London's music scene: highlights and news
Explore the latest music news unfolding in London, from festival announcements and classical music programmes to venue updates.
French electro pioneers Justice announced as headliners for Field Day 2024
The Chemical Brothers. Field Day 2022. Photo by Eric Aydin Barberini.
Electro legends Justice have been announced as headliners for Field Day Festival's 17th edition, alongside PinkPantheress, Charlotte DeWitte. Due to take place in Victoria Park in August 2024, the iconic festival event promises a diverse lineup spanning electronic genres.
Date: 24th August 2024. Location: Victoria Park, East London. Price: Early birds from £50. Book now. Instagram: @fielddayfestivals
La Linea Festival Announces Second Wave of Artists
La Linea London Latin Music Festival. Ana Tijoux.
La Linea, London's Latin Music Festival, unveils its second wave of shows for the 24th edition in April. The festival will feature specially curated performances across the capital. Highlights include Desta French & Friends at the Jazz Café, Domenico Lancellotti and Ricardo Dias Gomes at Cafe Oto, and Nacao Zumbi at the Jazz Café.
Date: 12 - 22 April 2024. Website: la-linea. Instagram: @lalineafestival.
Brand New All-Dayer Event Set to Take Place at Crystal Palace Bowl
Grace Jones . Photo by Lawrence Watson.
Get ready for an electrifying addition to the summer festival calendar with Love Motion, a brand new all-dayer event set to ignite Crystal Palace Bowl on 26 July, as part of the South Facing festival. Headlining this exhilarating affair is the legendary Grace Jones, alongside Irish sensation Róisín Murphy, disco icons Horse Meat Disco, and a stellar lineup of DJs including Dimitri from Paris, Oli Keens, and J-Felix. With its historic setting and vibrant lineup, Love Motion promises to be a highlight of the season, offering a day filled with infectious beats, incredible performances, and unforgettable memories.
Date: Friday 26 July 2024. Location: Crystal Palace Bowl. Price: from £43.70. Book now.
Chaka Khan to Curate Meltdown 2024 Festival at Southbank Centre
Chaka Khan. © Jo Metson Scott.
Iconic musician Chaka Khan has been announced as the curator for the upcoming Meltdown 2024 festival, hosted by the Southbank Centre. Celebrating her legendary 50-year career, Khan will infuse the 10-day summer event with her incredible voice and global influence, promising a celebration like no other in June.
Date: 14 - 23 June 2024. Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Website: southbankcentre.co.uk.
Cassie Kinoshi's will celebrate Women in Music at the Barbican
Casse Kinoshi. © Aurore Fouchez.
Cassie Kinoshi will present her largest show yet at the Barbican in March, in celebration of International Women’s Day. Joined by her ensemble seed, turntablist NikNak, and the London Contemporary Orchestra, Kinoshi will revisit her acclaimed 2023 piece 'gratitude' and premiere a new composition inspired by women's role in British music history.
Date: 7 March 2024. Time: 7.30pm. Location: Barbican Centre. Price: £10-£15. Book now.
England's quietly revolutionary city, Derby, rarely shouts about itself – but it has shaped the modern world. Set on the River Derwent at the edge of the Peak District, it is compact, walkable and rich in stories, with the Peaks and their great country houses close by.
After what has been a troubling few years for the art market (at home and abroad), Frieze London & Frieze Masters have brought a sense of unexpected joy and magic both in the art on the wall and in the sales that have followed. We’ve compiled a compact shopping list filled with all the art we can't stop thinking about….
Frieze London and Frieze Masters closed on 18 October after five days at The Regent's Park, with both fairs reporting sales from four figures to seven…
London has one of the largest collections of free museums and galleries in the world, and a lot of its most interesting shows cost nothing to see. Each month we pick two free exhibitions worth making time for. Here are our highlights for October.
This week in London (19 - 25 October 2026), Hokusai opens at Dulwich Picture Gallery and Freddie Mercury's wardrobe goes on free display at the V&A. Spiritland opens in the Barbican and Bubala opens in Covent Garden. Plus Critical Sound at Fabric, Carl Stone at Café OTO, two UK premieres at Sadler's Wells, and the clocks go back on Sunday.
With 172 exhibitors at Frieze London alone, that’s a lot of booths, and you only have so many hours to spend time in them all. Our top ten ranges from the heavyweight blue chips to younger galleries, and from big-ticket showstoppers to the stands that literally made us stop mid-sentence…
You have your Frieze Exhibitions Guide. You have your Frieze Music Nightlife Guide. But what about all the other collateral events and activations around the city? Lo and behold, there are many. Luckily for you, we’ve compiled a separate list of events to keep on your radar this Frieze Week, from a knit-and-sip crochet club to the Frieze London opening parties everyone is invited to.
