Things to do in London in October 2026

October is London's busiest month for culture, and this year the calendar is crowded with anniversaries. Frieze returns to The Regent's Park with almost 300 galleries, the BFI London Film Festival reaches its 70th edition, and Bloomsbury Festival turns 20 with more than 150 events across the neighbourhood. Tate Britain matches that scale with a look back at the 1990s through Edward Enninful's eyes. Elsewhere, Dua Lipa curates the London Literature Festival, Tilda Swinton returns to the Royal Court after nearly four decades, and Terminal V brings eight hours of techno to Drumsheds. Here's our guide to the things happening in London this October.

Frieze London returns to The Regent's Park

Timothy Taylor, Frieze London 2025. Photo by Linda Nylind. Courtesy of Frieze

#FLODown: Frieze London returns to The Regent's Park this month, bringing almost 300 galleries from 48 countries to the capital for the art world's busiest week. The contemporary fair runs alongside its sister event, Frieze Masters, which covers everything from antiquities to the 20th century. This year's new curated section, The Code Universe, led by Carol Yinghua Lu, examines the forces shaping popular culture. Solo presentations include the Sudanese modernist Ibrahim El-Salahi and Anish Kapoor. The free Frieze Sculpture trail remains in the park's English Gardens until 1 November.

Dates: 14–18 October 2026 (public days 15–18 October). Location: The Regent's Park, London NW1 Price: Weekend general admission £48 (£38 early bird), combined Frieze London + Masters £92, students £32, children 2–17 £10. Friday preview from £78. Frieze Sculpture is free. Book now

Click here to discover more art fairs opening in London this autumn.

BFI London Film Festival marks its 70th edition

BFI Southbank. Image credit Luke Hayes

#FLODown: The BFI London Film Festival celebrates its 70th anniversary this October with 12 days of premieres, galas and special screenings across the city. Long regarded as the highlight of the capital's film calendar, the festival also opens much of its programme to the public, offering early access to new international features, documentaries and immersive work. Screenings take place at venues including BFI Southbank, the Royal Festival Hall, the ICA and the Prince Charles Cinema.

Dates: 7–18 October 2026. Location: Various venues, including BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XT. Price: From £10, or £6 with a free BFI 25 and Under account. Book now

Dua Lipa curates the London Literature Festival

Dua Lipa © Madison Phipps

#FLODown: Dua Lipa takes the helm as guest curator of this year's London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre, in partnership with her Service95 Book Club. The singer appears in three events, including conversations with Zadie Smith on White Teeth and Patti Smith on her memoir Bread of Angels. The wider line-up includes Ta-Nehisi Coates, Malorie Blackman, Kae Tempest and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad. Poetry nights, translated fiction and free family events complete the programme. Click here for the full programme of events.

Dates: 21 October – 1 November 2026. Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: Free events need no booking; ticketed events from around £15.

Edward Enninful revisits the 90s at Tate Britain

Jon Shard, Flesh at The Haçienda, 1996 Courtesy of British Culture Archive © Jon Shard British Culture Archive

#FLODown: Tate Britain turns its attention to the 1990s this autumn with The 90s: Art and Fashion, the first major exhibition to explore how British art, photography and fashion converged during the decade. The show is curated by the former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, who became i-D's youngest fashion director at 18. It gathers more than 100 works by nearly 70 artists, photographers and designers, from the Young British Artists to Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, with photographs by Juergen Teller, David Sims and Corinne Day.

Dates: 8 October 2026 – 14 February 2027. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG Price: £22 standard, £20 concession, £5 for 16–25s via Tate Collective; free for Tate Members. Book now

Click here to discover over 18 art exhibitions opening in London in October 2026.

National Gallery stages its largest Renoir show in 20 years

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, 1876. Gustave Caillebotte Bequest, 1896. © Musée d'Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

#FLODown: The National Gallery opens Renoir and Love this month, its most significant exhibition of Pierre-Auguste Renoir in two decades. Organised with the Musée d'Orsay and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the show follows love and intimacy through the artist's most productive years, from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s. Its centrepiece, Bal au Moulin de la Galette, goes on display in the UK for the first time.

