The best Frieze week events in London 2026
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.
Frieze X ICA Artists’ Film Programme 2026
Frieze ICA programme Dimitra Charamandas, in collaboration with Irene Trujillo, Luca Mengisen, and Julie Olympia Cahannes Sun Burn, 2023, film still. Courtesy Dimitra Charamandas and Gypsum
#FLODown: Yes, this week is Frieze Week, but it also marks the last week of the BFI London Film Festival, whose 70th anniversary celebrations have been marked by a series of collateral events around the city celebrating the magic of cinema. Feeding the minds of both film buffs and art lovers is the ICA Artist’s Film Programme, in collaboration with Frieze London,, which will host a drop-in, drop-out screening programme in the ICA's Upper Gallery, with a selection of works playing on a continuous loop throughout each day. If you need a break from the endless shlep of corporate-looking gallery booths this Frieze, you know where to go. For the full programme and list of artists involved, click here.
Date: Until 18 October. Location: ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH, United Kingdom. Price: £6. Concessions available. Book now.
THE HANG: Minor Attractions Opening Party
Fetschish_net Frieze afterparty, The Mandrake
#FLODown: As mentioned in our Frieze Autumn Events Guide, Minor Attractions is one of the many Frieze satellite fairs to have on your radar. Yet unlike many, this one is all about inclusivity as it gets ready to celebrate what the fair calls its 'biggest, loudest, and most conceptually ambitious incarnation to date.' Minor Attractions will christen its 4th year (and new location at The Newman) with an opening party not to miss at Frieze London. Called The Hang, this party (headed by provocateur Ryan Lanji) is meant to be the end of all others, bringing together queer nightlife, rave culture, and the best of the city’s emerging talent for one messy, glorious evening in the name of art. Don’t want to miss out? Make sure you RSVP. See you there.
Date: 13 October. Location: The Newman, 50 Newman St, London, W1T 3EB. Price: Free. RSVP here.
Frieze Masters Talks Programme: Breaking the Mould
Tracey Emin and Nicholas Cullinan, dunhill x Frieze Masters Talks 2025. Photo Credit: Ben Broomfield and Patrick Straub
#FLODown: Of course, it wouldn’t be Frieze without the return of Frieze Masters’ annual Talks Programme, with this year’s edition focusing on how historical art forms and materials are being reinterpreted today. Curated for the second year running by Arturo Galansino, director general of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, ‘Breaking the Mould’ brings together artists (Grayson Perry & Paul Pfeiffer), architects (Lina Ghotmeh & Kulapat Yantrasast), museum directors (Design’s Museum Tim Marlow), curators (Iris Moon), art historians (C.D. Dickerson) and writers (Shelia Barker & Edward Behrens) to ask how the past continues to shape contemporary practice and institutional thinking. Find the full programme details here.
Date: 14-17 October. Location: Frieze Masters, The Regent’s Park, Gloucester Green, London NW1 4HA. Price: Free with Frieze Entrance Ticket. More information here.
Seduction: The Cabaret (DECONSTRUCTED)
#FLODown: Amateurs, theatre-goers, art connoisseurs, romantics, and professional voyeurs alike, you're cordially invited to a Frieze event like no other, courtesy of fetchish.net. Aiming to bring a deconstructed version of seduction with a side of anarchy, this theatre-meets-play-meets-party is one for the sybarites. What does this mean? Well, truthfully, we’re not quite sure. But we do know that Daniel Fruman-Naumov's one-night-only event (held at The Mandrake) promises DIY sabres, feathers in hats, questionable disguises, and very real attempts at seduction, oh, and acting! It really is a play, just not like one you’ve ever seen before.
Date: 14 October. Location: The Mandrake, 20-21 Newman St, London W1T 1PG. Price: Free. RSVP essential. More information here.
David Bowie at Sotheby’s
David Bowie for Sothebys
#FLODown: Fans of David Bowie will rejoice to hear that a rare portrait of the artist, by the artist, is set to go to auction at Sotheby’s this week. The painting belongs to a group of eight large-scale self-portraits Bowie painted in the mid-1990s. Only this version is widely regarded as the most expressive in the set, with bold, gestural brushwork that recalls Bowie’s interest in German Expressionism. The composition emphasises the artist’s signature anisocoria and also bears physical traces of Bowie: his handprints appear pressed into the lower corners of the artwork. Dated 1996, the portrait is going for an estimated value of £35,000–55,000 and will be on public view ahead of the Modern British & Irish Art Daysale it’s a part of on 15 October. Gasps at the ready; we predict a record-breaking sale.
Date: 15 October. Location: 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA. Price: Free. RSVP essential. More informationhere.
SULK Knitwear’s Knit & Crochet Club
#FLODown: If you lean towards the more wholesome side of creativity, you may enjoy Sarah Beasley’s Sulk Knitwear & Crochet Club, in collaboration with Village Underground Rooftop. Not strictly a workshop, the event is for anyone who fancies a drink (a mocktail/cocktail is included in the ticket price), a chat, and a chance to create outside their living room. Although Beasley herself keeps a fairly low profile, you may be more familiar with her work through SULK Knitwear, London’s most colourful and eccentric knit brand, featured in countless Vogues and worn by the likes of Emil Ratajkowski and Fontaines D.C. Please note: knitting supplies are not provided.
