For inspiring days close to home, check out our round-up of activities and events to enjoy with your kids in East London.
There’s a month of fun to be a had on your doorstep! We’ve done the research so you don’t have to.
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1 Return to the Forest 8+
A breathtaking mix of dance, puppetry and storytelling for the whole family. It begins in a museum where touching is strictly forbidden — but as dusk falls, something magical stirs and the precious objects start leading a heist of their own. From there, the audience is swept into the heart of a wild and enchanted forest. Created by the celebrated Theatre-Rites in collaboration with award-winning South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma, it’s an imaginative, high-energy adventure that’s as thought-provoking as it is spectacular.
Thursday 28th – Saturday 30th May 2026
Sadler’s Wells East, Stratford
From £25 adults | £12.50 under-16s (ages 8+)
2 MCM Comicon ALL AGES
MCM Comic Con is back for a three-day pop culture extravaganza! Fans can meet anime and gaming voice actors and TV and film stars, and explore art and literature by independent creators. Dress up as your favourite character and see all of the incredible cosplay efforts made by others.
Friday 22nd – 24th May 2026
Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock 1 Western Gateway, E16 1XL
Tickets from £27 Adults £7 Kids 4 and under go free
3 Race Across the World: The Experience TWEENS & TEENS
Experience the thrill of the hit TV show right here in East London, exploring the City of London. With no public transport, teams of 2–8 must rely on strategy, clues, and teamwork to race between checkpoints while solving puzzles and managing an in-game budget. This 2–3 hour adventure explores London’s landmarks and hidden corners, with every decision affecting your final score. How competitive is your family? Perfect for friends, families, or workmates, it’s a unique, high-energy experience. No passport required, just sharp thinking and fast feet! Groups can be 2-8 people, though to race each other, you might want to split up.
Starts at Liverpool Street Station and ends near the Tower of London.
1 adult and 1 child £45, additional children £20, 2 Adults £50
4 Trashitas YOUNG CHILDREN
Make art from upcycled materials with artist and illustrator Kat Kon and performance art activist Lola Pony in this drop-in workshop at Museum of the Home. TRASHITAS is a playful blend of “trash” and charitas (Latin for charity). The name suggests a kind of “trash charity” or “trashity”, where materials that are considered waste are transformed into art that is enjoyable, even sublime. Children and their grown-ups are invited to make cardboard flowers and other seasonal crafts. All materials included will be carefully gathered, upcycled and curated in a celebration of nature through sustainable hands-on craft, reconsidering what should be defined as waste.
Sunday 24th May 2026 2-4pm
Museum of the Home
Free drop in
5 Minigolf by Craig & Karl ALL AGES
Free minigolf and ping pong are back! Head to Montgomery Square, Canary Wharf for free Minigolf this Spring. Enjoy a 9-hole course designed by artists Craig Redman and Karl Maier, featuring bold colors and geometric patterns. No booking is required—just turn up and grab your clubs and balls from the event stewards. Special SEND sessions are available for families with additional learning needs, offering a quieter environment with limited groups on the course. They can also give you a paddle and a ping pong ball if you want to continue the sporting fun.
Open daily until Sunday 27th September 2026 12 pm – 6 pm (last entry (5:45)
Montgomery Square, Canary Wharf, London E14
Free entry, no booking required
6 The Flying Bath © YOUNG CHILDREN
Based on the original book The Flying Bath © Julia Donaldson and David Roberts, this performance will inject fun into bathtimes. When everyone has left the house in the morning, the bath toys spring into action and head off on exciting adventures in their magical flying bath! From giving a muddy piglet a shower to putting out a fire for a frightened baboon, they have water at the ready for any emergency – as long as they’re home for the children’s bath time at the end of the day. Julia Donaldson and David Roberts’ playful and adventurous story splashes into life in this adaptation featuring catchy songs, quirky bath toys and everyday heroes.
