If you’re one of the few who didn’t book a trip to Italy this June and are spending the month working out how to squeeze the same enjoyment out of a weekend in London as you would a languid week in Tuscany, we’ve got you. With one heatwave down but with more tantalisingly on the horizon (forever hopeful), we may well be looking at a sweltering summer.
The month is looking dapper: a colourful spread of things to do ranging from Asian cocktail nights and wellness festivals to live sport and, yes, free margaritas in Shoreditch. You heard that right. See below what you shouldn’t be missing this month, and we might just see you at one of these.
1. Stories – Brought to Life: National Portrait Gallery x Frameless
When: Open now until 12 September
Frameless, the Marble Arch immersive art experience space, has a new limited-run residency worth bookmarking for the next inevitable rainy and moody weekend. Stories – Brought to Life is a a 15-minute experience that showcases portraits from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection, including those of Queen Elizabeth II, Nelson Mandela, William Shakespeare, Amy Winehouse and Malala Yousafzai. Their stories told through archival material, photography, speech excerpts and original animation, developed in close collaboration with NPG curators.
This exhibition is included in the standard Frameless entry ticket (adults from £27.50), open now and running until 12 September, so there’s plenty of time to pay it a visit. If you’ve never been to Frameless before (or are keen to show a first-timer the ropes), this is a good opportunity.
2. Toki-O Nights – a new listening bar series
When: Wednesday 3 June + every other Wednesday
Every other Wednesday from June, Suntory Toki Whisky and Technics are taking over some of the UK’s best listening bars for Toki-O Nights – a free series inspired by Tokyo’s kissaten culture, where the vinyl and Highball cocktail are the main event. It kicks off at Spiritland King’s Cross on 3 June, then fans out across London (Equal Parts, Jazu, Mitsu, Archive & Myth), Manchester and Edinburgh through to December.
Nina Yamada opens the series – a DJ whose record collection spans deep house, Afrobeat, jazz and Latin, shaped by growing up around vinyl in Japan and now running the UK arm of Jazzy Sport. Select venues will also host a dedicated Listening Station throughout the month for something more intimate. Most nights are free, with some ticketed sessions offering Q&As with Technics experts.
3. MOTH:Licence Pop-up (with free margaritas)
When: Thursday 4- Saturday 6 June
MOTH is bringing its pop-up cocktail corner shop back to Shoreditch this week, and if you move fast enough, there’s a free Margarita in it for you. MOTH: Licence takes over 150 Shoreditch High Street from the 4 to 6 June (12pm–7pm – worth noting!), and it will be giving away 10,000 cans of its Tequila Enemigo Margarita on a first-come, first-served basis.
The space is built to resemble your favourite off-licence, except the fridge is stocked with little black cans and there’s a DJ playing. Beyond the free drinks, the weekend runs with live DJ sets across all three days, prizes to be won and brand partner appearances throughout. MOTH – a B Corp brand whose canned cocktails now sell one unit every five seconds in the UK – is framing this as the launch of its margarita summer, and Shoreditch, where the brand started, is the obvious place to do it. We have a feeling that 10,000 cans won’t last long so may be worth aiming for a lunchtime bevo!
4. Aqua Kyoto Wellness Brunch Club
When: Sessions throughout June and July
If your idea of a perfect Saturday involves a rooftop yoga flow followed by unlimited sushi, Aqua Kyoto has you covered. The new Wellness Brunch Club, launched in partnership with lululemon, pairs expert-led yoga and pilates classes with elevated brunches at two of London’s most reliably glamorous rooftop restaurants — all at 30 Argyll Street, just off Oxford Circus. Running across selected Saturdays from May to July, classes are hosted by lululemon ambassadors from 11am, with brunch kicking off at noon across panoramic views of central London.
Yoga sessions (23 May, 20 & 27 June, 4 & 11 July) are followed by Aqua Kyoto’s Japanese brunch – think unlimited sushi, sea bream with shiso lime miso and Japanese aubergine with sesame miso – at £60pp. Meanwhile, Pilates (30 May, 6 & 13 June, 18 July) pairs with Aqua Nueva’s Spanish spread: patatas bravas, cider chorizo with honey, lamb shoulder and glazed churros with orange marmalade, at £50pp. Both are walk-you-through-the-weekend affairs worth booking ahead.