Dates: 3 October 2026 – 31 January 2027. Location: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Price: £20 off-peak (Sunday–Thursday), £25 Friday and Saturday and on all days in the first two weeks; under-18s free. Book now

Tarek Atoui fills Tate Modern's Turbine Hall with sound

Tarek Atoui performs at the Issey Miyake Spring-Summer 2026 presentation at Centre Pompidou, Paris. October 2025. Photo © LunaConte.

#FLODown: The artist and composer Tarek Atoui unveils the 11th annual Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern this month. His site-specific installation for the Turbine Hall combines music, technology, sculpture and performance, creating environments experienced through sound as much as sight.

Dates: 13 October 2026 – 11 April 2027. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: Free, no booking needed. Click here for more information

Tilda Swinton returns to the stage after nearly four decades

Man to Man at The Royal Court Theatre starring Tilda Swinton. Image credit by Ruediger Glatz

#FLODown: Tilda Swinton has returned to the Royal Court, reprising the role she first played in the 1987 Traverse Theatre premiere of Manfred Karge's Man to Man, which transferred to the Royal Court the following year. In the 85-minute monologue, she plays Ella, a woman who assumes her late husband's identity to survive Germany's turbulent 20th century. The director Stephen Unwin and designer Bunny Christie return from the original production, which forms part of the theatre's 70th anniversary season.

Date: Until 24 October 2026. Location: Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS. Price: £15–£74.50, with every Monday at £15 and £25 Rush tickets on TodayTix from 10am, Tuesday to Saturday. Book now

Bloomsbury Festival celebrates its 20th year

Let’s See What Happens: Stories of Joy. The Avieli Arthouse. Taking place 3 October 2026

#FLODown: Bloomsbury Festival marks its 20th anniversary with a month-long programme of more than 150 events spanning music, theatre, art, science and family activities. Events take place across more than 40 venues in the neighbourhood, from museums and bookshops to laboratories and buildings rarely open to the public. Many events are free, and organisers recommend booking for the most popular.

Dates: 1–31 October 2026. Location: Various venues across Bloomsbury, London WC1. Price: A mix of free and ticketed events. Click here for the programme 

The LSO opens its season at the Barbican

Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, September 2024. © LSO. Image credit Mark Allan.

#FLODown: The Barbican's 2026/27 classical season continues this month with world premieres, major orchestral nights and performances that cross into theatre. The London Symphony Orchestra gives the world premiere of David Önaç's Atlantic Requiem at LSO St Luke's on 11 October, a new Requiem Mass honouring Africans trafficked into slavery, performed during Black History Month. Sir Antonio Pappano then launches the LSO's own season on 18 October with the UK premiere of Dai Fujikura's Amber Alchemy alongside Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony. Elsewhere, the soprano Julia Bullock tells the story of Joséphine Baker in Perle Noire, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw performs with the Attacca Quartet.

Dates: 1–25 October 2026. Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS, and LSO St Luke's, Old Street, London EC1V 9NG. Price: LSO concerts £18–£75 plus a £4 booking fee, with Wildcard mystery seats at £12/£16. Book now

Terminal V brings heavy techno back to Drumsheds

Drumsheds, Radio1 Dance, JakeDavis, @jakephilipdavis.

#FLODown: Scottish techno festival Terminal V returns to Drumsheds for its second London edition, following demand after its debut at the venue last year. The Edinburgh-born event will take over all three rooms of the 15,000-capacity former IKEA warehouse in Tottenham for eight hours of hard, unrelenting techno. I Hate Models, 999999999 and Holy Priest lead the line-up, with Charlie Sparks, Pablo Bozzi, Natte Visstick, Onlynumbers and Nikolina b2b KLOUD among the supporting acts. The event is strictly 18+.

Date: 23 October 2026, 7pm–3am. Location: Drumsheds, 6 Glover Drive, Meridian Water, London N18 3HF Price: From around £41, rising through early entry at about £46 and general admission tiers at £57–£63, with VIP from around £96. Strictly 18+. Book now