What’s on in London this week: 1 - 7 September 2025
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 1 - 7 September 2025.
We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon
This week, Rambert and (LA)HORDE Ballet national de Marseille are taking over the Southbank Centre with We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon. Across three hours, audiences can roam through public and hidden spaces to encounter 50 performers in surprising locations, from the Royal Festival Hall stalls and backstage areas in the Queen Elizabeth Hall to the outdoor terraces. Mixing dance, cinema, DJs, digital works and community performers, the production explores the body in a post-internet, hyper-connected world, inspired by Gene Kelly’s remark to Buzz Aldrin that “we should have never walked on the moon.”
Date: 3–6 September 2025. Time: Run time approx. 3 hours. Location: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8X. Price: from £37 (+ £3.50 booking fee). Book now
We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon, France, Paris, 2022-11-02, performative and danced exhibition of (LA)HORDE with the Ballet National de Marseille BNM at the National Dance Theater of Chaillot. Photographie de Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas.
Golda Schultz Sings Gershwin and Bernstein
South African soprano Golda Schultz, hailed as the “glorious star” of the 2020 Last Night of the Proms, returns for a sumptuous evening of musical drama and emotion. She is joined by the prestigious Chamber Orchestra of Europe, under the baton of Robin Ticciati.
Date: 6 September 2025, 7.30pm. Location: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP. Price: £15–£66 (plus booking fees). Book now
celebrASIA
celebrASIA returns to Battersea Power Station for its third year, celebrating South East Asian culture with street food, live music, dance, artisan markets, and interactive arts and crafts. The 2025 festival features a Feasting Tent with long-table dining by chefs Budgie Montaya, Abby Lee, and John & Desiree Chantarasak, plus 29 South East Asian eateries. Visitors can enjoy craft workshops, traditional games, Breaking masterclasses with B-Boy Sunni, live performances from Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia, and an interactive Grand Tour exploring South East Asian countries.
Date: 5 - 7 September 2025. Location: Battersea Power Station, London SW11 8BJ. Price: Free. batterseapowerstation.co.uk
celebrASIA at Battersea Power Station. Image credit Charlie Round-Turner.
The 2025 Rick Mather Lecture: Barrault Pressacco
French architectural firm Barrault Pressacco presents this year’s Rick Mather Lecture, celebrating architects making key contributions to sustainable design. Known for their innovative approach, the firm’s research project Wallness rethinks building construction in response to insulation demands, while their RIVP apartments in Paris demonstrate how traditional stone construction can meet contemporary housing needs. The lecture is part of the Architecture on Stage series, presented by The Architecture Foundation in association with the Barbican and The Architectural Review.
Date: 3 September 2025, 7pm - 9pm. Location: Frobisher Auditorium 1, Level 4, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: from £15. Concessions available. Book now
Weight of Water
This week, The Weight of Water brings an intriguing blend of dance, circus, and live music to Birchmere Lake in Greenwich, as part of the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. Six performers tackle survival on a wildly unstable floating stage, their struggle for balance serving as a powerful modern parable of global warming and the consequences of power’s indecision.
Date: 5 – 6 September 2025; 2:30 pm & 6:30 pm. Location: Birchmere Lake, Epstein Road, Thamesmead, SE28 8DQ. Price: Free, unticketed event. festival.org/gdif
The Weight of Water presented by Panama Pictures will take place at Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) from 5-6 September 2025.
London Podcast Festival
The London Podcast Festival 2025 celebrates its 10th anniversary this week with a series of live shows, panels, and performances featuring popular podcasts such as No Such Thing As A Fish, Jameela Jamil’s I Weigh, and The Empire Film Podcast. The festival includes live recordings, Q&A sessions, and special guest appearances, all hosted at the Kings Place. Tickets are available for individual events, with prices varying depending on the show.
Click here for the full programme of events.
Date: 4–14 September 2025. Location: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG. Price: varies by event.
