June in London 2020

London's largest free festival, the London Bridge City's Summer by the River transforms the riverside stretch into a summer hub of live entertainment, food and drink. Transporting Londoners to warmer climes, the festival has a brand new Mediterranean theme for 2020 with the chance to feast on pizza, antipasti and olives at Jimmy's pizza parlour and sip on refreshing cocktails at the spritz bar. The outdoor amphitheatre plays host to free open air cinema, big screen summer sports, live comedy, and music and theatre performances. Weekly Friyay! parties will welcome the weekend in style while the Saturday workshops and storytelling are ideal for family fun. Following the successful launch last year, the Acoustic Stage in Hay's Galleria also returns where you can hear musicians perform live.

The surviving members of rock collective Queen - guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor - join forces with American Idol star Adam Lambert for ten London gigs at The O2. In what will be their first European dates since hit film 'Bohemian Rhapsody', Queen and Adam Lambert take up where the film left off with an all-new 'Rhapsody' show. Hailed as "a marvel of technical advances", the mega-show is an extravagant performance with longtime front man Adam Lambert on lead vocals. Sumptuous visuals expand "the parameters of what a live music experience can be" according to set designer Ric Lipson, promising the band's "most spectacular" show to date.

The man who gave us 'Never Gonna Give You Up' in the nineties, Rick Astley, is on the bill alongside Lionel Richie and George Benson for this year's Hampton Court Palace Festival. Enjoying a second career after early success at the age of 21, Rick Astley has emerged from the shadows of Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Lionel Richie, the superstar behind mega-hits like 'All Night Long', 'Hello' and 'Say You, Say Me', plays two nights at the summer music festival while singer-guitarist George Benson pays tribute to Fats Domino and rock guitar hero Chuck Berry. Each evening concert is set against the beautiful backdrop of Henry VIII's magnificent Tudor Hampton Court Palace. Now in its 28th year, the festival encourages a spot of picnicking, a VIP experience and the chance to hear some well known musicians in an intimate 3,000-seat open-air auditorium.

French stage and screen actress Isabelle Huppert stars in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, his masterpiece about loneliness, lost dreams and illusions, directed by Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove. A UK premiere, this co-production between the Barbican and Odeon-Theatre de l'Europe is performed in French with English surtitles. Told from the point of view of the narrator, Tom Wingfield, the story introduces us to aspiring poet Tom who works in a factory as the main provider, slipping away to the movies whenever he can. He works in a shoe warehouse to support his mother, Amanda, originally from a genteel Southern family, and sister, Laura. She's a fragile, self-conscious soul who never leaves home, contenting herself with a collection of tiny glass animals. The arrival of a 'gentleman caller' one evening releases ghosts of the past.

Some of the original founders of Field Day, LNZRT, and the creators behind small music venues the MOTH Club and The Shacklewell Arms collaborate to create a brand new one day festival for 2020, Wide Awake. Taking place on Friday 5th June 2020 at Brockwell Park, the day before Mighty Hoopla, the festival focuses on leftfield indie, post punk, electronica, techno and jazz through alt breakout acts like black midi, Crack Cloud, Shame and Snapped Ankles. Delve into the underground scene with jazz by The Comet Is Coming, bleak euphoric choruses by Crack Cloud, punk rock by Surfbort as well as post-punk music by Shame and Snapped Ankles. Daniel Avery curates the electronic music offering with all types of beats from across the dance spectrum while Minimal Violence pump up the industrial techno.

It all began in Butlins in Bognor Regis, then in 2017 feel good festival Mighty Hoopla rolled into the city and now it returns to Brockwell Park on Saturday 6th June 2020. Pop stars Anastacia, Natasha Bedingfield and Atomic Kitten take to the main stage, playing big pop anthems with setlists full of singalong hits including I'm Outta Love, These Words and Eternal Flame. Gabrielle takes to the mic to perform a selection of her huge chart-toppers and pop icon Jimmy Somerville delivers his distinctive falsetto with a big band and string backup. Also joining the line-up are Allie X, '90s legend Betty Boo, London Gay Men's Chorus, and dance music phenomenon Sonique. Celebrating alternative club culture, Sink The Pink, Guilty Pleasures and The Grand will be bringing flamboyantly fabulous pageants, DJ sets and dance moves while Maxwell's House of Cabaret bandstand returns to the fabulous festival of revelry, inclusivity and biodegradable glitter.

