What's on in London this weekend? The best free events, markets and days out on 5 and 6 September 2026

London this weekend, 5 and 6 September 2026, belongs to the last big outdoor events of the summer — and two of them are free. Black On The Square returns to Trafalgar Square on Saturday from midday to 6pm for its fourth edition, with live music, children's activities, games, stalls and a strong line-up of Black-owned food traders. A few streets north, Denmark Street — Tin Pan Alley, the road that gave Britain half its pop catalogue — hosts a one-day free festival of gigs, talks and an afterparty from 1pm. And across the river at Gabriel's Wharf, the Festival of Britain is the jumping-off point for a free afternoon of jazz, swing dancing and 1950s DJ sets.

East London gets the weekend's biggest send-off. The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival reaches its final week under the theme "We Move", and everything is free: Dancing City takes over the open spaces of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday, while Sunday's closing event, (In)visible Dancing in General Gordon Square, Woolwich, ends with a 90-minute mass dance that anyone can join. Also on Saturday, Brassworks marks five years of Woolwich Works with marching bands, Balkan brass, jazz, funk and Afrobeat, plus a parade from General Gordon Square at midday, reports Westminster Pimlico News. Two major exhibitions close on Sunday, so this is the last chance for both: the National Portrait Gallery's Marilyn Monroe show and Cecily Brown at Serpentine South, which is free. Add Meatopia at Tobacco Dock, the final Queen's Park Book Festival with Philip Pullman and Jacqueline Wilson, and the annual Brompton Cemetery open day, and this is a weekend that rewards planning by neighbourhood rather than by postcode-hopping. Here's what's on, what it costs, how to get there and what to do if it rains.

Everything on this weekend at a glance

Full details, addresses, prices and travel notes are in the sections below.

Black On The Square: free festival in Trafalgar Square

The fourth edition of Black On The Square takes over Trafalgar Square on Saturday 5 September from 12pm to 6pm, and it is free to attend. The programme celebrates Black cultural and creative talent in London across music, performance and food, with live acts on the main stage, activities and games for children, market stalls, and a large contingent of Black-owned food traders — reason enough to arrive hungry.

It is one of the few genuinely central, genuinely free festivals of the London calendar, and its position on the square means you can fold it into an afternoon that also takes in the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery or a walk down Whitehall.

Address and travel: Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Nearest stations are Charing Cross (Northern, Bakerloo, National Rail), Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly) and Embankment (District, Circle, Northern, Bakerloo). Expect the square to be busiest between 2pm and 4pm; earlier in the day is easier with a pushchair.

GDIF: the free finale of London's outdoor summer

The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival is the capital's largest free outdoor performing arts festival, and 2026's edition — themed "We Move" — reaches its final weekend, running until Sunday 6 September. Everything listed here is free.

Dancing City, Saturday, brings pop-up dance performances to open spaces across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. This year's programme includes Benched, an all-male, football-inspired piece, and Man Down, a work of physical storytelling. The format is designed for wandering: you follow the crowd from one performance to the next rather than sitting through a single show.

(In)visible Dancing, Sunday, closes the festival in General Gordon Square, Woolwich, with a 90-minute mass dance event that opens up at the end so that spectators can join in. It is the single best free thing to do in London on Sunday afternoon if you don't mind being pulled into it.

Nature Speaks rounds out the weekend as an immersive outdoor storytelling piece staged in Thamesmead — a part of London most visitors never see, and worth the trip in its own right.

Travel: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is served by Stratford (Central, Jubilee, Elizabeth line, DLR, Overground, National Rail) and Stratford International. Woolwich is now a straightforward journey on the Elizabeth line, with the DLR and National Rail as alternatives. Check festival.org for exact performance times, which vary across the day.

Brassworks 2026: five years of Woolwich Works

Saturday 5 September marks five years of Woolwich Works with the return of Brassworks, an annual celebration of brass music that stretches the definition well past the traditional band stand. The line-up spans marching bands, Balkan brass, jazz, funk and Afrobeat, alongside pop-ups and performances across the site through the day.

The centrepiece is the Brassworks Parade from 12pm to 1pm, which sets off from General Gordon Square and finishes at Woolwich Works — a straightforward, free spectacle that needs no ticket and works well with children.

There are also free hands-on workshops during the day, including kazoo, tuba and hula hoop sessions. Advance booking is recommended for some of them, so check the Woolwich Works website before you travel rather than turning up on spec.

