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London’s biggest museums are teaming up for a huge free festival next summer

The eight day event is being co-produced by the team behind South Asia’s largest arts festival

Rosie Hewitson
Written by
Rosie Hewitson
Things to Do Editor, London
Entrance of the Natural History Museum
Photograph: Shutterstock | Entrance of the Natural History Museum
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From West End Live, Pride and Carnival to Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, Soho Village Fête and King’s Cross Summer Sounds, Londoners are already absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to wallet-friendly fun over the warmer months. 

But next summer there’ll be even more free fun in the capital, as a major new multidisciplinary arts festival launches in South Kensington in partnership with South Asian cultural foundation Serendipity Arts. 

SW7’s long-standing Great Exhibition Road Festival will be teaming up with Serendipity – a not-for-profit that’s already responsible for South Asia’s largest arts festival, in Goa – to stage the nine-day festival, which will spotlight talent from India and its diaspora, including established and emerging creatives from London’s South Asian communities. 

Samvatsar Katha performing at Serendipity Arts Goa in 2026
Photograph: Serendipity ArtsSamvatsar Katha performing at Serendipity Arts Goa in 2026

An all-female curatorial team will be curating events across South Kensington’s impressive number of world-leading cultural institution, including the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall, educational institutions like Imperial College London, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal College of Music and the Royal College of Art, plus the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, founded by Prince Albert as a means for organising investment in these institutions. 

The inaugural festival is scheduled to take place June 19-27 2027, with further details expected in due course. 

Did you see that a barnstorming ‘Star Wars’-in-concert weekender is coming to the Royal Albert Hall in 2027?

Plus: FKA twigs will curate Meltdown 2027 – and she’ll play a landmark gig during the festival

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