Date: 15 October. Location: Village Underground Rooftop, 8A Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3NT,United Kingdom. Price: £25. More information here.
Paraíso
#FLODown: Joining the many satellite art fairs this week is Paraíso, a new Latin American art fair by Somers Gallery founder Javier Calderón, running in parallel to Frieze London. Seeking to catalyse new levels of collaboration between Latin America and the UK, the fair’s ambition is simple: to champion great contemporary Latin American art, as well as historic art from the last century, by bringing together galleries, projects, independent artists, and other art initiatives from Latin America and its diaspora.
Date: 15-18 October. Location: Ambika P3, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS. Price: £24. Concessions available. More information here.
London Invitational
#FLODown: We all love an art fair. That said, navigating the noise and commotion of trade fairs can be an exercise in itself, with endless participants to get through and only so many hours in the day (and meet-ups to get through). London Invitational proposes something a little different this Frieze Week. As a boutique art fair, its premise is in its name; participants don’t pay to play for a spot. Instead, they’re invited, so the hustle and bustle of Frieze satellite fairs is skipped in favour of refined conversations between galleries and directors that emphasise quality over quantity. For more information on the lucky few galleries selected to show this year, click here.
Date: 15-18 October. Location: The Chancery Rosewood, 30 Grosvenor Square, London, W1K 9AN. Price: From £20. More information here.
Echo Soho: After the Studio
#FLODown: Another one to note in the diary for the collectors among us is Echo Soho: After the Studio, where the Soho-based gallery will transform Artists House at 14 Manette Street into a large-scale open studios event to celebrate the untamed roots of creativity in all its wildest and most daring forms. As part of the open day, you’ll be able to wander through working studios, meet the artists currently on the Revue Residency programme and see the behind-the-scenes process of many works of art take shape in real time. Arts journalist Victoria Comstock-Kershaw will also be hosting a tour of the studios on 15 October at 15:00 GMT, showing you why so few cities, if any, beat London’s creative pulse.
Date: 15 October. Location: Artists House, 14 Manette Street, Soho, London W1D 4AW Price: Free. More information here.
Jouissance Parfums X Ella Fleck
Jouissance Parfums X Ella Fleck
#FLODown: Need a go-to spritz before your next Frieze party? Make sure to pop by the Jouissance Parfums X Ella Fleck collaboration if you happen to be in East London this Frieze Week. Launching at the Apoc store, the literary-inspired perfume house has teamed up with the artist and writer for a limited-edition fragrance and artwork installation titled SCREEN, which explores digital desire, gender, disguise and the construction of fantasy. Buyers can choose from three numbered, artist-designed bottles, all made with London Glass Blowers. Want to get a whiff? We’ll see you at the Apoc store later this week, where you’ll find a scented floor fog installation and perfume bottles that double up as the next artwork to have.
Date: 15 October. Location: Unit 41, Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Rd, London E8 4QN. Price: Free. More information here.
GARGLE at Sadie Coles
GARGLE to take place at Sadie Coles on 16 October 2026.
#FLODown: 2025 was the year London decided literary events were the go-to listings on everyone’s after-work calendar, with Gargle at Sadie Coles as the most anticipated, frequently lending its Kingly Street space to performers and poets alike, all looking to charm audiences with their own words, and sometimes those of others. Get ready for a Frieze Week special hosted by Princess Julia, who will be accompanied by only the best names in the biz: David Hoyle, Kai-Isaiah Jamal, Charlie Porter, Kae Tempest, Joshua Woolford and Kurtis Lincoln. The best bit? Not only is this event free. But there’s also no RSVP! Which means early birds are favourite. No latecomers here, however stylish.
Date: 16 October. Location: Sadie Coles, Kingly Street, London W1B 5QN. Price: Free. More information here.
AHMD X Bolding Gallery
Anal House Meltdown have teamed up with Bolding Gallery.
#FLODown: London's queer dance party people, Anal House Meltdown, are here to give your eyes (and mind) a break this Frieze Week as they’ve teamed up with Bolding Gallery for one night only. Those involved include Barkley Bandon (expect electronic beats to carry you through the night) and British artist Eddie Peake, one of AHMD’s founding members. Oh, and did we mention, cheap bar and no guest list? That’s Friday night sorted, then.
Date: 16 October. Location: First Floor, 58 Davies Street, London W1K 5JF Price: Free. More information here.
West End Day
London West End Day. Lucy Dodd at Sprueth Magers, 2026
Frieze London may be one of the world’s biggest contemporary art fairs, but those looking for a sense of community will also be able to find it thanks to West End Day, one of three special neighbourhood gallery events hosted during Frieze Week to celebrate London’s gallery scene. And so, if you miss out on a Frieze ticket this year, whatever the reason, you don’t have to miss out on London’s art scene. Spaces around Mayfair and beyond keep their doors open for extended hours so visitors can move between shows on foot in a single day. Looking for a curated route and selected highlights? Click here for more information.
Date: 17 October. Location: Various locations around West London. Price: Free.
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