65 awesome things opening in London this April
[The London Eye at sunset. Pic: Mark Etienne]
With this spectacular line-up at your fingertips you had better get set for one amazing April!
THINGS TO DO
April 3-6: Get a gourmet caffeine hit at the London Coffee Festival.
April 3-11: For fireball bubbles, exploding underwear and hydrogen rockets, head to Science Museum Live: The Energy Show.
April 5: Relive the joy of the Games as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park reopens to the public, including Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit tower.
April 3-September 14: The butterflies are back! See the beautiful beasties at Sensational Butterflies at Natural History Museum.
April 6: Catch the awesome oarsmen at The Boat Race, starting from Putney Bridge at 6pm.
April 6: Or, for a more farmy face-off head to the Goat Race, Spitalfields City Farm.
April 8: Scoop scoop at Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day across London.
April 9-August 17: Stop by The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk for rebel French fashion, the Barbican Art Gallery.
April 10-January 4: Stargaze at astronomical art as steampunk artists host Longitude Punk’d, the Greenwich Observatory.
April 11-13: Get comatose on cocoa goodies at the Chocolate Festival, the Business Design Centre, Angel.
April 13: Rally on the runners as the London Marathon takes over town.
April 13-17: And, if you’re a competitor, the first 100 marathon runners to get to the Shard can head up to the viewing platform for free!
April 17: There’ll be scooters, suits and plenty of ’60s cool at Modstock music fest at 229 The Venue, Great Portland St.
April 18: See the horses, doves and a cast of over 100 take part in an open-air performance of The Passion of Jesus, Trafalgar Square.
April 19-20: Fall down the rabbit hole at an Alive in Wonderland pop-up restaurant.
April 23: Get your lit fix on World Book Day.
April 24-25 & May 5: Enjoy the delightful designs of Pick Me Up Graphic Arts Festival.
April 29-August 25: Find pretty and practical home inspiration at Useful + Beautiful, the Geffrye Museum.
TASTY PLACES TO EAT
Mid-April (date TBC): Top burger joint (and five-star rated) Patty & Bun is launching a second branch in Liverpool Street.
April 22: The founders of the super successful Bonnie Gull Seafood Shack are set to open Bonnie Gull Seafood Café in Exmouth Market – with their own-made Mr Whippy-style ices.
By April 30: Japanese pub Kurobuta to open in Marylebone. Kanpai! Or should we say: 乾杯（かんぱい) !
April (date TBC): The Dock Kitchen’s chef Stevie Parle is heading to Dalston to set up Sardine and offer tasty Southern Italian treats.
April (date TBC): Hackney hipster boozer the Cat & Mutton is set to re-open with an upstairs cocktail bar, and food from street food outfit Licky Chops.
RAD THINGS TO SEE
FILM: new releases
April 4: ’Divergent‘, pitched to be the next big YA ‘Hunger Games’ extravaganza. Distopias rule!
April 4: Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah‘, with Russell Crowe and Emma Watson, is sure to be one hell of a biblical epic.
April 11: Black comedy ‘Calvary‘ by ‘The Guard’ director John Michael McDonagh stars top Irish talent – Chris O’Dowd, Brendan Gleeson, Dylan Moran and more.
April 18: Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does what ever a spider can…. see the ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2‘.
April 18: Pay homage to James Dean on the sixtieth anniversary his death at a re-release of ‘Giant‘ or ‘East of Eden‘.
April 18: ’Locke‘ (Tom Hardy in a car. Bloody brilliant.)
April 25: Christopher Nolan’s right hand man Wally Pfister makes his hotly anticipated directing debut with ‘Transcendence‘.
AND, it’s Studio Ghibli season at BFI Southbank – think ‘Spirited Away’, ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ and other animated wonders.
COMEDY
From April 10: Udderbelly kicks off on April 10 for three months of laughs. Comedy picks include Tony Law, Susan Calman, Omid Djalili and Ed Byrne.
From April 28: Soho Theatre sell-out Tim Key takes on the Duchess Theatre.
April 21-25: Dr Buckles himself, Adam Buxton, revives his tech-heavy ‘Kernel Panic’ show in the West End.
