London this week, 6–12 April: Tulips at Hampton Court, stage standouts and a big-top circus

Spring arrives in full colour across London this week, with an early-blooming Tulip Festival at Hampton Court Palace and a spread of stage, exhibition and big-top highlights running through 12 April. Hampton Court Palace’s annual Tulip Festival opens a week earlier than planned after mild weather brought the flowers on.

More than 100,000 bulbs create one of the UK’s largest displays of planted tulips, from ‘floating’ bowls in the Great Fountain to freer planting in the kitchen gardens. The festival runs from 3 April 2026. musicians. The production follows Rosetta’s boundary‑breaking gospel and early rock and roll performances in 1946 Mississippi and runs until 11 April 2026.

Elsewhere, Back to the Future’s musical take on time travel races toward its final dates at the Adelphi Theatre, starring Caden Braunch as Marty McFly and Brian Conley as Doc Brown, until 12 April 2026. In the galleries, artist Olga Regina’s solo exhibition Memory of a New City explores the layered identity of Canary Wharf and London’s Docklands, capturing everyday moments that collide with the unexpected in the financial district.

It is on view at the Brady Arts & Community Centre in Whitechapel, free from 4–25 April 2026 (closed Easter Monday). At Kew Gardens, the Shirley Sherwood Gallery hosts The Singh Twins, featuring fabric light boxes that trace how plants such as cotton, spices and dyes shaped colonial expansion.

The exhibition continues until 12 April 2026. For circus fans, Revel Puck Circus pitches its big top at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with A Glimmer Daze Gambit, a contemporary show combining acrobatics, clowning and controlled chaos. The touring production features grassroots London-based performers and international circus artists from Argentina, the USA, Ethiopia and Canada, and runs until 12 April 2026.

Music fans can also explore The Clash’s London with a newly released map by pop culture historian Paul Gorman. It charts venues from the 100 Club to the Royal Albert Hall to HMP Wandsworth, along with Paddington’s Joe Strummer Subway and the site of the group’s favourite indie bookshop.

Several of these highlights close by the end of the week, so check dates before you go.