from its most notorious dictators, and Jeremy Vine will present new crime fiction series Murder on Line One. There’ll also be talks on Samuel Pepys’ Diary, the real Wolf Hall and the life of Thomas Cromwel. The whole festival will be analysing how words can shift the balance of power from censorship to freedom of speech to technology and AI, so expect some especially insightful discussions. 

‘Wherever conflict erupts, sexual violence is present.’ So it’s surprising that until 2025, the UK has never had a major exhibition on sexual violence in conflict. This year the Imperial War Museum is hoping to shed light on the topic that remains widely under-discussed. Through first-person testimonies, objects, artwork, propoganda posters and papers, Unsilenced will investigate the different ways in which sexual violence in conflict can manifest. It will span the untold stories of child evacuees, victims of trafficking, prisoners of war, and survivors from the First World War to present-day conflicts, and highlight the ongoing efforts of those fighting for justice and working to prevent conflict-related sexual violence. It’s expected to be a sobering, ground-breaking exhibition.

Cross the Tracks is still a bit of a newcomer to the London festival scene, but with tasteful, groove-heavy curation across soul, funk and jazz, as well as loads of decent street food and craft beer, it’s already cemented itself as an anticipated name. The festival has a laid-back, open-arms appeal, meaning you’ll find people of all sorts of ages having a boogie. This summer’s festival is co-headlined by soulful British singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka, and Mercury-Award winning jazz quintet Ezra Collective. New Zealand-born alt R&B singer Jordan Rakei is second on the billing, joined by Anderson .Paak's live band, Free Nationals and rising R&B popstar Sinéad Harnett. Further down the line-up you’ve got the likes of Nala Sinephro, Bashy, Gilles Peterson, Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, Cymande, Baby Rose and Channel One.

Love him or hate, caustic Northern Irish playwright David Ireland is certainly a thing, and a year after an ultra-starry revival of his Ulster English at the Riverside Studios, here’s his West End debut proper. Having debuted on a brief tour of Scotland last summer, The Fifth Step sees Jack Lowden of Slow Horses fame reprise the role of Luka, a recovering alcoholic searching for a sponsor. Amping up the star power for 2025, Martin Freeman will play James, the deeply flawed individual who Luka ends up falling in with. Both of them are forced to confront their uncomfortable pasts. Finn den Hertog again directs. 

Presented by Michelin-starred chef and longtime Great British Menu judge Tom Kerridge, Pub in the Park is a touring food and music festival that aims to bring a convivial public house atmosphere to the great outdoors with loads of delicious pub grub alongside live music.  Several celebrated London restaurants will be in attendance, including viral Desi gastropub The Tamil Prince, Highgate’s Bull & Last, celebrated French bistro Bouchon Racine and The Brave, the new venue from Great British Menu winner (and Time Out’s own Hottest Chef finalist) James Cochran. And on the musical line-up, Brit Pop tribute acts Blur2 and Noases go head to head, alongside radio presenter Chris Moyles’s 90s Hangover DJ Set, veteran selector Norman Jay, Soul II Soul Soundsystem and the Jay Rayner Sextet (if you didn’t already know that The Guardian's celebrated food critic also moonlights as a jazz pianist, now you do!)

The world’s biggest independent one-day celebration of Caribbean and African culture takes place right here in London, with City Splash’s annual get together taking over Brockwell Park. For the 2025 edition, they’re pulling out the big names with dancehall legend Popcaan topping the bill. The rest of the line-up is just as stacked, with pioneers like Ms Dynamite and King Tubby slated to appear alongside emerging acts like Afrobeats star Qing Madi and Yeshie Renee. This year, City Splash is once again hosting its ‘Rise Up’ initiative, which champions emerging artists from the Caribbean and offers a one-week residency culminating at the festival, with Jaz Elise, Nesta, Raebel, Ras-I, ElevateToday and Savannah Dumetz all chosen for the programme.

From screeching tube carriages and blaring rickshaws to the lulling podcast we listen to on our commute and the music that soundtracks our walks, noise is constantly shaping our lives, and in bigger, deeper ways than we might at first realise. The Baribican’s Feel the Sound exhibition promises to be a multi-sensory journey into our personal relationship with sound and an exploration of how the world of listening goes way beyond pure audio. Eleven commissions and installations will take over the Barbican Centre from the entrance on Silk Street to the Lakeside Terrace, all exploding visitors to frequencies, sound, rhythmic patterns and vibrations that define everything around us. Even the Centre’s underground car parks will be part action as it’s transformed into a club space. There’ll also be the chance to sing with a digital quantum choir and experience music without sound. Plus, look out for collabs with Boiler Room celebrating underground club culture, Joyride which will mix ‘boy racer’ subculture with DIY music communities and Nexus Studios which will fuse neuroscience and design to capture visitors’ emotional responses to music. This is ‘an invitation to awaken the senses, embrace our sonic world and discover the sound in each of us’, says the Barbican. Sounds like a hit. 

