The long-running Bloomsbury Festival returns with a packed programme of events, much of it free.
Turns out, London's most bookish quarter also knows how to party. This year's Bloomsbury Festival (1-31 October) brings together 150 events, spanning 'theatre, music, exhibitions, literature and science'. Some 40 local venues are involved.
This is the 20th festival, which returns to its month-long format after a truncated 2025. The over-arching theme is ‘Create and Celebrate’, which is admittedly a little vague, but opens the door to a wide range of events. This kind of range ->
Among those that jump out is Portal, "An audiovisual installation blending optical illusion, live 3D projection, and prepared piano into a mysterious journey beyond reality and imagination," on at CityLit on 10 October.
Similarly difficult to picture is Moments of Grace (2 October), which reckons to be "An immersive oral history installation project distilling a century of nursing into one time-bending 24-hour shift," in Holy Cross Church.
Local history fans should see Bloomsbury's Back Yard on 10 October, which tells the story of the obscure Ormond Yard, "a powerhouse of local industry and home to a diverse community who helped put Bloomsbury on the map".
The festival also has a strong science strand this year, with a musical about crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, a family 'Discovery Hub' of science and creativity (which has some marvellous stuff going on), and a chance to see child-development science up close. The very first event of the festival, on 1 October, is a medical comedy night.
The variety of event is impressive. The festival includes everything from a cabaret show irresistibly called Nuns with Tattoos, to a Diwali takeover, to a screening of Nosferatu with 'live organ improvisation' (presumably that's an organ of the musical variety, and not the kind the Count might sink his teeth into).
There's nothing square about Bloomsbury!
Bloomsbury Festival 2026 runs 1-31 October. See website for individual event details and ticketing.
