The festival's 20th year runs the whole of October across 54 venues, with 127 events listed. The Discovery Hub is free and needs no booking. Dates and prices here.

The Bloomsbury Festival runs from 1 to 31 October 2026, its 20th anniversary year. It is the largest arts event in this part of Camden, and unlike most festivals it does not sit on one weekend: the whole month is the programme.

The festival’s own listings held 127 events at 54 venues when we counted them on 5 September. Most of them are free.

Dates and how it is spread

The main run is the whole of October. Four pre-festival events are already in the diary before that, and they set the tone for the rest:

Date Event Venue Cost
Sat 5 Sep, 11am and 2pm Textile Marathon, a participatory textile recycling project Holborn Library Free, walk in
Wed 16 Sep, 7pm Capturing the Transformation of Bloomsbury The Imperial Free, walk in
Tue 29 Sep, 11am PUBLAB: Living Well Together Tower Tavern Free, must book
Tue 29 Sep, 6pm E.M. Forster, The Buckinghams and Bloomsbury Camden Archives, Holborn Library Free, walk in

Several exhibitions then open on Thursday 1 October and stay open through the month, including an E.M. Forster memorabilia show at Camden Archives, the Portrait(s) of Camden community quilt at Holborn Library, a Jonathan Banks photography show at St Pancras Church and Home Truths, on housing and health, at Holborn Library. All free, all walk in.

The Discovery Hub is the one to put in the diary

If you have children, this is the fixture.

  • Thursday 22 and Friday 23 October, 10am to 4pm. Schools have the space from 10am to 2.30pm; the general public gets 2.30pm to 4pm.
  • Saturday 24 October, 11am to 4pm, with a quiet hour until noon.
  • Holborn Library, 32 to 38 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA.
  • Free. Schools need to reserve by email; everyone else, of all ages, drops in.

It is three days of science and craft activities: a camera obscura explaining how eyes work, planetarium shows and telescope demonstrations, robotics, origami and fuel cell experiments.

Ticketed highlights

Most of the programme costs nothing, but the paid events are the ones that sell out. From the festival’s own listings:

  • Thursday 8 October, 7.30pm: Mad Song play Steve Reich. £20.
  • Saturday 10 October, 3pm: Bloomsbury’s Back Yard, on the history of a forgotten community. £10 to £12.
  • Sunday 11 October, 6pm: PATIENT: SOLDIER. £20.
  • Friday 16 October, 6.15pm: We Love and Then We Drown. £6 to £20.
  • Friday 30 October, 9pm: Nosferatu (1922) with live organ improvisation. £15.

The Nosferatu screening is on the Friday before Halloween, which is the one to book early.

The venues are the point

Fifty-four places take part, and the list is a fair map of Bloomsbury and Holborn itself: the British Museum, the British Library, the Foundling Museum, the Charles Dickens Museum, Conway Hall, Senate House, SOAS, City Lit, Birkbeck, the Curzon Bloomsbury, the London Film School, the Crypt Gallery, Swedenborg House, the October Gallery, Holborn Library and Camden Archives, the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre and the Wilkins Building, plus outdoor spaces at Russell Square Gardens, Bloomsbury Square Gardens, Brunswick Square Gardens, Calthorpe Community Garden and Central St Giles Piazza. Several events are walks that start at a named meeting point rather than a venue.

That spread is worth knowing before you plan a day: two events an hour apart can also be a fifteen minute walk apart.

Practical notes

  • Filter before you scroll. The festival’s what’s-on page filters by venue, by date and by category (performance, music, film, exhibition, workshop, talk, family, walk). With 127 entries that is the only sane way to use it.
  • Free does not always mean turn up. The listings mark each event either “walk-in” or “must book”, and some free ones need a booking.
  • Russell Square, Holborn, Goodge Street and Euston Square all put you inside the festival footprint. Driving is a poor idea here: the whole area is controlled parking, and our parking page explains why.
  • Check the roadworks page if you are coming across the borough, particularly around Kingsway, which has a major restriction from 14 September.

Sources

  • Bloomsbury Festival, What’s On, read 5 September 2026, for the 127 events, the 54 venues in the venue filter, the pre-festival dates, the 1 October exhibition openings and the walk-in or must-book labels.
  • Bloomsbury Festival home page, read 5 September 2026, for the 1 to 31 October dates, the 20th anniversary and the ticketed events with their prices.
  • Bloomsbury Festival, Discovery Hub 2026, read 5 September 2026, for the three dates, the schools and public times, the quiet hour, the Holborn Library venue and the free drop-in arrangement.

Counts and prices were taken from the festival’s own listings on 5 September 2026. Programmes of this size change: confirm on the event’s own page before you travel.