Address and travel: Woolwich Works, 11 No 1 Street, Royal Arsenal, London SE18 6HD. Woolwich station (Elizabeth line) is a short walk; Woolwich Arsenal serves the DLR and National Rail. Note that the same square hosts GDIF's closing event on Sunday, so Woolwich is worth a full weekend visit rather than a single trip.

Meatopia at Tobacco Dock

Meatopia runs at Tobacco Dock in Wapping from Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 September, which makes this its closing weekend. The format is unusual and worth understanding before you buy a ticket: up to 75 chefs each cook a single, carefully chosen dish over wood or charcoal, so you are not choosing between restaurants so much as working your way through a tasting map. Bars, live bands and DJs run alongside. Two practical notes. First, food is generally paid for on top of admission, so budget accordingly. Second, the venue's Victorian vaults and courtyards mean much of the site is sheltered — a genuine advantage if the forecast turns.

Address and travel: Tobacco Dock, Tobacco Quay, Wapping Lane, London E1W 2SF. Nearest stations are Wapping and Shadwell (Overground), Shadwell (DLR) and Tower Hill (District, Circle), each about a 10-minute walk.

Queen's Park Book Festival: the final edition

The Queen's Park Book Festival returns on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September for what the organisers have confirmed is its last edition — and the programme reflects that. Philip Pullman, Sebastian Barry and Jacqueline Wilson are among the headline names, and British Museum curator Michael Lewis appears to mark the Bayeux Tapestry's return to the UK. Tickets are sold per event rather than as a festival pass, and individual sessions for the biggest names tend to sell out first. If you are deciding between the two days, check the timetable at queensparkbookfestival.co.uk before committing.

Travel: Queen's Park, north-west London, NW6. Queen's Park station serves the Bakerloo line and the Overground, and is a short walk from the park.

Two exhibitions closing on Sunday

Both of these end on Sunday 6 September, so this is genuinely the last weekend for either.

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, at the National Portrait Gallery, brings together portraits and photographs by well-known artists and photographers alongside personal belongings — books, scripts and clothing — that shift the show away from pure glamour and towards the working life behind it. Address: St Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE. Nearest stations: Leicester Square, Charing Cross. Ticketed.

Cecily Brown: Picture Making, at Serpentine South, is free. The new works were made in response to the gallery's setting inside Kensington Gardens, a place with personal significance for the artist, and are shown alongside key paintings from across her career. Address: Kensington Gardens, London W2 3XA. Nearest stations: Lancaster Gate, South Kensington, Knightsbridge. Combine it with a walk across the park to the Serpentine and the Albert Memorial.

Also finishing on Sunday: Extra/Ordinary Women at the Charles Dickens Museum, 48 Doughty Street, WC1N 2LX, which sets out the real women who supported and inspired Dickens, and traces the clues in his novels back to them. A portrait of his daughters Katey and Mamie goes on public display for the first time.

Saturday 5 September: the day, hour by hour

Bruce Lee UK Event · 10am · Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road, E1 4UJ · An eight-hour, estate-approved programme including the premiere of a documentary on the making of The Big Boss, a Mandarin-language screening of the 1971 original, and material on Lee's philosophy. · Ticketed.

Twin Peaks Season 1 Marathon · 10.30am-6.15pm · Lumiere Cinema, Romford · All eight episodes of series one back to back, with scheduled breaks; coffee and doughnuts are included in the ticket. · Ticketed.

Horniman Plant Fair · 11am-4pm · Horniman Museum and Gardens, 100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23 3PQ · Specialist growers and independent nurseries across the gardens, with Japanese maples, alpines, succulents and cottage-garden plants, plus guided tours of the grounds. · Free entry to gardens.

Bell House Open Garden · 11.30am-1pm · Bell House, 27 College Road, Dulwich, SE21 7BG · Three acres kept entirely by volunteers, including a newly landscaped dry garden and pollinator beds, with plants for sale propagated on site. · Free or low-cost; check ahead.

Black On The Square · 12pm-6pm · Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN · Music, performance, children's activities and Black-owned food traders on the square. · Free.

Gabriel's Wharf Arts Festival · 12pm-5pm · Gabriel's Wharf, 56 Upper Ground, SE1 9PP · Jazz, swing dance performances and workshops, 1950s and 60s DJ sets, free drop-in crafts for children and an all-ages painting session; independent shops open throughout. · Free.

Art Car Boot Fair · 12pm-6pm · Granary Square, King's Cross, N1C 4AA · Almost 120 artists selling work from car boots under the theme "Play Free", with comedy running alongside. · Ticketed.

