Brockwell Park, London
“What more could you ask for?”
As yet another surge of music masses descend upon South London’s Brockwell Park for the bank holiday weekend, Wide Awake holds firm as one of the most affluent alternative offerings in the city - guided by the quirky and inspired by summer’s inception.
For this year’s edition, such a spread of eclectic acts pronounced themselves across Wide Awake’s stages. At the Disco Pogo stage, La Luz appeared as a self-proclaimed “power trio”, full of surfing sounds and focused instrumentals with songs such as ‘Call Me in the Day’, proving rich and immersive in their vocals which gave a reminiscence to that of The Roches. ‘Floating Features’ and ‘Sure as Spring’ intensified this already-sunny afternoon, whilst the band announced their pending return to the city at Hackney’s Moth Club in September.
Addressing Moth Club’s stage, Yeule and Sevdaliza offered both of their illustrious personas: from the reclusive, glitch-pop introspection of the former, to the daring and dance-fuelled trip-hop of the latter; the stage retained the venue’s knack for injecting dancified antics for a summery night. Furthering these antics, the newcomer pop-songwriter The Dare endeavoured to stoke the festival’s raucousness beyond the industrial grip of Model/Actriz who, just prior, fuelled the audience with a simmering brutalism.
The collectively-expansive tenure between English bands Squid and Slowdive proved entrancing on Bad Vibrations’ collaborative stage displaced at the furthest corner of this public park. As the transcendental art-rock swirlings of Squid beamed alongside the shimmering sun, Slowdive’s encompassing sounds consumed the audience with their renowned shoegaze repertoire as the sun aptly painted the sky a myriad of pinks and oranges in its illustrious departure.
Finally, this year saw Wide Awake’s main stage collaborate with the acclaimed radio station KEXP to host an enthralling line-up of acts. Commencing with the jazz-inflected rock outfit, Crumb, as well as the reverberating aura of Dry Cleaning, the afternoon’s real stand-out proceeded thereafter. Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Popul’s aura resided in their inherent charisma and power to connect with today’s extensive audience - ultimately dancing to such hits as ‘Ceci N'est Pas un Cliché’, ‘Haha’, and ‘Thank You’. The duo's provocative lyrics and spoken word delivery indelibly challenge stereotypes whilst retaining a lightheartedness which, at times, is rendered absurd: a raw, real, and unique treat.
Whilst the house and techno worlds entrancingly collided on Corsica Studios’ stage with the likes of Ben UFO and Modeselektor, the evening began to announce itself elsewhere. Young Fathers’ soulful rumblings shook the KEXP stage before bowing out to the rough-n-ready presence of garage-rock monoliths King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. For those who resisted this urge, there proved a small surprise awaiting on Bad Vibrations’ stage as Byrne's Night recited a plethora of Talking Heads’ hits alongside Model/Actriz, Special Interest, and Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul; coalescing together for a beautiful, communal sing-along.
As King Gizzard’s Kenny Smith glimmered with sheer delight at the conclusion of their magnanimous set (“What more could you ask for?”), so, too, wondered many of us in attendance for yet another year, galvanised by this unorthodox scene to welcome the inception of summer. For when a flourishing festival such as Wide Awake continually hosts an eclectic array of genres and artists across several stages, surely there isn’t much more one could ask for from this hedonistic world of alternative music.
Tickets for Wide Awake Festival 2025 are on sale now and can be found here.
This article was co-written alongside María Clara Montoya and Luke Ness; photos are courtesy of Luke Dyson and Joshua Atkins whose work can be found at their links.