What’s on in London this week: 30 March - 5 April 2026
Discover our pick of events in London this week: 30 March - 5 April 2026.
Hayward Gallery Lates: Chiharu Shiota & Yin Xiuzhen
Enjoy an after-hours evening at the Hayward Gallery featuring the works of Chiharu Shiota and Yin Xiuzhen. The gallery will host spotlight tours led by the curatorial team and performances by alumni of the New Poets Collective, reflecting on memory, identity, movement, and grief. Guests can take part in a poetry reading room, self-led creative stations, and the interactive workshop Creative Encounters: A Shrine to the Everyday, run by artists Vroomlab and Alysha Nelson.
Date: Wednesday, 1 April 2026, 6pm. Location: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: £7 (ages 16+). Book now
Hayward Gallery. Image courtesy of Southbank Centre
Belarus Free Theatre: Kitchen Revolution
Kitchen Revolution at the Barbican Conservatory is a unique event combining a shared meal with thought-provoking conversation. Guests experience home-cooked Soviet food while taking part in discussions led by Stephen Sackur and Carole Cadwalladr, moderated by Belarus Free Theatre’s Co-Artistic Directors, Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada. The event recreates the spirit of the original ‘kitchen revolution’ in the Soviet Union, where private gatherings sparked debate, ideas, and action against oppression. It encourages reflection on art, politics, and freedom, offering an intimate space to engage with pressing social issues and the creative resilience of artists from Ukraine and Belarus, many of whom are political refugees.
Date: 31 March – 1 April 2026. Location: Barbican Conservatory, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: from £65. Concessions available. Book now
Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company: Solera
World-renowned flamenco guitarist Paco Peña presents Solera, a performance that will unite the energy of young dancers with the wisdom of seasoned artists. Running from 2–4 April 2026 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the show begins in the rehearsal room, exploring flamenco’s rich, oral tradition, before moving to the stage in a performance that is soulful, celebratory, and full of life. Flamenco is passed down through generations, and Solera honours this heritage while embracing the innovation and vibrancy of youth. Created in collaboration with long-term partner Jude Kelly and first staged at Sadler’s Wells in 2022, the production celebrates the dialogue between artistic experience and fearless creativity, offering audiences a unique glimpse into flamenco’s past, present, and future.
Ahead of Solera’s launch, we had a chat with world-renowned flamenco guitarist Paco Peña. Click here for the full interview.
Date: 2–4 April 2026. Location: Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Avenue, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 4TN. Price: From £15 (+ £4 transaction fee). Book now
Belarus Free Theatre: Kitchen Revolution. Image courtesy of the Barbican Centre
Fulham Pier Fan Zone for Boat Race 2026
The annual Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race returns to the Thames this weekend. Fulham Pier will become the ultimate Fan Zone for Boat Race 2026, offering front-row river views of the crews as they race, along with big screens, street food, pop-up bars, an interactive rowing simulator, live music, and DJs from 11am to 11pm. The Boat Race carries historic and cultural significance as one of the UK’s oldest sporting rivalries, dating back to 1829, celebrating endurance, teamwork, and the elite sporting spirit of Oxford and Cambridge while remaining a cherished national tradition.
Date: 4 April 2026. Location: Fulham Pier, Stevenage Road, London SW6 6HH. Price: No tickets required, just show up! Book now
By Storm – My Ghosts Go Ghost Live
In 2023, RiTchie and producer Parker Corey launched their project By Storm with the single “Double Trio,” paying tribute to their former group Injury Reserve while charting a new creative path. Their debut album, My Ghosts Go Ghost, builds on this momentum with a back-to-basics approach, featuring nine tightly crafted tracks that explore themes of loss, fatherhood, capitalism, and personal growth. The album reflects a decade-long journey of musical development in Phoenix, showcasing RiTchie and Corey’s evolving identity and artistry. For longtime fans, it offers refined craftsmanship, while new listeners experience the clarity and depth the duo has cultivated over years of collaboration.