LOUD WOMEN Fest · from 12pm · Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, E1 6LA · The 11th edition of the UK's largest feminist DIY music festival, with more than 20 acts including Diva Cup (USA), Folkulaka (Ukraine) and Hagar the Womb. · Ticketed.

Denmark Street Sessions · from 1pm · Denmark Street and nearby venues, WC2H · Gigs, talks and an afterparty across Tin Pan Alley. · Free.

Remembering St Clement's · 2pm-4pm · Bow Road, E3 · A walking tour of the former psychiatric hospital site led by ex-staff, marking 20 years since its closure, with an art intervention by Dolly Sen. · Free.

HedgeFest 2026 · from 2pm · The Ivy House, 40 Stuart Road, Nunhead, SE15 3BE · A benefit gig for London's urban hedgehogs, with proceeds to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species. · Ticketed.

Silent Disco at Kew · 7pm-10.30pm · Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, TW9 3AE · Dancing inside the Victorian Temperate House among rare plants, with two channels to switch between, plus bar and food. · Ticketed.

Feeling Gloomy · 10pm-3am · The Phoenix, Cavendish Square, W1G · Twenty years of the club night built on melancholy — Bowie, the Cure, Joy Division, Kate Bush. · Ticketed.

Sunday 6 September: the day, hour by hour

Living Medicine workshop · 10.15am-4.30pm · Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, SW3 4HS · A full-day session on plant remedies for skin and first aid, including a tour of the grounds, hands-on remedy making and lunch in the garden restaurant. · Ticketed.

Musical Statues walking tour · 10.45am-12.45pm · Westminster · A two-hour walk through Westminster following the musical connections of Churchill, Florence Nightingale and Abraham Lincoln, with an audio soundtrack at each stop. · Ticketed.

Saxon London archaeology walk · 11am-1pm · Meet outside Moorgate station, EC2 · An outdoor session on the shift from Roman Londinium to Anglo-Saxon London, drawing on recent genetic research and excavation data. · Ticketed.

London's Transport in Miniature · 11am-4pm · King's Cross Model Railway Club, N1 · A one-day exhibition with the London Underground Railway Society, including the semi-fictional Waddesdon Manor, Carlton Vale and Lammas Lane layouts. · Ticketed/low cost.

Imagining Animals · 11am-4pm · Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX · A day of puppetry, movement and music inspired by the Royal Menagerie once kept at the Tower of London, with shadow-puppet workshops, movement sessions and a new commission from poet Arji Manuelpillai. · Free/ticketed.

Brompton Cemetery open day · 11am-5pm · Fulham Road, SW10 9UG · Tours of the cemetery and its catacombs, local stalls, children's activities and birds of prey displays. · Free.

Walthamstow Flea Market · 11am-5pm · Big Penny Social, Markhouse Road, Walthamstow, E17 · Dozens of stalls of vintage clothing, vinyl, homeware and craft, with street food and drink from local traders. · Free entry.

Palmers Green Festival · 12pm-5pm · Broomfield Park, N13 · A fete-style day with funfair rides, an art show, a model boat display on the boating lake and a dog show. · Free entry.

GDIF: (In)visible Dancing · afternoon · General Gordon Square, Woolwich, SE18 · The festival's closing event: a 90-minute mass dance that opens to the public at the end. · Free.

Billie Eilish fan experience · 2pm-4pm · The Camden Club, NW1 · A concert screening with live vocals and a resident DJ, built around the fan community rather than the artist. · Ticketed.

Romford Raiders v Peterborough Phantoms · 5.15pm · Sapphire Ice and Leisure, Romford · Pre-season ice hockey, with seating and standing tickets. · Ticketed.

One Night of Elvis · 7.30pm · Churchill Theatre, High Street, Bromley, BR1 1HA · Lee Memphis King's tribute show with a full live band and large-scale visuals. · Ticketed.

Westminster and Pimlico: what's within walking distance

For anyone based in Westminster, Pimlico or Victoria, most of this weekend's best events are reachable on foot or in one stop.

Trafalgar Square is a 20-minute walk from Pimlico via the Embankment, which makes Black On The Square the obvious Saturday anchor. From there, the National Portrait Gallery is directly on the square's north-east corner, with the Marilyn Monroe exhibition closing on Sunday.

Denmark Street is 15 minutes further north through Covent Garden, so the free Saturday festival there pairs naturally with the square. Heading the other way, Chelsea Physic Garden on Royal Hospital Road is a short walk or a single bus ride from Pimlico — and Brompton Cemetery's Sunday open day is four stops on the District line to West Brompton.