An annual favourite for families, the Barnes Children's Literature Festival returns in June giving you the chance to meet top authors, hear writers talk about their working methods and pose questions to your favourite wordsmiths. London's largest children's literature festival always manages to secure big name authors. In 2020 you can meet SF Said, author of Varjak Paw, Lucy Strange, who wrote Our Castle by the Sea, and award winning performance poet Joseph Coelho. Ross Welford, author of The Kid Who Came From Space, Pamela Butchart, Lisa Thompson and Jeremy Strong, author of over 100 children's books, are also part of this fantastic festival as it opens up a new chapter in its sixth year. Taking place in town halls, churches and various venues in and around Barnes, the festival centres on Barnes' duck pond where a temporary big top tent hosts some of the events and bookstalls are set up. As well as readings and book talks there are workshops, model making and free activities by local companies.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain will make her West End debut in 2020, starring in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Playhouse Theatre. Part of a new season directed by Jamie Lloyd, which commences with Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac starring James McAvoy, the production will be a new version by Frank McGuinness and will see Chastain - known for her exceptional performances in the likes of Zero Dark Thirty, The Help and Interstellar - take on the role of Nora Helmer. As part of The Jamie Lloyd Company's commitment to making theatre more accessible, there will be 15,000 free tickets given away to first time theatre goers and 15,000 tickets priced at Ł15 for key workers, under 30s and anyone seeking job seeker's allowance or government benefits.

Jake Gyllenhaal returns to the West End in summer 2020 to star in Sunday in the Park with George at the Savoy Theatre. The production transfers from Broadway, where it enjoyed a critically-acclaimed sold-out run, and sees Gyllenhaal reprise his role as painter Georges Seurat, starring alongside Tony Award-winner Annaleigh Ashford who takes the role of Dot. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's masterpiece tells the story of Seurat in the months leading up to the completion of his most famous painting - A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. With all of his attention put on the need to 'finish the hat', the painter neglects other elements of his life, including his lover, Dot.

The all-woman team of directors at Johannesburg-based practice Counterspace are behind the design for this year's Serpentine Pavilion. The youngest ever architects to be commissioned for the Serpentine's high profile architecture commission, now in its 20th year, Counterspace has come up with a design based on gathering spaces. As well as the pavilion in Kensington Gardens, moveable small parts are relocated to neighbourhoods across London while public talks and debates raise questions such as: how can architecture create a space where we are all linked, not ranked? How can architecture promote wellbeing? And can a structure evolve and change together with the environment? The lead architect on the project, Sumayya Vally, said of the design: "Places of memory and care in Brixton, Hoxton, Hackney, Whitechapel, Edgware Road, Peckham, Ealing, North Kensington and beyond are transferred onto the Serpentine lawn. Where they intersect, they produce spaces to be together."

Through a display of works by leading filmmakers, photographers and designers, No Comply at Somerset House explores the popularity of skateboarding and the impact it has had on UK culture and communities over the past 40 years. The exhibition showcases the powerful impact of the skateboarding scene and how it has led to the re-imagination of cities, public spaces and our culture. Visitors will be able to see rare archival footage, film, photography and independent magazines all themed around skateboarding.

Solange Knowles, queer-feminist Peaches and soul icon Barry White are just three of the acts Grace Jones has invited to the Southbank Centre as she curates this year's Meltdown festival which returns for its 27th year. Reggae great Jimmy Cliff, the musician who penned 'I Can See Clearly Now', Lee Scratch Perry, who returns after curating Meltdown in 2003, and Graces Jones herself perform - as the curator closes the festival with "an extraordinary new show unlike any other she has performed before". Look out for The Love Unlimited Synth Orchestra, Skunk Anansie, Baaba Maal, Oumou Sangare, Meshell Ndegeocello, Lee Fields and the Expressions, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and more also at the fantastic festival of contemporary music and culture. As curator, Grace Jones joins a long list of illustrious Meltdown maestros including Nile Rogers, David Bowie, James Lavelle and Yoko Ono, Morrissey, Elvis Costello and Jarvis Cocker.