Date: 3 April 2026. Time: 7:30 pm. Location: ICA, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH. Price: £21.38 (including DICE fees + £1.50 venue levy). Book now
Basement Jaxx + Special Guests
Electronic duo Basement Jaxx, renowned for hits like Red Alert, Rendez-Vu, Bingo Bango, and Where’s Your Head At, will perform at the Hall on Thursday 2 April 2026. Their celebrated career includes million-selling albums such as Remedy and the double-platinum UK number one The Singles, earning them two BRIT Awards and a GRAMMY. Known for their electrifying live shows at venues like The Hollywood Bowl and Glastonbury Festival, Basement Jaxx continue to tour globally with headline DJ sets and full live performances, including recent appearances at Coachella 2025 and major UK and Ireland outdoor shows.
Date: 2 April 2026. Location: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London. Price: from £91. Book now
I’ve Seen That Face Before
This new quarterly residency launches with an experimental evening of music and performance curated by NiCKY and Sean Burns, bringing together an eclectic mix of queer artists working across avant-garde sound, visual art, and live expression. Featuring performances from Poisonous Relationship, William Joys, Island Girl, and NiCKY, alongside a DJ set from Rene Matić, the night promises a boundary-pushing blend of theatricality, emotional songwriting, and immersive soundscapes that explore identity, artifice, and creativity on the fringes.
Date: 2 April 2026. Time: 7:30pm. Location: Cafe OTO is located at 18–22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London, E8 3DL. Price: £16 standard, £14 advance, £8 members. Book now
Poster: Sands Murray Wassink
The Authenticator
The Authenticator, which opened at the National Theatre last week, is a gripping gothic psychological thriller set in a stately family home full of secrets. Eccentric artist Fenella Harford, having recently inherited the house, discovers a hidden stash of diaries and enlists a young academic, Marva, to verify their authenticity. Joined by Marva’s brilliant but overlooked mentor, Abi, the three women uncover truths far darker than they anticipated. Written by Winsome Pinnock and directed by Miranda Cromwell, the play explores deception, family secrets, and the pursuit of truth, following the creative success of their previous collaboration, Rockets and Blue Lights.
Date: 26 March – Saturday, 9 May 2026. Location: Dorfman Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1 9PX. Price: £20 - £78; £5–£10 tickets available for 16–25-year-olds. Book now
Easter weekend in London
Easter Weekend 2026 in London runs from 3 - 6 April, offering the perfect opportunity to make the most of the capital. Fancy mastering your own hot cross buns, enjoying a moving Easter concert, or discovering Soho’s newest underground jazz club?
Click here for our guide to things to do in London over the Easter weekend.
Rakie Ayola, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Cherrelle Skeete. Image credit Blacksocks
Cinema
Beatriz González, Why Are You Crying? + Introduction
Launching this week at the Barbican, Why Are You Crying? is a documentary following Colombian artist Beatriz González over three years as she creates Auras Anónimas, a monumental installation of 9,000 funerary plaques in Bogotá’s abandoned Central Cemetery. Known for her sharp and often humorous reinterpretations of popular imagery, González here explores grief, memory, and collective loss, reflecting on how an artist responds to prolonged national violence. The film offers an intimate look at her creative process while tracing Colombia’s recent history, providing essential context for the Beatriz González exhibition in the Art Gallery. It deepens understanding of an artist whose work has chronicled, challenged, and mourned her country for over five decades.
Date: 4 – 27 April 2026. Location: Cinema 2, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: £15 + £1.50 BF. Book now
Beatriz González. Beatriz González in her studio, Bogotá, ca. 1974. © Beatriz González. Courtesy the artist. Photo - Rafael Moure.
Arts & Culture
Opening this week
Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations
Celebrated artist Veronica Ryan presents over 100 works created across the last forty years, including sculptures, textiles, and works on paper. The exhibition, opening at the Whitechapel Gallery, features recently rediscovered 1980s sculptures in plaster and beaten lead, alongside vivid drawings. Ryan’s art reflects memory, personal stories, history, trauma, and recovery, often inspired by the natural world, where seeds and pods suggest protection, growth, and change. She combines traditional materials with crafts such as crochet and quilting to create rich, textured, and moving artworks.
