Bloomsbury Festival

Bloomsbury Festival is taking over the neighbourhood from 1 to 31 October, with more than 150 events of music, theatre, art, science and family activities spread across more than 40 venues in WC1. It's the festival's 20th anniversary, and this year it runs for the full month, spilling out of the usual spots and into the streets, parks, museums, galleries, laboratories and public and private buildings of Bloomsbury. Most of the events are free, so you can pick and choose your own path through the month without spending much.

The line-up is broad. On 30 October, Nosferatu (1922) plays with live organ improvisation (£15), and on 31 October, the AKDC Diwali Take over is free. The exhibition EM Forster's Legacy of Connection: Unseen Memorabilia runs throughout the month and is free. For music, there's African Eye to the Sun: African-Jazz Fusion on 24 October (£12-20) and Sankofa on 29 and 30 October (£10-15). Throughout the month, Bloomsbury Radio broadcasts daily from 3pm.

The festival celebrates the area's long relationship with creativity, which goes back to the bohemian artists and writers who made it their stamping ground a century ago. Bloomsbury is described as a hotbed of pioneering development, home to one of the youngest and most diverse populations in the country, where academic institutions, businesses, cultural organisations and communities have acted as a catalyst for ideas with global impact for hundreds of years. The Guardian has praised the festival for capturing the diversity of bright minds connected to Bloomsbury's five streets, while Love Camden called the line-up world-class with a distinct local twist.

Because it's spread across so many venues, you can spend a few hours on one thing or build a whole month around it. Most events are free, with a few ticketed ones like Nosferatu at £15, African Eye to the Sun from £12 to £20, and Sankofa from £10 to £15. The full programme runs from 1 to 31 October across Bloomsbury.