Across the river, Gabriel's Wharf on the South Bank is 25 minutes from Westminster on foot via Lambeth Bridge and the river path — one of the better Saturday walks in central London, and free at both ends. The Sunday Musical Statues walk starts and stays in Westminster itself.

Two reliable local constants: the Pimlico Road antiques and design shops, quieter at the weekend than the West End and free to browse, and St James's Park and Green Park, which are at their best in early September when the crowds thin but the beds are still full.

Markets this weekend

London's weekend markets are the cheapest way to fill a morning, and early September is a good moment for produce.

Borough Market · Sat 8am-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm · 8 Southwark Street, SE1 1TL · London Bridge station · Free entry. The capital's best-known food market; go early on Saturday to avoid the crush.

Portobello Road Market · Sat, main antiques day, from early morning · Notting Hill, W11 · Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill Gate · Free. Saturday is the antiques day and the only one worth planning around.

Columbia Road Flower Market · Sun, roughly 8am-3pm · Columbia Road, E2 · Hoxton, Bethnal Green · Free. Prices drop sharply in the last hour; the surrounding shops and cafés are half the appeal.

Walthamstow Flea Market · Sun 11am-5pm · Big Penny Social, E17 · Walthamstow Central · Free entry. Vintage clothing, vinyl and homeware, with street food on site.

Maltby Street Market · Sat and Sun · Ropewalk, SE1 3PA · Bermondsey, London Bridge · Free entry. Smaller and less frantic than Borough, and better for a sit-down.

Free things to do this weekend

A full weekend in London can cost nothing at all. Free this Saturday and Sunday: Black On The Square, the whole GDIF programme including Dancing City and (In)visible Dancing, the Brassworks parade, Denmark Street Sessions, the Gabriel's Wharf Arts Festival, the Cecily Brown exhibition at Serpentine South, the Brompton Cemetery open day, the Palmers Green Festival, the Remembering St Clement's walk, and the National Gallery's Art On Your Doorstep outdoor display in Brentford, where life-size replicas of the collection's best-known works are installed around the neighbourhood until February 2027.

Add the permanent free collections — the British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Museum of London Docklands and the Imperial War Museum — and the only real cost of a London weekend is travel.

With children: parks, parades and model railways

The Brassworks parade at midday on Saturday is the easiest win: free, outdoors, an hour long and loud in the right way, with kazoo and hula hoop workshops afterwards. The Gabriel's Wharf Arts Festival runs free drop-in crafts and an all-ages painting session, and it is right on the river.

On Sunday, London's Transport in Miniature at the King's Cross Model Railway Club is a reliable hit with younger children, and the Palmers Green Festival in Broomfield Park delivers the traditional fete package — funfair rides, dog show, model boats on the lake — for free entry. The Whitechapel Gallery's Imagining Animals day is built around shadow-puppet making and movement workshops.

For a fallback that never fails: the Natural History Museum and Science Museum in South Kensington, the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill with its aquarium and gardens, and the playgrounds in Hyde Park and Regent's Park.

Days out from London

Early September is one of the better times to leave the city — the school holidays are over, the coast is still warm and the trains are quieter.

Kew Gardens barely counts as leaving London but feels like it: the Temperate House, the Palm House and the Treetop Walkway fill a full day, and the Silent Disco runs there on Saturday evening. Kew Gardens station, District line and Overground.

Brighton is under an hour from Victoria and works as a straightforward day trip for the beach, the Lanes and the Royal Pavilion. Whitstable and Margate on the Kent coast are around 90 minutes from St Pancras on the high-speed line — Margate for the Turner Contemporary and Dreamland, Whitstable for oysters and the harbour.

Inland, Windsor (from Paddington or Waterloo) gives you the castle and the Long Walk in a half-day, and St Albans(from St Pancras, about 20 minutes) offers the cathedral, the Roman remains at Verulamium and a Saturday market.

If the weather turns

Most of this weekend's marquee events are outdoors, so it is worth having a plan B. The strongest indoor options are the two closing exhibitions — Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery and Cecily Brown at Serpentine South, the latter free — plus the Charles Dickens Museum, which also closes its Extra/Ordinary Women display on Sunday.

The London Podcast Festival at Kings Place (90 York Way, N1 9AG, King's Cross St Pancras) runs from 3 to 13 September with live recordings in front of an audience; this weekend's shows include the Disney-themed Disniversity and The Empire Film Podcast.