Derek Deane's epic Swan Lake in-the-round fills the vastness of the Royal Albert Hall with a grand spectacle that includes jugglers, acrobats and dry ice. Among more than 120 performers are 60 swans - "the sheer numbers have their own theatrical impact" (Independent). Something of a summer staple, English National Ballet has performed this magical production every three or fours years since it had its world premiere here in 1997. Set to Tchaikovsky's famous score, everything in this in-the-round production is scaled up, from the first act pas de trois - which becomes a pas de douze - to the Black Swan pas de deux, an "explosive setpiece" (Independent) "better suited to the huge stage" in which wicked Odile impersonates the heroine Odette.

Tate Modern's 64-metre-long gallery in the Blavatnik Building will be filled with Magdalena Abakanowicz's giant woven sculptures this summer in what will be a rare opportunity to see the artist's extraordinary body of work. In the 1960s and '70s, the Polish artist used woven sisal fibre to create towering hanging pieces that she called Abakans. The most significant Abakans will be shown in the exhibition, exploring the relationships between them and a number of other key works such as the wood and iron War Games sculpture.

Dulwich Picture Gallery presents its first major photography exhibition in 2020 with a look back at the rich history of the art form. Unearthed: Photography's Roots brings together over 100 works by 25 leading international photographers to reveal the technical processes and narratives behind the images. A showcase of works by key figures in the industry such as William Henry Fox Talbot and Imogen Cunningham will showcase a range of innovations in photography including the first known Victorian images while works by overlooked photographers such as Japanese artist Kazumasa Ogawa and English gardener Charles Jones will also be on display along with 3D stereoscopic photographs by the Lumiere Brothers, which will be displayed publicly for the first time.

Bill Forsyth's 1980s comic drama, Local Hero, receives a stage adaptation at the Old Vic Theatre in 2020. The musical adaptation comes courtesy of Forsyth and playwright David Greig (Dr. Seuss's The Lorax) with music by Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler. In a tale of money versus happiness, the story sees the locals of a small seaside village in Scotland faced with the task of deciding what exactly getting rich would mean when a Texan oil executive offers them the deal of a lifetime.

This June, athletic apparel brand Lululemon bring back their Sweatlife festival for its 5th year. Taking place at Tobacco Dock, the two-day festival invites all fitness fans, yoga devotees and anyone who loves getting sweaty to embark on classes and workshops led by top teachers from across the globe. This year, for the first time the festival's content will be presented exclusively by lululemon with seasoned facilitators presenting their unique and accessible approach to the classes.

Mancunian rock star and former Oasis songwriter and co-frontman, Noel Gallagher, and his latest musical band of brothers, the 11-piece High Flying Birds, play live in the gardens of Kenwood House in June. The band, which includes former Oasis bandmates Gem Archer, Mike Rowe and Chris Sharrock, performs classics from earlier Oasis albums, alongside hits from Noel's solo output including acclaimed album 'Who Built The Moon' - "Noel's best album since '...Morning Glory' (NME). Since leaving Oasis in 2009 Noel, the Gallagher brother with the songwriting talent - "a man who has written more anthems in the last two decades than anyone else" (NME) - has carved out a successful career with his High Flying Birds. The gig is part of the Heritage Live Concert Series, now in its third year at the beautiful English Heritage site overlooking Hampstead Heath.

Based on one of the best-loved works of fiction, Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize winning novel, Life of Pi is brought to the stage "in her theatrically savvy adaptation" (The Guardian) by Lolita Chakrabarti. The book, which has sold over fifteen million copies worldwide, tells of the struggle of survival between a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan, a Bengal tiger and a 16-year-old boy, all stranded on a small lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The play, featuring "impressive" puppetry designs by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, has already received glowing reviews following its debut run at the Crucible in Sheffield. It "does tremendous justice to the author's imaginative canvas" says The Guardian while The Telegraph calls it "the 'next' War Horse".

Following on from the staging of Luzia at the Royal Albert Hall, Cirque du Soleil's 30th anniversary celebrations in the UK continue with Corteo at The O2. One of the company's most enchanting arena performances, it will be shown to UK audiences for the very first time, wowing them with a theatrical show of comedy and spontaneity. Told from the point of view of a clown named Mauro, it sees him imagine his funeral in a carnival setting with a weird and wonderful showcase in a mysterious space between heaven and earth. Expect incredible visuals, acrobatics and theatrics from the Canadian performance troupe.

