Last month local resident and member of the Protect Brockwell Park group, Rebekah Shaman, took Lambeth Council and event organisers Brockwell Live to court, arguing that they did not have the correct planning permission for the events.

Ms Shaman’s claim centred around planning laws which prohibit the change of use of parks for more than 28 days each year. Last week, the High Court ruled in favour of this argument, saying that the park would be used for as many as 37 days due to the scheduled events this summer.

The event organisers, however, have now given an official update on the festivals’ status, which include Mighty Hoopla, Wide Awake and Field Day.

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Writing on Instagram, Brockwell Live said: “Brockwell Live can confirm that all events in the series will go ahead as planned.

“Friday’s High Court ruling dealt with a particular point of law and whether an administrative process can be carried out correctly… We take our stewardship of Brockwell Park seriously.

“As we prepare to deliver these much-loved, culturally significant events, we remain fully committed to its care, upkeep, and long-term wellbeing. With setup nearly complete, we look forward to opening the gates and welcoming festival goers later this week.”

This dispute has created much debate within the local area and beyond. Many residents, such as Ms Shaman, believe that such events are leading to an accelerated decline of the parks well-being, with Shaman responding to the ruling by saying: “This has been going on for years, it isn’t a one-off situation and it has been a consistent deterioration of the park.”

However, there are many that believe events such as these are essential to London’s vibrant culture and that they are crucial to the local economy.

 

 

 

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The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) have been one of the biggest supporters of Brockwell Live and Lambeth Council, saying: “The local economy – including independent shops, pubs, restaurants, and hotels – which sees a surge in business during these festivals, would be hit hard.”

Since the ruling, Wide Awake, Field Day, and Might Hoopla have all come out with separate statements (see above), confirming that all festivals will still take place and reiterating their “commitment to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all”.

The situation has also created much debate on social media, with one user on X/Twitter stating that: “Real rock and hard place with this… there used to be so many free park events in London.”

Real rock and hard place with this. Noise complaint NIMBYism has so much of LDN tightly within its grip, but I also think its basically bad private companies can enclose public space to charge extortionate fees for us to see music. There used to be so many free park events in LDN https://t.co/5fKZgmixI2

— Arbeitology (@Arbeit_Fish) May 19, 2025

The first of Brockwell Park’s festivals is due to kick off this Friday with Wide Awake. Politically charged hip-hop trio Kneecap will headline the festival despite calls for their performances to be cancelled after their controversial Coachella performance.

Here we go… you guessed it: @kinggizzard are heading to Brockwell Park next May. Our most requested headliner EVER We’ve been trying to bring these guys over every year & here we finally ARE!⁠
⁠
Grab your tickets now as they are gonna fly https://t.co/5VBGfqThFH pic.twitter.com/4BKwmOmeGu

— Wide Awake (@wideawakeldn) October 3, 2023

The rest of the line-up is yet to be announced, with more announcements coming soon. This year’s edition of the festival saw Caroline Polachek perform as main headliner, with local bands Black Country, New Road, Warmduscher and Los Bitchos also in attendance. Other notable acts from this summer’s party include American psychedelic/alternative rock legends Osees, Swedish prog-punk pioneers Viagra Boys and Manchester-born, Berlin-based post-punk outfit The Underground Youth.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard has long been a favourite of Wide Awake Festival owner Keith Miller, who has recently described his love of the band in a statement: “We’re so delighted to finally nail down King Gizz! It’ll be 10 years since I first saw them in the Shacklewell [Arms] when they hit the main stage. We’ve tried to bring them over every year, and they were our most requested acts from our fans survey. I caught them up at Manchester Psych Fest in September and it was unreal. You will not be disappointed!”

Fresh off the back of a headline show at the Manchester Academy in September, an event that coincided with Manchester Psych Fest, the prolific and highly energetic Australian band, who transcend music genres as easily as they sell out headline shows, will return to the UK next year to perform for thousands of endlessly loyal supporters.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have also recently announced their 25th studio album, The Silver Cord, and have subsequently released the first three tracks from said album, along with a combined music video of all three songs. The tracks, namely ‘Theia’, ‘The Silver Cord‘ and ‘Set‘, are a perfect testament to the group’s commitment to musical exploration, being experimentally electro in nature and distant from their garage and psychedelic rock beginnings, and certainly different from their previous album release, the thrash metal laden PetroDragonic Apocalypse.

Watch the music video for ‘Theia’, ‘The Silver Cord‘ and ‘Set‘ below:

You can purchase tickets for Wide Awake Festival 2024 here.

Toying with dark sensualness, the first half of the song, “Playboy” starts with a dissonant melody with Shygirl cooling rapping over the top. In the video, a bikini-clad woman spins around a pole in a dark room an eerie face-printed mask obscuring her face. Shy introduces the second half of the song by uttering, “Wait let me just change positions quickly”, the beat quickening with the singer adopting a breathier vocal style. The video for the “Positions” portion features two tattooed men wrestling on a dry grassy football pitch.