Nicholas Hytner's glorious OTT version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ returns to the Bridge Theatre in May with a cast that includes JJ Feild as Oberon/Theseus, Susannah Fielding as Titania/Hippolyta, Emmanuel Akwafo as Bottom and David Moorst returning to the role of Puck/Philostrate. Typically, Nicholas Hytner’s modern-dress takes on the Bard are precise and revelatory, and he certainly applies some of his usual rigour to Shakespeare’s beloved comedy. But there’s also the feeling that he just got stumped by what is effectively a story about some fairies banging in a wood and decided that – screw it – he might gobble a couple of pills for inspiration (NB I am sure that Sir Nicholas did not actually do this). The result is a messy, sprawling, riotously gender-fluid and gloriously immersive production.

What is a spatial audio festival, you might be wondering? If you go to Polygon Live LDN, you’ll probably find out. The gist is seeing live music in a 360-degree arena surrounded by high-tech lights and loads of crystal-clear speakers – a spectacle which event organisers actually call a ‘spaceship’. Artists on the lineup so far include dreamy Pakistani-American singer Arooj Aftab, electronic legend Jon Hopkins, and composer Cosmo Sheldrake. This is one for audiophiles looking for something a bit more immersive. 

Fancy going to an immersive experience that will take you through the history of British music? Live Odyssey will open in the capital of British rock, Camden ofc, in May this year. The musical experience will take visitors through the ages, from the Beatles’ ’60s, to ’90s Britpop and beyond. Don’t forget to wear your Fred Perry polo, because the highlight of the exhibition promises to be a never-before-seen live hologram performance from The Libertines, using ‘state-of-the-art’ tech. 

In the 19th century, Utagawa Hiroshige produced thousands of prints capturing the landscape, nature and daily life in Japan during the Edo period. He became one of Japan’s most famous and prolific artists, and continues to influence art today. Now there’s a rare chance to see many of his never-before-seen works on display at the British Museum, with several pieces believed to be the only surviving examples of their kind in the world. Hiroshige: artist of the open road will be the first exhibition of his work in London for a quarter of a century, giving an insight into Japan during a time of rapid change presaging the end of samurai rule. It will span Hiroshige’s 40-year career through prints, paintings, books and sketches.

Lindsay Posner’s Tamsin Greig-starring revival of Terence Rattigan’s melancholy 1952 classic got good notices when it ran at Theatre Royal Bath earlier in 2024, and now it books a transfer to the West End. Greig returns as the suicidal Hester, whose life has disintegrated following her abandonment of her husband William in favour of a younger lover, alcoholic former RAF pilot Freddie. Finbar Lynch also reprises his role as William, with other casting TBC.

Pack your earplugs and plasters, this is a festival of extremes. Hosting some of the loudest bands in the music scene, Incineration Festival takes place across five hallowed grounds in north London, offering a devilish weekend of extreme metal. Conan, Pallbearer, Zeal & Ardor and Blood Incantation are all on the bill, casting a mesmerisingly deathly aura to Roundhouse, Electric Ballroom, Underworld, Black Heart and The Dev. 

We had to wait a full four years for Imelda Staunton’s headlining turn in the musical Hello, Dolly!: announced in 2020, a combination of pandemic disruption and the beloved actor’s commitment to The Crown meant it only finally emerged last summer. But now she’s making up for lost time, hitting the stage again less than a year later in a big-budget revival for George Barnard Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession. She’s brought her daughter along too: Bessie Carter (aka Staunton Jnr) will star as  Vivie Warren, an aspiring lawyer and Cambridge graduate who attempts to finally get to know her mother Mrs Kitty Warren, unaware she’s a former prostitute and current brothel madame. It might sound lurid, but Shaw was an ardent social reformer, and this 1902 classic outlines how the sex trade in Edwardian Britain was more fuelled by a lack of opportunities for women than moral degeneracy. Dominic Cooke will direct, his third show with Staunton after Hello, Dolly! and Follies at the National Theatre.