Meatopia at Tobacco Dock is largely under cover, and the free national collections — British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, V&A, Natural History Museum — remain the most reliable wet-weather answer in the city. The Whitechapel Gallery and Rich Mix in the east both run full indoor programmes this weekend.

Getting around: transport and travel notes

Transport for London runs a full service across the weekend, and the Night Tube operates on Friday and Saturday nights on the Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Contactless and Oyster both cap automatically, so there is rarely a reason to buy a paper travelcard.

Driving and parking: the Congestion Charge applies in central London on Saturdays and Sundays between 12pm and 6pm, and the ULEZ operates across all London boroughs at all times. Given the number of free central events this weekend, public transport is the sensible choice. Always check the TfL website for planned weekend engineering works before travelling, particularly on the Overground.

Looking ahead: London in the rest of September

If you miss this weekend, the month has plenty left. Totally Thames runs across September with river-focused events along the whole tidal Thames. The London Podcast Festival at Kings Place continues to 13 September, and the National Gallery's Art On Your Doorstep display in Brentford stays up until February 2027.

Later in the month come Open House Festival, which unlocks hundreds of buildings normally closed to the public, London Design Festival, and London Fashion Week. The Great River Race — the capital's river marathon, with around 300 crews rowing from Millwall to Ham in Richmond — and the Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festivalround out the traditional end-of-September calendar.

For now, though, this weekend is the last one that still feels like summer: a free festival on Trafalgar Square, a brass parade through Woolwich, a mass dance in a south-east London square, and two exhibitions closing their doors on Sunday evening.

Frequently asked questions about the weekend of 5-6 September in London

What's on in London on 5 and 6 September 2026? The main free events are Black On The Square in Trafalgar Square on Saturday from 12pm to 6pm, the closing weekend of the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival with Dancing City on Saturday and (In)visible Dancing in Woolwich on Sunday, Brassworks at Woolwich Works on Saturday, and the Denmark Street Sessions in Soho. Meatopia runs at Tobacco Dock, and the Queen's Park Book Festival holds its final edition across both days.

What can I do in London this weekend for free? Black On The Square, the entire GDIF programme, the Brassworks parade, Denmark Street Sessions, the Gabriel's Wharf Arts Festival, the Cecily Brown exhibition at Serpentine South, the Brompton Cemetery open day, the Palmers Green Festival and the National Gallery's outdoor Art On Your Doorstep display in Brentford. The national museums — British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, V&A, Natural History Museum — are free every day.

Which exhibitions close this weekend? Three end on Sunday 6 September: Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, Cecily Brown: Picture Making at Serpentine South (free), and Extra/Ordinary Women at the Charles Dickens Museum. If you have been meaning to see any of them, this is the last weekend.

Is GDIF free? Yes. The Greenwich + Docklands International Festival is the UK's largest free outdoor performing arts festival, and its closing weekend — including Dancing City in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, (In)visible Dancing in Woolwich and Nature Speaks in Thamesmead — is free to attend. Performance times vary through the day, so check the festival website before travelling.

What is there to do with children this weekend? The Brassworks parade from General Gordon Square at midday on Saturday, the free crafts and painting sessions at the Gabriel's Wharf Arts Festival, London's Transport in Miniature at the King's Cross Model Railway Club on Sunday, the Palmers Green Festival in Broomfield Park with rides and a dog show, and the puppetry workshops at Whitechapel Gallery.

Which markets are open this weekend? Borough Market on both days, Portobello Road on Saturday for antiques, Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday morning, Maltby Street across the weekend, and the Walthamstow Flea Market at Big Penny Social on Sunday from 11am to 5pm.

Do I have to pay the Congestion Charge at the weekend? Yes. The Congestion Charge applies in central London on Saturdays and Sundays between 12pm and 6pm, and the ULEZ operates across all London boroughs at all times. With this many free central events on, public transport is the cheaper and faster option.

Does the Night Tube run this weekend? Yes, on Friday and Saturday nights, on the Central, Victoria, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Check the TfL website for weekend engineering works before you travel, especially on the Overground.

What's a good day trip from London? Kew Gardens for a full day of glasshouses and the Treetop Walkway, Brighton in under an hour from Victoria, Margate or Whitstable in about 90 minutes from St Pancras on the high-speed line, Windsor for the castle and the Long Walk, or St Albans for the cathedral and the Roman remains at Verulamium.

What's coming up later in September? Totally Thames runs all month along the river, the London Podcast Festival continues to 13 September, and later in the month come Open House Festival, London Design Festival, London Fashion Week, the Great River Race and the Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festival.

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