Choosing a band like Kneecap as a headliner is bold, and only seemed to add to the list of woes facing the organisers of Wide Awake 2025. Just days before taking to the main stage of Brockwell Park’s annual independent music festival, lead singer Mo Chara was charged with a terror offence, after allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in 2023. This came hot on the heels of a High Court challenge against Lambeth Council’s permission to run ‘Brockwell Live’, the festival series which takes place in the park and includes Wide Awake, Mighty Hoopla and Field Day. The night before the festival was due to take place, ticketholders received a slightly grim email announcing it was “squeaky bum time” on stagnant sales, offering last-minute discounted tickets. And yet… Wide Awake 2025 was a triumph.
Founded by Keith Miller, the programmer and booker of MOTH Club and the Shacklewell Arms, Wide Awake has naturally attracted a strong LGBTQ+ fanbase, of individuals who prefer small punky artists over the camp pop divas of Mighty Hoopla. Queer female artists dominated the line-up: CMAT played the main stage slot before Kneecap, and inter-generational riot grrls Mannequin Pussy and Peaches took on the ‘Bad Vibrations’ stage. Over in the ‘Shacklewell Arms’ area, Boygenius-endorsed indie folk musician Jasmine.4.t brought her electric all-Trans femme band for a romantic, energetic set, after catching up with Gay Star News for an interview backstage (see below).
One of my personal highlights was the colourful jellyfish rave put on by electro-folk (?) duo Mermaid Chunky. The pair brought out a troop of 21 flamboyantly dressed theatre kids (one of whom was wearing a fuzzy gingerbread house), to prance around the stage for approximately 20 minutes, and led the audience in a coordinated dance routine. DJ Moina loomed over the decks in a hat so large it would have given the Jamiroquai guy a complex. This felt so unique and special amidst the highly-curated line-ups of other day festivals in the capital.
The theme which united these disparate styles was counter-culture, and anti-establishment politics. Trans, Palestinian and Irish flags were everywhere in the crowds. Jeremy Corbyn made a speech on tolerance before Nadine Shah’s performance. While Peaches gyrated, topless, in bovver boots, with her name lit up in the progress pride colours, Kneecap led moshpits to diss tracks dedicated to Kemi Badenoch.
Wide Awake has a mischievous atmosphere, while also feeling like one of the safest crowds in the UK festival circuit. Though it comes with risks, its independence is what allows it to maintain that spirit, without fear of upsetting stakeholders up the chain. There are no other London festivals which can unite the BBC 6 Music crowd of middle aged band dads, Queer punks of all ages, and genteel yuppies in quite the same way.