Watch the video below:

Irish singer Cosha, English record producer Karma Kid, and English producer to the stars Mura Masa all worked with the singer on the single. London-based photographer Samuel Ibram teamed up with Shygirl once again for the haunting video. He previously directed the video for Shygirl and Björk’s “Woe (I See It From Your Side)” as well as photographed Shy for the cover for Nymph.

Nymph_o, the deluxe version of Shygirl’s 2022 debut album, Nymph, will be available on streaming on the 14^th of this month. The album will contain reimagines and remixes of songs on the original LP as well as some brand-new tracks like “Playboy/Positions”. So far, Shygirl has released three other songs that will feature on Nymph_o: a club mix of “Poison”, a reimagining of “Heaven” featuring the celestial vocals of alt R&B singer Tinashe, and Björk’s ethereal remix “Woe (I See It From Your Side)”. The genre-bending LP will also feature Eartheater and Arca. To preorder the album click here.

Southeast London rapper, DJ, and singer-songwriter Blane Muise, better known as Shygirl, entered the scene in 2017 receiving praise for her unique deconstructed club and experimental hip hop sound. Her debut EP Cruel Practice and her sophomore EP Alias caught the attention of Pitchfork, NME, Vogue, and Crack Magazine.

Currently, Shygirl is performing in North America on her Nymph World Tour. She will be performing at several festivals later this summer including Wide Awake Festival, Parklife, Flow Festival, and Øyafestivalen. For tickets see here.

For Shygirl’s UK & Europe dates see below:

27/05/23 – Wide Awake Festival – London
10/06 – Parklife – Manchester
09/08 – Øyafestivalen – Oslo
11/08 – Flow Festival – Helsinki

The simplicity of the party is what makes it a key event. Hosted in one night and two venues they will be showcasing leading bands from the modest indie/alternative, Post-Punk music scene today. Amongst this line-up we find bands such as the Australian guitar twisters Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, the English experimental rock band Beak, the French, alternative garage-rock trio Slift, Tel Aviv songwriter and musician BEATFOOT, the alternative mash band who dedicate to building their own guitars, Acid Dad, as well as many more.

This celebration of counterculture and independent music will be hosted at Earth Hall and Earth Theatre based in the renowned East London neighbourhood Hackney. For only 25 euros a ticket you can get a full blown musical experience in preparation for the big day, not to mention the pre-party’s after party hosting a selection of, currently, secret DJ’s still to be announced. The after party will be hosted in Shackwell Arms from 11pm to 3am.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Wide Awake experience, it is an annual festival hosted in Brockwell Park, London. Known to be a rigorous, yet wholesome, day of enthralling post-punk, captivating indie music and some cosmic electronic unwinders. They like to give the best up and coming bands an opportunity to be heard, as well as hosting key bands of the industry. Fans return each year to get a dose of the newly discovered music they are guaranteed from the festival. This year hosts bands such as Viagra Boys, Black Country New Road, Shy Girl, Caroline Polachek and many more.

Their collaborators, Desert Daze, are also an annual festival based on Moreno Beach at the Lake Perris State Recreation Area in California. An event ranging from country-western acts to roots, blues and world music. They host their event, however, in the autumn, this year from the 12th October to the 15th October they will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary.

The collaborative event is not one to miss. Especially hosted by two passionate corporates of the industry with a great reputation. Tickets went live today (15th March) at 10am.

Click here to get yours now.

Commencing with Houston’s solo vocal, the chilled out track soon gains some gliding momentum with the introduction of thudding percussion and wide open, shimmering ambient soundscapes, a musical trait that Odesza have perfected over the course of their career.

Speaking on the new track, according to a press release, Odesza stated: “What we like about ‘Wide Awake’ is it feels like it encapsulates a lot of things we enjoy into one track: lots of percussive elements wrapped in emotive chords, with swirling distorted synths and leads, all centered around Charlie’s incredible vocal. It’s one of our favourites from the record and something we come back to a lot.”

The forthcoming album The Last Goodbye is set to be the duo’s most ambitious album to date. A project rife with brightness and emotion, it serves as a sweeping sonic experience that speaks to themes of connection, reminiscence, and the impact we have on one another.

Pre-release tracks showcase the depth of the album, with the title track ‘The Last Goodbye’ (feat. Bettye LaVette) being praised by the New York Times who said it “brings some Slavic melancholy to four-on-the-floor dance music” while other songs ‘Love Letter’ (feat. The Knocks) features a dynamic, emotive vocal refrain that serves as a personal proclamation, speeding amongst curtains of orchestral synths. The mesmerising ‘Behind The Sun’ includes a beautiful vocal sample from Iranian singer Simin Ghanem’s ‘Seeb’, and ‘Better Now’ (feat. MARO) features delicately balanced ambient soundscapes and instrumentation.

In other news regarding Odesza, the band will be partnering with environmental nonprofit and music industry veterans REVERB to make their tour more environmentally sustainable and to engage fans to take action for people and the planet. Not only will the tour be carbon negative, eliminating substantially more greenhouse gas pollution than the tour creates, there will also be activations at each show to encourage fans to get involved to take action against climate change.