Date: 1 April – 14 June 2026. Location: 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX. Price: from £18. Concessions available. Book now
Click here for our guide to art exhibitions opening in London in April 2026.
Portrait of Veronica Ryan in Along a Spectrum, 2021, Spike Island, Bristol. Courtesy Alison Jacques and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo Lisa Whiting
What Was, What Is, What Could Be
An exhibition celebrating seven years of the Queer Youth Art Collective (QYAC) will open at Camberwell Space this week. What Was, What Is, What Could Be features new works created during a three-month residency with 30 LGBTQIA+ artists aged 18–28, alongside archival projects documenting QYAC’s creative legacy, including The QYAC Quilt (2023), a Recipe Book (2024), and Deck of Many Things (2025). The show also presents a newly commissioned textiles piece, The Hanging Archive, co-produced with alumni and partner organisations, and benefits from archival support from the Museum of Transology. This exhibition marks a pivotal moment for QYAC as it moves towards a model led by young artists and the wider community, celebrating inclusivity, accessibility, and the creativity of emerging queer artists.
Date: 2 – 22 April 2026. Location: Camberwell Space, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, 16-20 Snow Fields, London, SE5 8NB. Price: Free. arts.ac.uk
The QYAC Quilt (2023). Part of What Was, What Is, What Could Be exhibition at Camberwell Space. Credit Gavin Li
Senga Nengudi
Opening alongside Veronica Ryan, Senga Nengudi at Whitechapel Gallery will present a rare spotlight on the pioneering sculptor and performance artist. The exhibition highlights a pivotal period in Nengudi’s practice during the late 1970s and early 1980s, showcasing photographic images, archival materials and film alongside her iconic performances. Known for transforming found materials, such as paper, sand, rocks, seed pods and tights, into performative works, Nengudi explored the body’s shifting forms and states through movement and choreographed interactions, often collaborating with artists like Maren Hassinger. A key figure in the 1960s avant-garde scene in Los Angeles and New York, and associated with Studio Z and Just Above Midtown, Nengudi’s work fuses sculpture, performance and abstraction to create evocative, body-centered experiences.
Date: 1 April – 14 June 2026. Location: Whitechapel Gallery, 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. Price: Free. whitechapelgallery.org
Senga Nengudi, Performance Piece, 1977, (detail), Silver gelatin prints, triptych, overall dimensions 300.8 x 104.1 cm. Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. Photo Harmon Outlaw.
Ty Locke: Hand Me Downs
Hand Me Downs by Ty Locke is currently on view at Copperfield Gallery. The installation resembles the remnants of a bankrupt stately home, where traditional symbols of inheritance are reimagined using cheap, everyday materials such as cigarette filters and party platters. Drawing on his working-class upbringing and experiences of instability, Locke reflects on the absence of heirlooms and instead constructs his own, using humour and labour-intensive processes to transform personal history into objects that question what it means to inherit, belong, and come of age.
Date: Until 16 May 2026. Location: 6 Copperfield Street, London SE1 0EP. Price: Free. copperfieldgallery.com
Hand Me Downs by Ty Locke is currently on view at Copperfield Gallery. Image credit MTotoe/ FLO London
Megan Plunkett: Welcome In
Welcome In is an exhibition by Megan Plunkett on view at Emalin, presenting her ongoing exploration of objects that hover between reality and illusion. Through photographs of props, replicas, and everyday consumer items, Plunkett investigates how meaning is constructed and destabilised, using familiar forms to evoke something strange and unknowable. Her work lingers in a space of ambiguity, where objects appear almost real but resist full belief, reflecting broader systems such as image-making, language, and commerce. Across the exhibition’s series, she draws attention to absence, simulation, and the eerie presence of things that seem to carry meaning without a clear source, inviting viewers to reconsider how the ordinary can act as a gateway to the unfamiliar.
