The London Games Festival (13th April – 19th April 2026) has announced its wider cultural events programme – featuring a range of varied events across the capital supplementing the wider festival.
Cultural highlights at LGF this year include experiences confirmed at London-landmark venues and public spaces, including the V&A and Cadogan Hall. These events bring together artists, performers and game makers to celebrate the creative, social and experimental possibilities of gaming and play.
Performance Meets Play at the V&A
The festival’s cultural line-up begins a few weeks before LGF kicks off, at the V&A in South Kensigton on 27th March, with a gaming-inspired and free-to-enter Friday Late event from independent curator and producer Susie Buchan and the V&A’s Senior Curator of Contemporary Programmes, Kristian Volsing.
The evening invites visitors to rethink the boundaries of play, performance and spectacle with artists engaging with games and interactivity. From experimental live-coded music, live-action roleplay and cosplay drag, to the craft of professional acting in video games, the breadth of gaming-led activities in the Friday Late event is all linked by their intrinsic connection to performance.
The Legacy of Now Play This Lives On in Three New Experimental Events
Renowned game designer and novelist Holly Gramazio, part of the creative team behind Now Play This, 2015–2025) has assisted artists in debuting three standalone events at London Games Festival. The first is a special Strange Play: Open Mic on 13th April at Theatre Deli, celebrating unconventional approaches to play and performance.
At The Garrett Centre, Live Art Development Agency partners with artists and game makers Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Symoné for The Rules of Watching, a two-day invitational game jam culminating in a public sharing on 15th April.
On 16th April, Play Praxis (curated by Sindi Breshani) presents a full-day takeover of Siobhan Davies Studios, bringing together exhibited games for professional audiences and players to explore how play can tell important stories and spark dialogue. Games include digital murder mystery Solomon’s Secret and Sea Hero Quest, a mobile game contributing to research on dementia, with roundtables on game design, media & misinformation, and concept art.
Finally the events return full circle to Strange Play: Showcase, delivered by Voidspace, featuring a lo-fi curation of experimental interactive works at Theatre Deli on 18th – 19th April. Highlights at Strange Play include boundary-pushing works with Tamagotchi Seance 3 by Nick Murray, a ritual to honour departed virtual pets, and The Turdis, an absurdist escape room set inside a portaloo.
All new Experimental Zone also added to New Game Plus
A special showcase of experimental games artworks will also be curated especially for New Game Plus by FLAMIN (Film London’s Artists Moving Image Network). The boutique games expo will feature playable games by David Blandy & Petra Szemán, Ama Dogbe, Clifford Sage and a work developed by Trust in collaboration with the natural history museums in Berlin and Paris.
These join a line up of nearly 100 games that will be shown at the event taking place on Thursday 16th April and Friday 17th April at Exhibition White City.
Iconic Game Soundtracks Concert leads LGF Side Event line-up
London Games Festival also boasts a suite of wider Side Events for a variety of audiences. The London Video Game Orchestra returns to Cadogan Hall this year, after last year’s LGF sell out concert.
The event, taking place on Friday 17th April, promises to delight the audience with performances including ‘Dolphin Shoals’ from Mario Kart 8, music from the Final Fantasy franchise including ‘Advent: One-Winged Angel’ from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, ‘Snake Eater’ from Metal Gear Solid 3 and a medley of music from Halo. A session of live gameplay matched to live music will feature ‘Brawl’ from Super Smash Bros.
Other Side Event highlights include 16-Bit Sky Bar and Games Meet Music – with more to be announced in the weeks ahead. Regularly updated listings can be found at https://games.london/sideevents/
Other Events…
All the above take place alongside the other core events running as part of London Games Festival, including:
- New Game Plus (16th – 17th April at Exhibition White City): the two-day consumer video game event promising hands-on play with close to 100 of the newest releases
- Screen Play (15th April at BFI Southbank): a one-day conference looking at connections between the screen industries of games, film and TV
- The annual BAFTA Games Awards (17th April): celebrating excellence in game-making
Now in its eleventh year, the London Games Festival is supported by the Mayor of London and is delivered by Games London, an initiative from Film London. This year also sees the festival welcome extended support from the UK Government, as part of its Modern Industrial Strategy.
102,000 people overall visited LGF 2025 across its 26 different events, including 5000 industry visitors representing 31 countries. Across Side Events and ticketed activity run directly by Games London 48% of 2025 visitors were from outside of London (39% London, 14% International).
• For regular updates from London Games Festival and Games London, sign up for the weekly newsletter at games.london or follow @londongamesfest. For partnership enquiries contact partnerships@games.london
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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