NEW LINE UP ADDITIONS. @amylandsniffers @notionofanguish @PistIdiots and more join Saturday’s bill. Tickets https://t.co/d8KQPh9INr pic.twitter.com/dgYiy5th12

— Wide Awake (@wideawakeldn) March 31, 2022

Alongside Amyl And The Sniffers, the Brooklyn synth-pop act Nation Of Language will join the roster, totting up to a total of 11 additional acts which also include; Fergus Clarke, Harry James, Curses, Pist Idiots, Veronica Vasicka, Tia Cousins, Trish K, Marcus Harris and Nathan Gregory Wilkins.

Three years after its inception, the independent festival has been going from strength to strength, having been named as the Best Small Festival by at the BandLab NME Awards in 2022 hosted at Brixton Academy, London (pipping other such festivals as End Of The Road, Lost Village, Mighty Hoopla and Live AT Leeds to the post), amassing an impressive line of credits of  acts such as Metronomy, Idles, Black Midi, Crack Cloudand Black Country, New Road. Looking forward, the festival seems set to become marked on calendars year on year for its championing of the most exciting indie/alternative talent.

The rise of Wide Awake has led to spanning 2 full days that boast a broad and eclectic mix of artists old and new. Friday will see Bicep close out the night with a live headline set that follows performances from Caribou, Working Men’s Club, Alewya, Overmono, Sofia Kourtesis, Leon Vynehall and Club Fitness to name a few.

Announced back in December 2021, Saturday’s main event will see Primal Scream cap off the weekend with an extra-special Screamadelica set that will mark the iconic album’s 30^th anniversary, supplemented by appearances from Fat White Family, Yard Act, Billy Nomates, The Comet Is Coming, Boy Harsher, Alex Cameron and Kevin Morby (among many others).

Tickets for both days of Wide Awake Festival 2022 available on their website.

Amyl And The Sniffers have released a double-disc expanded edition of their latest album Comfort To Me, which also features a live recording from a show in Williamstown, Australia. Copies of this latest release along with other goods can be purchased here.

Details of the Aussie punk quartet’s upcoming UK shows can be found down under;

28/05/2022- Wide Awake Festival- Brockwell Park- London, UK
29/05- Stylus- Leeds, UK
31/05- Albert Hall- Manchester, UK
01/06- O2 Academy Brixton-London, UK
05/06- Rock City- Nottingham, UK
06/06- O2 Academy Bristol- Bristol, UK
07/06- O2 Academy Oxford- Oxford, UK

Tickets for the shows are located here.

WIDE AWAKE 2022 ANNOUNCEMENT

We’re expanding to two days! ⁰@ScreamOfficial headline Sat May 28, playing Screamadelica in full live for the first time in a decade, with @feelmybicep headlining Fri May 27!

SNAP UP TICKETS NOW https://t.co/hBAurFOxS5 pic.twitter.com/XO6VUkJvnk

— Wide Awake (@wideawakeldn) December 7, 2021

The festival has now expanded to two days, as opposed to the inaurgural one-day fixture from last years iteration. Bicep are set to be the headline act for the Friday night, with Primal Scream closing the Saturday, treating us with a perfomance of their iconic Screamadelica in full.

Wide Awake boasts a musically diverse lineup, spanning genres with artists including Caribou, Leon Vynehall, Fat White Family, Connan Mockasin, The Comet is Coming, and Kevin Morby. Organised by the co-founders of Field Day, Wide Awake maintains the same ethos of musical diversity, appealing to fans from across the spectrum. Last years iteration, however, was more rock oriented, with acts such as IDLES and Goat Girl.

In a four-star review of last years event, NME wrote: “Though the music at Wide Awake largely skew towards the recent trend of bands with sardonic, sprechgesang vocals and wiry guitars, there are some welcome – and necessary – detours across the day’s programme.” 

The progressively-minded festival stresses the importance of environment consciousness and gender equality. On their website, they write: “We strive to have an equitable gender split across our line-up and 2022 will see the continuation of our ‘Positive Policy’, set up to help change the way in which live music events take responsibility for actions towards our planet.”

In tandem with this social interest, they are additionally adopting a Positive Policy which debuted at last years festival. “The positive policy aims to build action, change and partnerships in climate, carbon, local causes and air pollution. The Positive Policy debuted at the 2021 festival created positive actions in an effort to help our ecosystem and change the way in which live music events take responsibility for actions towards our planet.”

The set of ground rules for the Positive Policy are as follows:

• Bury zero waste in landfill
• Leave no trace of litter
• Ban single use plastic across the site
• Only use compostable plastic and cutlery
• Only provide ethically sourced food
• Operate a cup deposit scheme that doesn’t rip fans off
• Recycle all trader & back of house waste
• Only permit biodegradable stage effects
• Eco-toilets
• HVO Fuel

+ much more

Tickets are starting at £39.50 and can be purchased here.