Date: 7 March - 9 May 2026. Location: Emalin, 118½ Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JN. Price: Free. emalin.co.uk
Installation view. Welcome In is an exhibition by Megan Plunkett, Emailin. Image courtesy of Emalin
#FLOFavourites: Pick of the Week
park of the week
Kensington Gardens
Image credit Igor Sporynin
Over the summer we are going to be highlighting London’s best parks and the galleries and art to be found in or around them, and this week we highlight Kensington Gardens. Spanning 265 acres, the park features landmarks such as Kensington Palace, the Albert Memorial, and the Italian Gardens, alongside tree-lined paths, open lawns, and the Round Lake filled with wildlife. It is also home to the Serpentine Gallery, where the current exhibition by David Hockney is on display at the Serpentine North Gallery. Just a five-minute walk away, the South Gallery is showing an exhibition by Cecily Brown.
Art news of the week
Saatchi Gallery Will Present an Interactive Kinetic Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026
Lubaina Himid CBE RA. Image courtesy of the British Council. Image credit Adama Jalloh
Saatchi Gallery will present its garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, collaborating with kinetic artist Lucy Gregory, garden designer Naomi Ferrett-Cohen, and supporter ING. The garden will combine contemporary art, interactive sculpture, and thoughtful planting, allowing visitors to physically engage with the artwork. Gregory’s kinetic sculptures, inspired by Matisse’s The Dance and mechanical toys, will invite participants to activate spinning, anthropomorphic forms, while Ferrett-Cohen’s vibrant planting design will complement the sculptures and guide visitors along a playful, circular path. The garden will celebrate community, connection with nature, and the joy of outdoor gathering, offering a participatory experience that merges art, movement, and horticulture.
Date: 19 - 23 May 2026. Location: Royal Hospital Chelsea, Royal Hospital Road, London SW3 4SR.
Click here for more art news to be on your radar this week.
Food of the week
Holy Carrot Bistro
Holy Carrot Bistro. Image credit Ollie Tomlinson
Holy Carrot Bistro marks the latest chapter for the beloved Holy Carrot concept, building on the success of the original Notting Hill location in London’s West End. Rather than being a brand‑new venture, this Spitalfields outpost extends the restaurant’s contemporary, vegetable‑led cooking style into East London with an evolved bistro‑style menu. The kitchen remains rooted in fire‑led cooking and inventive fermentation, now offering a broader scope of dishes that move from lighter shared plates to heartier options, including koji‑inspired pizzettas and a seasonal “Pie du jour.” The drinks list reflects the same creative energy, with cocktails built around smoke, spice, heat and fermentation, alongside thoughtful non‑alcoholic choices and a curated wine selection. Interiors designed with a warm, social atmosphere make it equally suited to casual lunches and longer evening meals, reinforcing Holy Carrot’s commitment to flavourful, sustainable dining.
Location: 61–63 Brushfield Street, London E1 6AA. Website: holycarrot.co.uk Instagram: @holycarrotrestaurant
Cause of the week
WeSwim
Image courtesy of Old Spitalfields Market
WeSwim is a London-based organisation dedicated to increasing opportunities for disabled adults to swim and be active in the water. Founded in 2019 by Natasha Fleming, WeSwim runs local swimming clubs in partnership with pools across the city, providing safe, inclusive, and welcoming spaces where disabled people can improve their physical and mental health, ease pain, and reduce social isolation. Volunteering with WeSwim gives you the chance to support this mission. You don’t need prior coaching experience, just confidence and a willingness to be in the water, as full training and support are provided. Volunteers help run sessions across multiple London locations, including Barbican, Canada Water, Crouch End, Old Street, Queen’s Park, and Tottenham Green, with more clubs opening soon. By volunteering, you contribute to a diverse and encouraging community, empower disabled adults to be active, and help create an environment where everyone can enjoy the freedom and joy of swimming.
Click here for more information about volunteering with WeSwim.