In conversation at Kew
In conversation at Kew Gardens is a brand-new series of outdoor events at Kew Gardens this week, offering live talks with popular TV, radio, and podcast personalities, including Richard Osman, Alexander Armstrong, Professor Mary Beard, Tom Holland, Adam Frost, Frances Tophill, Anita Rani, Matt Baker, and John Craven. The programme mixes lively discussions, quizzes, and cultural insights with picnicking, street food, live music, and full-day access to explore Kew Gardens’ 320-acre UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Date: 4–7 September 2025. Location: Royal Botanic Gardens, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, London, TW9 3AE. Price: from £47 Ticket includes full-day entry to Kew Gardens. Book now
ALIVE: LDN
ALIVE: LDN is London’s first large-scale alcohol-free festival, taking place at Hackney Bridge on Sunday. Hosted by global wellness brand Daybreaker in partnership with BRITA, the festival combines music, movement, and mindfulness for a full-day wellness experience. Attendees can enjoy morning yoga, a 5k run, breathwork classes, saunas, cold plunges, and non-alcoholic cocktails. The festival’s music line-up features Groove Armada, Sam Divine, FACESOUL, Kiran Gandhi, Sarah Story, and Madam X.
Date: 7 September 2025. Location: Hackney Bridge, Units 1-28, Echo Building, E Bay Ln, London E15 2SJ. Price: from £29. Book now
ALIVE: LDN is London’s first large-scale alcohol-free festival, taking place at Hackney Bridge on Sunday. Hosted by global wellness brand Daybreaker.
Cinema
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk offers an intimate glimpse into life in Gaza through video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and young Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona. Capturing moments of everyday life, loss, and acts of resistance amid escalating violence, the film serves as both a personal dialogue and a vital historical record. The tragedy of Fatma’s death in an Israeli airstrike shortly after the film’s Cannes selection highlights the courage and resilience of those living under siege.
Date: 30 August - 3 September 2025. Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: £14. Book now
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, dir. Sepideh Farsi, Palestine / France / Iran 2025, 110 min., 12A.
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum
Encounters: Giacometti x Mona Hatoum is the second in the Encounters series, exploring a dialogue between historic works by Alberto Giacometti and new and existing works by Mona Hatoum. The exhibition spans nearly a century of art, including sculptures in bronze, plaster, steel, and glass, as well as installations, video, and works on paper. Hatoum re-contextualises iconic Giacometti pieces, such as Woman with Her Throat Cut (1932) and The Nose (1947), alongside her own large-scale sculptures and new works created for the exhibition.
Date: 3 September 2025 – 11 January 2026. Location: Barbican, Level 2, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £8+BF. Book now
Mona Hatoum, Orbital, 2018 © Mona Hatoum. Credit: Photo © White Cube (Theo Christelis).
Jame St Findlay: Harmony
The exhibition Harmony by Jame St Findlay at Perrotin is a solo show that reflects the artist’s queer perspective and challenges conventional ideas of normality. Inspired by the “mono-pine,” a mobile phone mast disguised as a tree, the installation features filing boxes, suit jackets, and elements of corporate order arranged to create a controlled environment that gradually reveals cracks. Through this work, St Findlay examines the psychological effects of productivity, surveillance, and the illusion of control, transforming the gallery space into a subtle critique of societal structures. The exhibition is part of the support offered by the Claridge’s Royal Academy Schools Art Prize, which includes £30,000 and a solo London show for the winning artist.
Date: 1–28 September 2025. Location: Perrotin London, Brooks Mews, Mayfair, London W1K 4EG. Price: Free. claridges.co.uk
Gregory Bojorquez, Missy Elliott, Aventura, FL 2003
HIP HOP – Living a Dream
HIP HOP – Living a Dream on show at the Saatchi gallery explores the music, fashion, art, and lifestyle that grew from the streets of 1980s New York into a worldwide cultural movement. On display are the works of three renowned photographers: Jamel Shabazz, whose portraits capture the birth of the movement and artists such as LL Cool J and Public Enemy; Joseph Rodriguez, who documents East Los Angeles gang life and Hip Hop’s spread to international communities, including figures like Master P and the No Limit Crew; and Gregory Bojorquez, whose images highlight the energy of the Los Angeles scene with portraits of stars including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, and OutKast.
