Guides London Design Festival 2027 Sat 18 to Sun 26 September Updated 25 Sep 2026
The 2027 dates are the festival's own announcement. The 2026 festival ran 12 to 20 September and has finished.
London Design Festival 2027: 18 to 26 September, and most of it is free
18 to 26 September 2027, the twenty fifth anniversary edition. Installations across the city, most of them free and outdoors, plus the ticketed fairs.
The London Design Festival runs from 18 to 26 September 2027, and the festival is calling it the twenty fifth anniversary edition. It is not one venue: it is several hundred events spread across the city, anchored by a set of large commissioned installations that go up in public places for nine days. The 2026 festival ran from 12 to 20 September and has finished; the 2027 dates on this page come from the festival’s own front page.
The free half
The installations are the reason to bother and most of them cost nothing. They appear in the V and A, in Brompton, in Shoreditch, at Bankside and in the design districts around King’s Cross and Greenwich Peninsula. The V and A is the festival’s home and its commissions are usually the ones worth crossing London for, and entry to the museum is free.
The design districts are self guided: you get a map, you walk, you go into showrooms that are normally trade only. That is the part visitors miss and it is the best of it.
The ticketed half
The fairs are separate and paid: the larger ones sit inside the festival week and are aimed at the trade in the day and the public later on. If you are not in the industry, the free programme is more than enough for a weekend.
How to do it
Pick one district and walk it rather than crossing the city chasing single installations. The weekend in the middle is the busiest; the weekdays are quieter and more of the showrooms have someone in them who will talk to you.
What 2026 looked like
Worth knowing what the scale actually is before you plan a 2027 weekend around it. The 2026 edition put contemporary light and media art on St Paul’s Cathedral for a fortnight, free and with no ticket, ran design district trails in six parts of London at once, and filled the V and A with commissions for nine days. The programme goes up on the festival’s own site in the summer, and the installations are always the last thing announced.
Dates and events for 2027 go in as venues confirm them. The guide above is what we know so far; it is rewritten as the list fills.
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What is on right now
All 2189 listingsThis guide is rewritten each year before the dates come round. For what is actually happening this week rather than what happens every year, the listings below are dated, checked against the venue and carry the venue's own link.
Next up
Or pick a part of town
Soho Covent Garden Islington Bloomsbury Camden Shoreditch Dalston Battersea Fitzrovia Crouch End
Questions people ask
When is the London Design Festival 2027?
18 to 26 September 2027, announced by the festival and billed as its twenty fifth anniversary edition. The 2026 festival ran from 12 to 20 September.
Is it free?
Most of it. The commissioned installations and the design district trails are free, including the V and A commissions, because entry to the museum is free. The fairs are ticketed and separate.
Where are the installations?
Across the city, with concentrations at the V and A, in Brompton, Shoreditch, Bankside, King's Cross and on the Greenwich Peninsula.
Do I need to be in the design industry?
No. The public programme is large and the design districts are self guided. The trade only parts are the fairs.
When is the quietest time to go?
Weekdays. The middle weekend is the busiest and the showrooms are better staffed midweek.
Every listing on this page is checked against the venue's own page and the page is rewritten each year, usually six to eight weeks before the dates. Times and prices can change on the night; the venue link on each event is the one to trust. How we choose what goes in.