5. Wellnergy Festival
When: Friday 12- Saturday 13 June
Wellnergy returns to Wimbledon Park on 12 and 13 June for two days of movement, talks, workshops and live music. Built around six wellness zones and a “Wellness Your Way” philosophy, the festival spans fitness, mindfulness, nutrition and community – with something on offer whether you want to work up a sweat, reset your nervous system or simply soak up the atmosphere.
Friday centres on corporate wellness — workshops and talks tailored to the modern workforce, in the leafy surroundings of the park and about as far from a boardroom as you can get. Saturday opens up to a broader range of sessions for all festival-goers. Confirmed speakers include Peloton instructor Jermaine Johnson and Ayesha Mustafa, founder of ethical fashion label Everyday Phenomenal, who’ll be exploring the link between what you wear and how you feel. Day tickets start from £39, weekend passes from £69.
6. Team Beam Challenge at KERB Sports Bar, East London
When: Friday 12- Sunday 14 June
With the British Grand Prix revving up at Silverstone, Shoreditch is getting in on the action. From Friday 12 to Sunday 14 June, KERB Sports Bar at Old Spitalfields Market is hosting the Team Beam Challenge – a free, walk-in reaction wall game developed in collaboration with Jim Beam Bourbon and inspired by the reflexes and focus of F1 drivers. Think Batak-style speed tests, a live leaderboard and the very real possibility of winning a pitcher of Jim Beam and Lemonade for you and your mates.
To kick things off, pub culture creator Schooner Scorer will be at the bar on Friday evening for the challenge launch, bringing his signature competitive energy to what promises to be a lively one. The event runs across the full weekend – Friday 4–9pm, Saturday 2–8pm and Sunday 1–6pm – and is open to all (18+, no booking required). Alongside the challenge, Jim Beam’s summer serves include frozen pineapple piña colada slushies and sharing pitchers, so even those knocked off the leaderboard early will have something to celebrate.
7. Taste the Orient – London’s new Asian cocktail festival
When: Monday 22- Sunday 28 June
Taste The Orient, the new cocktail event that’s spread across 45 bars no less, is built around TCM bars – a movement in which cocktails are constructed from ingredients with medicinal and therapeutic roots, some Asian bars going as far as prescribing drinks based on a doctor’s diagnosis. The festival is a collaboration between The Orientalist Spirits and the founders of London Cocktail Week, and each participating venue has created a bespoke Signature Serve available exclusively during the week.
To give you some examples of what to expect, Bar Lotus on Kingsland Road has made a house vermouth from traditional Chinese medicine botanicals and used it in a reworked Martinez. At Opium, hidden behind an unmarked door in Chinatown, a gin sour is finished tableside with freshly grated Buddha’s Hand – a rare Chinese citrus with no juice or pulp, valued entirely for its intensely fragrant oils. Current world bartender of the year Sam Page has created two Signature Serves at Sexy Fish from £10, including a Pomelo Negroni batched and sous vide with toasted sansho peppercorns. Entry to the festival is free; cocktails are priced individually.
8. T20 Women’s World Cup
When: From Wednesday 24 June
This summer, the UK hosts the T20 Women’s World Cup – one of cricket’s biggest tournaments – running 12 June to 5 July across some of the country’s most storied grounds, including Lord’s, The Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford and more. There are 33 matches in total, with England kicking things off against Sri Lanka in Birmingham on 12 June before the tournament builds towards a final at Lord’s on 5 July.
London gets its share of the action from 24 June, when England face the West Indies at Lord’s, followed by England vs New Zealand at The Oval on 27 June. Both semi-finals are also at The Oval – so if you’re a cricket fan and planning to watch some of the action live, this will be your lodge for the summer. Tickets start from £5 for children and £15 for adults, and you can see the full fixture list and tickets below.
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