Until April 17: Russell Howard will be stirring an uproar at the Royal Albert Hall.
And, hey, we’d be stupid not to plug our own show – Time Out Introduces – at the Udderbelly. Six of our favourite new(ish) comedians, hosted by Andrew Maxwell.
Oh go on, here’s even more hot April comedy.
ART
April 3: See late-night art with First Thursdays across London.
April 2-August 31: Check out global pieces specially selected by Saatchi at Pangaea: New Art from across Africa and Latin America.
April 11-June 23: Peruse top talent at the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014, the Photographers’ Gallery.
April 11-June 29: Mixed media art-maker Moyra Davey decks out Camden Art Centre.
April 16-June15: Inspired by maths and physics, Tauba Auerbach reveals new sculptures in The New Ambidextrous Universe at the ICA, The Mall.
April 16-June 22: The Whitechapel Gallery is hosting a retrospective for French film maker and photographer Chris Marker.
April 17-September 7: Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, Tate Modern. Oh the wondrous potential of scissors and paper.
April 24-27: From woodcuts to pop-art masters: The London Original Print Fair 2014 at The Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly.
April 30-September 21: Building the Picture: Architecture in Italian Renaissance Painting, National Gallery
THEATRE
April 1-May 31: Alan Ayckbourn’s seminal anti-Thatcher drama A Small Family Business gets its first ever revival, at the National Theatre, at the National Theatre, Olivier.
April 3-August 2: Speaking of Thatcher: Maggie and the Queen have an epic showdown in Moira Buffini’s brilliant comedy Handbagged, transferring to the Vaudeville Theatre, the Strand.
April 3-May 31: Speaking of the Queen: more monarchical goings on as Charles III wrestles with his conscience in Mike Bartlett’s provocative new play, at the Almeida Theatre, Islington. [NB SHOW IS KALLED KING CHARLES III, NOT CHARLES III]
April 3-May 31: Sherlock’s Andrew Scott stars as a disillusioned rockstar in Simon Stephens’s Birdland’, at the Royal Court, Sloane Square.
April 4-June 7: Mark Strong stars in A View from the Bridge, as you’ve never seen in it in Ivo van Hove’s avant garde production at the Young Vic, Southwark.
April 10-May 31: James Graham follows his political smash ‘This House’ with a show about the internet age,Privacy, at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden.
April 28-May 30: Searing drone warfare monologue Grounded, returns to the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill.
BALLET
April 10-May 8: The Royal Ballet launches The Winter’s Tale, the first major new Shakespeare ballet in 50 years!
OPERA
April 4-25: See Charles-Francois Gounod’s grand opera version of Goethe’s dark tale Faust at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
NIGHTLIFE
April 3-May 2: Get shakin’ to some tunes at the La Linea Latin music festival.
April 6: Ministry of Sound starts monthly takeovers at Thorpe Park!
April 12: PMR Presents – a very excellent dance label showcases their chart-friendly crew in Hackney Wick.
April 12: Soul Clap and Dance Off – a broader night out, as a retro NYC dance party comes to town.
April 19: Head to a free mini music festival for Record Store Day, Berwick Street, Soho.
April 17-20: See bands, pop-ups and DJs at the Lock Tavern Festival, Camden.
April 17-20: Get skanking for the London International Ska Festival.
And a whole bunch of Easter bank holiday club nights!
Not enough?! Here are even more things to do in London this April.
[…] April 9-August 17: Stop by The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});the Catwalk for rebel French fashion, the Barbican Art Gallery.April 22: The founders of the super successful Bonnie Gull Seafood Shack are set to open Bonnie Gull Seafood Café in Exmouth Market – with their own-made Mr Whippy-style ices.April (date TBC): Hackney hipster boozer the Cat & Mutton is set to re-open with an upstairs cocktail bar, and food from street food outfit Licky Chops. April 11: Black comedy ‘Calvary‘ by ‘The Guard’ director John Michael McDonagh stars top Irish talent – Chris O’Dowd, Brendan Gleeson, Dylan Moran and more. Read full article […]
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