If summer in London had a pulse, it would thump straight through Hyde Park every July. I’ve become a proper BST superfan over the past five years. No exaggeration, if I don’t spend at least a couple of evenings dancing on damp grass with a lukewarm drink in my hand, summer hasn’t officially started. This year the whole shebang ended on Sunday night with Lewis Capaldi, and oh my days, what a…
I cried, I danced, I hugged strangers: Why Duran Duran Day at BST Hyde Park was the best day of 2026
I’m still a bit teary, and still floating somewhere above the Great Oak Stage after Sunday’s all-day 80s love-in at BST Hyde Park. I’ve been covering this festival for 15 years, and I can honestly say: Duran Duran’s day, with Groove Armada, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, and Scissor Sisters, gave me so much joy, possibly the best atmosphere I’ve ever experienced in this park. And I’ve seen…
I turned up to BST Hyde Park on Saturday dressed head-to-toe in American flag paraphernalia. Stars, stripes, the works. In my defence, it was the 4th of July, and this Italian rock chick genuinely thought everyone would be doing the same. I was the only one. All day long, strangers kept shouting “Happy 4th!” at me with a tone I couldn’t quite place. By the end of the night, curiosity got the…
In a decade and a half of covering British Summer Time Hyde Park, I’ve seen legends own the Great Oak Stage. I’ve watched Santana’s spiritual guitar journeys, stood spellbound as Steve Winwood revived a golden era, and witnessed Eric Clapton deliver a masterclass that bordered on the sacred. Those were unforgettable. But sometimes the stars align in a different way, not through legacy…
The Guardian was a bit harsh I thought, designed to provoke like the art itself of course. Yes some walls are overloaded, yes the colours are bunched together rather crassly, yes there’s repetition – too many Full English breakfasts – but the sheer variety at Royal Academy summer exhibition is surprising, impressive, divisive. What about some recognition for the curators and crews who spent…
At London Mums, we spend a lot of time cheering from the sidelines at sports days, swimming galas, and Saturday morning parkruns. But last night, our very own young reporter, 19-year-old Elenya Panesar, swapped the sidelines for the start line. She laced up her trainers to run shoulder-to-shoulder with one of Britain’s greatest ever athletes: Sir Mo Farah CBE.
The event was part of…
If I had a pound for every time a fellow parent asked me, “What on earth do we do with them for six whole weeks?” I could probably fund the summer holidays myself. It is the eternal London mum dilemma: you want your children to be happy, stimulated and off their screens, but you also need to work, or simply to hear yourself think for five blessed minutes. Over the years I have tested more…
Recently, The 1885 Singers served up a buffet of Austro-German composers, featuring Brahms, Schumann, Korngold and Richard Strauss. Feelings of longing and loss gave the pieces cohesion, with a touch of spring in the flower songs of Strauss.
The 1885 Singers and in the front row L-R: Pianists Robert Bridge and Moritz von Freyhold, Baritone James Geidt, Soprano Iúnó Connolly, Musical…
When my friend Cristina and I stepped into Park Corner Brasserie at the London Hilton on Park Lane, we were hot, bothered and slightly out of breath. The journey had been a sweaty ten-minute walk from Victoria, and the city was doing its best to melt us into puddles. Within moments of arriving, however, we had been transported somewhere else entirely. Somewhere with island breezes, tropical…
If Saturday was all cowboy hats, country twang and Garth Brooks reducing 69,999 people to happy tears, Sunday at BST Hyde Park was something else entirely. It was glitter, perfectly synchronised dancing, screaming fans holding glowing orbs and a South Korean boyband setting that Royal Park ablaze with K-pop fire. Our very own reporter dad Mirko took his daughter Gaia along, joined by our lovely…