8 Late Summer Events Worth Clearing Your Calendar For

Get Lost in the Music (and the Woods) at Lost Village 

27-30 August, Lincolnshire 

Every festival now claims to be “immersive.” Aptly named Lost Village, this festival built an abandoned village to prove it, and then hid a church and a downed plane cockpit inside it to use as stages, alongside a scrapyard, an aircraft hangar, and a woodland “Outpost” where headliners like Solomun, Peggy Gou and Caribou play out. But the music is honestly only half the reason people go back year after year. There’s a 30-seat “Table in the Woods” chef’s table run by a Michelin-starred chef, a full spa hidden in the Energy Garden with wood-fired hot tubs, Finnish saunas and sound baths, a late-night arcade for when your legs give out, and the Institute of Curious Minds running talks and debates through the day for anyone who wants a break from dancing. You could stumble across a secret cocktail bar mid-forest at 2am and question whether you imagined it, and that’s before you’ve even found the vintage market or wandered past one of the abandoned cars and boats left rotting artfully in the trees. 

See Some of the Biggest Names at All Points East 

21-30 August, Victoria Park

Forget the idea of “one festival” entirely. All Points East is six different parties wearing the same name, spread across ten days so nobody has to choose between Tyler, The Creator and Lorde, because they’re not booked the same weekend. Jorja Smith and Tems open things on the 21st with what’s shaping up to be one of the best double bills of the summer. Lorde takes the 22nd, turning the Victoria Park crowd into a choir singing every word back at her. Deftones anchor Outbreak day on the 23rd for anyone who wants their late-summer festival with a side of distortion. Then, for the first time in the festival’s history, Tyler, The Creator headlines two consecutive nights, the 28th and 29th, before Twenty One Pilots close the whole thing out on the 30th. It really is a ten-day occupation of East London that happens to have some of the biggest names in music dropping in throughout.

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching at Body Movements 

30 August, Southwark Park

This festival has five stages that are each named with the same shameless humour as the festival itself — Mother, The Strap, Snatch, Hot Mess, and yes, Glory Hole. Now in its third year, Body Movements was built by DJ Saoirse, Clayton Wright of Little Gay Brother, and promoter Simon Denby specifically to platform queer and trans artists working across London’s DIY dance scene, and the lineup shows it. You have BASHKKA reworking ballroom through a SWANA lens, MCR-T’s high-speed ghettotech, Eris Drew & Octo Octa, Romy on the decks, and Babymorocco closing out the day’s hyperpop thread. Beyond the music, there’s a Vogue masterclass from Jay Jay Revlon and a queer market from Fancy a Mooch, plus takeovers from crews including Dalston Superstore, Daytimers and House of Revlon UK.

It’s also run entirely independently with no corporate sponsor pulling the strings, and every ticket sold includes a donation to the festival’s community fund, which has already raised over £53,000 for causes including London Trans+ Pride and Gendered Intelligence. You’re not just buying a day out, you’re funding the scene that makes London’s queer nightlife worth having in the first place.

Watch Alternative Asian Culture Take Over at Margins United

26 September, Club 360, Tottenham

Now in its third year, this is Eastern Margins’ flagship event and the only UK festival dedicated entirely to alternative East and South-East Asian culture. It’s split into Day (3pm-11pm) and Night (11.30pm-4am), with separate tickets or a bundle if you want the full thirteen-hour stretch. The day is headlined by Yves, the South Korean singer formerly of K-pop group Loona, alongside J-pop act F5ve and Chengdu cloud rap artist jackzebra. The night hands over to DJ Love, the Filipino producer credited as one of the originators of budots, who’s playing this after recently undergoing heart surgery. Alongside the music, there’s the Eternal Market, an entire room of ESEA traders selling everything from tattoo flash to vintage Japanese archive pieces.

Have Your Afternoon Wrecked and Absolutely Enjoy it at World Press Photo

21 August – 30 September, MPB Gallery, Bermondsey

This year’s contest drew tens of thousands of entries from photojournalists working in dangerous conditions to get the shot. The top prize went to American photographer Carol Guzy, for an image of two young girls clinging to their father as he’s detained by ICE agents outside a New York immigration hearing. Other finalists include a polar bear feeding on a whale carcass in Svalbard and Palestinians climbing onto an aid truck entering Gaza. It’s free, it toured over 80 cities last year to more than four million visitors, and it will stay with you far longer than anything else on this list.

Get Inside 800 Buildings You’ll Never See Open Again at Open House London

12-20 September, booking opens 19 August

The best-kept secret on this whole list, over 800 buildings across all 33 boroughs thrown open to the public, entirely free. This year’s highlights include Richard Rogers’ Lloyd’s Building for its 40th anniversary (the famous “inside-out” building, with service ducts and glass lifts on the outside), the BT Tower’s revolving restaurant floor 158 metres up, and the Zaha Hadid Foundation’s private archive. The best ones sell out within hours of bookings opening, so set an alarm for midday on the 19th.

Sing Along to Grease at the Secret Cinema

Until 13 September, Evolution London, Battersea Park

Secret Cinema’s immersive Grease returns for a second sold-out summer, and this time it’s got a funny bit of casting. Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs is playing Teen Angel. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour production, a 30-person cast, a live band and has giant multi-screen platforms. The whole venue has been rebuilt as Rydell High, the Frosty Palace, the Auto Shop and a full 1950s carnival. You train with Coach Calhoun, cheer on the T-Birds, and eat diner food between scenes. Tickets from £49, and given last year sold out completely, this isn’t one to leave until the last week.

Watch London’s Streets and Parks Turn Into Stages, Entirely Free

21 August – 6 September, Greenwich, Newham & Thamesmead

London’s biggest free outdoor performing arts festival is back for its 31st year, transforming squares, parks and landmarks into full-scale theatre, dance and circus venues for 17 days straight. It opens with 360, a huge rave-inflected dance ritual staged on a circular tower in Woolwich, and closes with a mass community dance finale created with local Greenwich dance groups. In between, there’s an all-female high-wire act 30 metres above the ground, a floating structure tipping dancers back and forth on water in Thamesmead, and Greenwich Fair, a full weekend of acrobats, street food and surprise performances in the park. Every single event is free.