Giffords, the much-loved old school travelling circus, takes us to the land where the fairy folk live as the troupe makes a welcome return to Chiswick House. As Nell Gifford would have wanted, Tweedy the Clown and the eccentric collection of acrobats are back. This time, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Giffords Circus, they're putting on The Hooley, a Celtic folktale set to earthly rhythms and featuring horses, fairies, music and dancing. Cal McCrystal directs, hot off the heels of his 2019 Atomic Saloon Show that wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Festival before moving to Las Vegas. Also returning is Tweedy the clown and Giffords favourites Nancy Trotter Landry and Cyr wheel artist Lil Rice. In 2020, Giffords sets up its big top in the grounds of Chiswick House but also adds a second London venue, arriving at the National Trust owned Morden Hall Park for one week in July.

After a sold out run at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre last year - when it became the theatre's highest grossing production ever - Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita transfers to the Barbican Theatre in June 2020. Winner of Best Musical at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, Jamie Lloyd directs the hit musical which features a chart-topping score including Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Oh! What A Circus, Another Suitcase in Another Hall, and the Academy Award-winning You Must Love Me, originally performed by Madonna in the Oscar-winning 1996 film. The Guardian reviewer described this as "a work of screaming fun" with "cast members wielding spray cans", booty-shaking and b-boy dancing while The Telegraph called it nothing short of "the revolutionary precursor to Hamilton". High praise indeed.

Shakespeare's timeless story of star crossed lovers is played out in the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park this summer. Kimberley Sykes, who staged a riotous new adaptation of As You Like It at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon last year, directs. For that production she studied the societal behaviour of trees - that's good prep work for this staging of Romeo and Juliet, among the wooded giants of Regent's Park. Few details have been released but if her staging of As You Like It is anything to go by, you can expect elements of panto, live music, stand-up comedy as well as a very modern look and feel.

Take a tumble down the rabbit hole at the Victoria & Albert Museum's landmark exhibition, Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser which charts the evolution of Alice in Wonderland and her weird and wonderful friends. Among over 300 objects spanning film, performance, fashion, art, music and photography, exhibition highlights include Lewis Carroll's original handwritten manuscript, illustrations by John Tenniel, Ralph Steadman and Disney, stage costumes, fashion from Iris van Herpen and photography from Tim Walker and Annie Leibovitz. Through theatrical sets, large-scale digital projections and immersive installations, you'll be taken on a journey through Wonderland, seen from Alice's perspective. Meet the 'real' Alice and her family, see surrealist works by Salvador Dali and play flamingo croquet at a mind-bending visual take on the Mad Hatter's tea party in this exhibition which will appeal to all visitors, young and old.

Founding member of the Royal Academy and one of the most successful artists of her time, Angelica Kauffman is the subject of a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2020. Recognised as a child prodigy, Kauffman went on to enjoy an unprecedented career in London as a history painter and portraitist, finding success in a largely male-dominated industry, before then setting up a studio in Rome that became a hub of the city's cultural life. At this exhibition, visitors will be able to get an insight into Kauffman's public acclaim and her life as a celebrated artist.

Wimbledon, the famous tennis tournament and the most watched event in the Grand Slam calendar, brings thousands of visitors to the All England Club with the live action played out on big screens at Murray Mound and all over London. Many tennis pros covet the Wimbledon crown above all others and the grass surface makes for fast, breathless duels. Tickets can be applied for through the public ballot on the website, if however you're not lucky enough to get hold of one it is easy to get in to the grounds if you queue up in the morning. However, there are only 500 tickets for the centre courts available, so you have to turn up seriously early - or queue overnight - to be certain of getting to see the biggest matches. But in the first week the outer courts still have some of the world's greatest players and you can grab tickets for them if you arrive by about 9am. TRAVEL: The most convenient tube station for getting to Wimbledon is 'Southfields' on the District line, the station before Wimbledon Park. Southfields is closer, has marshals, a lift and the shorter walk is fully signposted.

Covering the period from the end of the Second World War to the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, After Empire: Photographing Britain and the World explores a poignant time of change. Through a powerful display of documentary photography, the exhibition at Tate Britain covers both struggle and oppression as well as hope and change as it looks at the Civil Rights and Cold War era and the collapse of the British Empire in Africa and Asia. While it was a time for major change in Britain, it was also a golden age for photography thanks to Picture Post and the Sunday Times Magazine as well as the birth of independent agency Magnum, enabling documentary photographers to enjoy a new artistic freedom. This exhibition will highlight the results of such freedom with works by some of the biggest names in 20th century photography as well as several lesser-known photographers.