Date: 31 July – 10 September 2025. Location: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, London SW3 4RY. Price: Free. saatchigallery.com
Rearview Mirror: Liverpool–London–Paris
Rearview Mirror: Liverpool–London–Paris brings together Paul McCartney’s photographs from the early days of Beatlemania, taken between late 1963 and early 1964 on his own 35mm Pentax camera. The exhibition captures unguarded backstage moments, life on tour, and the camaraderie of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as their fame soared across the UK and Paris. Offering a rare, intimate perspective from inside the whirlwind, these images are a unique record of a cultural turning point.
Date: 28 August – 4 October 2025. Location: Gagosian, 20 Davies Street, London W1K 3DT. Price: Free. gagosian.com
Paul McCartney, George, Ringo, and John backstage at The Beatles Christmas Show, Finsbury Park Astoria, December 1963. © Paul McCartney. Courtesy Gagosian.
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
Free event of the week
Kensington Gardens Harvest Festival
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens Harvest Festival
Celebrate the season at the Kensington Gardens Allotment with a free, open to all festival, where you can explore colourful growing beds, meet the volunteers who care for the space, and discover more about food growing and the wildlife it supports. The day will be filled with activities for all ages, including guided walks, seed planting in newspaper pots to take home, nature inspired storytelling, games, crafts, quizzes, and, weather permitting, the chance to dig up some potatoes.
Date: 6 September 2025, 12pm - 4pm. Location: Kensington Gardens Allotment, Kensington Palace Gardens, London W2 2AR. Price: Free. royalparks.org.uk
Interview of the week
In conversation with Mandy Yin
Mandy Yin, celebrASIA Ambassador. Image credit Charlie Round-Turner.
Mandy Yin, the Malaysian-born chef behind Sambal Shiok Laksa Bar, is returning as ambassador for celebrASIA taking palce at Battersea Power Station from 5–7 September 2025. Yin has created an exclusive chicken satay burger with Chick’N’Sours, combining traditional Malaysian flavours with a modern twist, and we spoke to her about sharing her cuisine and culture with festival-goers.
Click here for the full interview.
Food of the week
Mestizo Chelsea
Mestizo Chelsea.
This week we visited Mestizo Chelsea, the sister restaurant of Camden’s Mestizo, which is currently running a summer collaboration with 1800 Tequila. The menu focuses on regional Mexican cooking based on long-standing family recipes, alongside a special cocktail list designed to pair with the food. Dishes such as the house mole and ceviches show the depth of tradition behind the menu, while the drinks, including Oro y Fuego, Mazunte and Atlua, are inspired by different parts of Mexico.
Location: 392 King’s Road, London SW3 5UZ. Website: mestizo-chelsea.com; Instagram: @mestizo_chelsea
Cause of the week
The Listening Place
The Listening Place.
The Listening Place (TLP) is a London-based charity offering free, face-to-face support for people experiencing suicidal thoughts, with no waiting lists. Each person is matched with the same volunteer regularly in a warm, non-clinical environment, allowing trust and openness to grow. Support is provided by trained, empathetic volunteers through 50-minute sessions every fortnight, offering a safe and confidential space to talk. TLP welcomes people from all backgrounds without the need for a diagnosis, and its volunteer roles are central to its work: Listening Volunteers provide one-to-one support, while Helping Volunteers create a welcoming environment and assist during shifts. Both roles involve training, ongoing supervision, and a clear time commitment, ensuring volunteers can offer consistent, compassionate support that helps people feel heard and less alone.
Click here for more on volunteering with The Listening Place.