Friday 20th May–12th Jul 2026, various times
Relaxed Performance: Sunday 24th May at 3.30pm
Little Angel Theatre, 14 Dagmar Passage, London N1 2DN
Adults £15.50, Kids £13.50
7 Meet the Sheep ALL AGES
Spitalfields City Farm would like to introduce you to their very friendly sheep, Barley and Rye. Limited tickets are available (as not to overwhelm them) but this is your chance to meet them close up, learn all about them, their diet and care and feed and stroke them too. So that we don’t overwhelm the sheep we will have limited tickets available to book for this session, free of charge.
Wednesday 27 May 2026 2 time slots 1-1.30pm and 2-2.30pm
Spitalfields City Farm, Buxton St, London E1 5AR
Free entry but booking is essential
8 May Halfterm at Young V&A ALL AGES
Join the fun at the Young V&A at this half term with a great selection of events exploring friendship inspired by the exhibition: Inside Aardman: Wallace Gromit and Friends. Drop-in activities include a SEND session, Family Design Challenge, Storytelling and a Play Saturday (23rd May). You can also book the Animation Lab and get stuck into making moving images.
Saturday 23rd – Saturday 30th May 2026, various times
Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9PA
Mostly free (Animation workshop £15 per child, Adults free)
9 Discover Pops up YOUNGER CHILDREN
While renovations are underway at Discover Children’s Story Centre, Stratford Centre is hosting the fun this half term! With author and artist led workshops where children can get stuck in making dream catchers with Iona Campbell, story cubes and fantasy houses! There will also be the classic storytime with a That’s Not My Dinosaur and baby storytelling events.
May Half Term, Various times
Unit 14, Stratford Centre, 54a Broadway, Stratford, E15 1XA
£2-£5 per child, adults free
10 May Half Term at London Museum Docklands YOUNGER CHILDREN
Journey into the past this half term and discover how Victorians entertained themselves before the advent of Roblox and Playstation. Children would craft paper theatres, enjoy music hall melodies and practice their puns. With Baby Broadway bringing the dance hall tunes, peg people and optical illusions to make a workshop for all those wannabe dance hall comedians.
May Half Term week various times
Number 1 Warehouse West India Quay, London, E14 4AL
Free
11 Big Penny Beach Club at Walthamstow-on-Sea ALL AGES
Missing that feeling of sand between your toes? Walthamstow’s silly golden sandy summer pop-up returns with a BANG! Spare us the shivering English Sea, gather the buckets and spades and while you’re at it reserve a hut to make it all the more authentic. Big Penny Social has the fish n’ chips, gelato plus a Spritz bar, Camden Town Brewery pints on tap and frozen cocktails for mums and dads. You and your family need only bring your sunnies and some flippy floppy vibes. Top tip, bring some baby powder to get the sand out from between your toes for the short journey home.
Friday 22nd May and all summer long!
Big Penny Social, 1 Priestley Way,London, E17 6AL
Tickets from £3, Babes in arms free. Sadly, no dogs allowed.
12 Boxed In YOUNGER CHILDREN
Meet Derek and Joe, two friends trying to make sense of life’s strange, unspoken rules. When “stop” means “go” and “up” turns into “down”, and nobody explains why, what do you do? Through movement, visual storytelling, humour and a touch of chaos, this quirky, thought-provoking show explores what it feels like to be left out, not because you’ve done something wrong, but because the world doesn’t always play fair. A co-production between Disabled-led theatre company Daryl & Co. and Half Moon, the show is largely non-verbal, making it accessible to d/Deaf, hard of hearing, BSL users and non-English speakers. All performances are relaxed performances.
Thursday 21st May – Saturday 23rd May 2026, various times
Please note: Thursday and Friday shows will have large school groups in attendance.
Relaxed Performance: all performances are relaxed
Half Moon Theatre, 43 White Horse Road, London E1 0ND
Adults and Kids: £9
13 Astronomer’s Take Over ALL AGES
Based at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, this brand-new interactive experience brings space and astronomy to life for the whole family. Meet real astronomers from the Royal Observatory, try landing a Mars rover, use a starlight splitter to examine the stars, and take an awe-inspiring walk through an immersive galaxy box. There’s also a cosmic scavenger hunt, a moon room, and telescope displays exploring 350 years of observatory history. A planetarium show can be added on for an extra dose of wonder. Staff in astronaut-style suits are on hand throughout to guide and inspire young visitors.