London is one of the cities she keeps coming back to, which is why we asked her for thirteen places in it, one for every ROOM, to fill the hours around Frieze London and Frieze Masters in The Regent's Park from 14 - 18 October. Here are her thirteen, in her order, in her words.
Morus Art Group, a London cultural initiative founded by Alya Entts, makes its first public appearance in the city on 15 October with Out of the Blue, an exhibition that follows an artistic career through its first phases, from early promise to a first award, guidance from others and the point at which an artist begins working independently…
Celebrating its 21st edition in 2026, Darbar Festival is the leading festival of Indian classical music in the UK. The five-day celebration of Hindustani and Carnatic music is themed The Shock of the New, and will feature many artists never heard before in the UK…
Ironworks is the latest venture from LWE and PROJEKT, transforming a historic industrial warehouse on the banks of the Thames in East London into a next-generation electronic music venue. Spanning more than 150,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, Ironworks has the capacity for 7,000 people…
The Hayward Gallery has announced the largest UK solo exhibition to date by Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei, which is to open in April 2027. The survey will chart her practice from the early 2000s to the present…
Kistefos, an hour north west of Oslo in Jevnaker, pairs a preserved wood pulp mill with one of Europe's most ambitious sculpture parks. The industrial museum keeps its machinery turning, while 60 works, almost all of them site specific, are spread along the Randselva river. Here is a guide to the sculptures not to miss…
Frieze London and Frieze Masters run from 14 to 18 October 2026 in The Regent's Park, marking the 24th edition of the contemporary fair and the 14th of its historical counterpart. Between them they bring 318 galleries to north London for five days, and with them the annual reordering of the city's cultural calendar that is Frieze Week…
Olympia has announced a 12-month partnership with the Design Museum, bringing a programme of free cultural activations to the West London destination across 2026 and 2027. Announced on 24 September, the collaboration draws on the museum's exhibitions and creative programme, positioning the 140-year-old site as one of the capital's newest cultural hubs…
Tickets are now on sale for Skate at Somerset House with Virgin Atlantic Holidays, which returns to the Strand courtyard from 11 November 2026 until 10 January 2027.
Alice Delhanty's first solo exhibition, Invented Fire, opened at Tache on Newman Street in Fitzrovia on 24 September 2026. The show presents fifteen new paintings in acrylic, among them large triptychs measuring more than three metres across, all made over the past year.
Apple has opened Apple Music Hall, a new live music venue inside London's Battersea Power Station, aimed at bringing artists and fans together through small, one-of-a-kind performances…
This week in London (21–27 September): Wigmore Hall opens its Autumn Piano Festival, Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss swap roles nightly in Electra/Persona at the National Theatre, and major new exhibitions from Amar Kanwar and William Kentridge open across the city's galleries…
Established in 2006, Contemporary Istanbul is Turkey’s leading art fair. This year’s edition sees more than 70 galleries from 24 countries participating. Nearly a quarter of these galleries are first-time exhibitors, demonstrating its growing reach…
FLO London’s Festival Correspondent Sofia Carreira Wham reports on the 2026 edition of Roskilde Festival, held from 27 June - 4 July in Roskilde, Denmark.
Somerset House Studios is marking its tenth anniversary this autumn with two major projects, a new film installation at its home in Somerset House and a three night takeover of a former power station in East London.
This week in London (14–20 September): Panels at Southbank's Letters To The Future, AW26/27 opens at Drumsheds, Grand shows at Fashion Week, Rodrigues' Catarina at the National Theatre, Outdoor art at Frieze Sculpture, Awakenings at the V&A Late, Historic tea at the Royal Albert Hall.
Artist Tschabalala Self unveiled her bronze sculpture Lady in Blue in Trafalgar Square, becoming the 16th commission for the Fourth Plinth since the programme began in 1998. The nine foot tall figure depicts an everyday young woman rendered in vivid blue…
Mike Skinner, the man behind The Streets, is teaming up with PATRÓN Tequila for a one-off evening in the capital this month, billed as Re-Mastered Live. The night will feature an in-depth conversation between Skinner and two long-time collaborators who've worked alongside him…
There is no doubt the temporary loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum is the once-in-a-lifetime experience to rule them all. Meticulously stitched by hand by talented women, the embroidery has never returned to English soil in over 900 years since its creation around the 1070s. Although many worried for its fragile condition, visitors lucky enough to bag the £33 ticket…
Step up your game with this vibrant Ahwenepa Nkasa scrunchie!