Friday 20th May–ongoing, various times (check booking page for details)
Relaxed Performance: not listed — see FAQs on website
National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, London SE10 8DF
Tickets £8 (experience only) / £16 (with planetarium)
14 Playful Paper Puppets: Bow Families Special
A lovely free workshop for children and families of all ages, led by artist Phoebe Kaniewska. Kids will create their own moving card puppets using butterfly pins, giving their characters articulated arms and legs, then decorate them with paint pens. Will yours be a mini-me, a robot, a fairy or a moon puppet? All materials are provided and no experience is needed.
Saturday 23rd May 2026, 9:30am–11am
Poplar Union, 2 Cotall Street, London E14 6TL
Free, booking required
15 Half Term at the Southbank Centre
A great place to visit this half term with a packed programme of free and ticketed events for families. Celebrate beloved children’s author Michael Rosen’s 80th birthday with a free, 4.5-hour party of silly rhymes, storytelling and special guests. Bring a favourite book by the author and he’ll sign it on the day (free but ticketed, limit of 4 per group). Strap on a VR headset and play alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra in the free Play Along: Virtual Orchestra experience. Families can also drop into free quilting workshops with textile artist Natasha Shah, pick up a map for the free Architecture Explorers family trail (until 29th May), and stroll through the beautiful Tonic Flow installation on Mandela Walk, free and open all summer.
Saturday 23rd May – Sunday 31st May 2026, various times
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Free – £18 + £4 booking fee depending on event
16 Skate 50
Marking 50 years since London’s skateboarders first claimed the concrete space beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall as their own, this photography, audio and video exhibition tells the story of the iconic Undercroft Skate Space and its place at the heart of UK skate culture. Teens and tweens will love this exhibition created with the Southbank skate community, it features contributions from acclaimed film-makers and artists and has been named one of the top art exhibitions of 2026 by both the Guardian and Vogue. A fascinating visit for skaters and non-skaters alike. Skaters get in free just by bringing their board.
Friday 22nd May – Sunday 21st June 2026
Undercroft, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London SE1 8XX
Pay what you can: £0, £4, £6, £8 (suggested) or £10 | Free for skateboarders
17 Summer by the River
The website is a little quiet on the details this year, the scoop is closed, but the event will still be running all summer with live screenings of sporting events, music and film screenings. I have chased PR to find out what’s happening.
Launches 19th May 2026 until the end of Summer
The Glasshouse, London Bridge City Pier SE1 2PR
Free
18 Half Term in Victoria Park: Water Week
A week of free, outdoorsy water-themed activities in Victoria Park for kids and families. Each day brings something different: canoeing on the model boating lake, a fishing taster day with the Community Park Rangers, an amphibian discovery day with experts plus arts, crafts and face painting, a Water Fun Festival at the Pools Playground, and rounding off the week, a Junior Wildlife Club pond dipping session. Most events are drop-in, though canoeing and fishing require booking in advance.
Tuesday 31st May – Saturday 4th June, 12pm–3pm daily (pond dipping 10am–12.30pm)
Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets
Free drop in
More info call 020 7364 7968 or email victoriapark@towerhamlets.gov.uk
19 Bach to Baby Family Concert
Live classical music for babies, toddlers and their grown-ups, performed by outstanding musicians in a beautiful local church. Bach to Baby is an acclaimed concert series known for bringing exhilarating performances to families in welcoming, relaxed settings — perfect for little ones experiencing live music for the first time.
Thursday 28th May 2026, 10:30am–12pm
St John of Jerusalem, Lauriston Road, London E9 7EY
£16 per adult, up to 2 children free
20 Soccer Aid for Unicef
The world’s biggest celebrity football match returns to London for its 20th year, with England taking on World XI in a star-studded showdown raising funds for UNICEF. This year’s line-up includes Olly Murs, Tom Hiddleston, Wayne Rooney and Joe Marler on the pitch, with Usain Bolt and Robbie Williams going head-to-head as coaches. A brilliant live event for football-mad kids and families.
Saturday 31st May 2026
London Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London E20 2ST
Tickets from £21 – £89.25