Wide Awake has become a mainstay among the inner London day festivals and it’s an unabashed celebration of counterculture and music by emerging talent on the cusp of breaking through, as well as established BBC 6Music darlings.
The stage names give you great hints what to expect: Bad Vibrations is the stage for fans of the iconic London promoters championing the weird, wonderful, loud and out there sounds. MOTH Club stage is the place for the slightly more psychedelic, experimental and noise side of things, just like the treasured Hackney venue. Shacklewell Arms was the home to the more intimate acts, who put on a captivating performance worthy of the main stage – there were mosh pits and crowd surfers galore for bands from experimental punk to singer / songwriter. For the ravers, Daniel Avery in collaboration with Dazed curated a stage full of the best electronic acts. And there was the Wide Awake stage, home to the acts that perfectly capture the current zeitgeist. A true dream for any music and counter culture lover out there.
The line up was so stacked, my initial plan required me to be in two (and occasionally three) places at the same time more than once and I finished the day clocking nearly 14 kilometres walked (I will spare you the gory detail of how many photos I took because it’s shameful). And because the zeitgeist is very much political – I walked past stalls of numerous charities standing for what’s right: Medicins Sans Frontieres, No Music On A Dead Planet, Love Music Hate Racism, Safer Spaces, Hate Zine – it was clear that we were all there because we care about the same things.
Before Nadine Shah’s performance on the main stage, we were addressed by Jeremy Corbyn who gave an impassioned speech about how music has the power to bring people together – and Wide Awake was the best example of that. Everyone listening united in support for the ceasefire in Gaza, the freedom of Palestine, the end to racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia – and the support for grassroots music venues, which Corbyn’s project ‘Music For The Many’ campaigns for.
The vibes were three parts music festival, one part protest rally as many of the acts spoke up about the same issues. The punk rave duo Sextile, performing on Daniel Avery’s stage, walked out carrying a flag with the slogan NO ONE IS FREE UNTIL EVERYONE IS FREE! (also a running theme of most gigs I have photographed recently). Playing their new album yes, please, which sees them moving slightly away from goth dark wave towards the dancefloor, they delivered a great set fuelled by anarchic electro fire that set the tempo for the rest of the day.
I spent the most amount of time at the Shacklewell Arms stage, where Luvcat delivered smouldering blues bar vibes with her intimate songs about doomed romances, with a dedication to ‘all the misfits’ landing particularly well with the crowd. It was getting apparent with every act just how subversive the whole festival was. Later in the day the Nashville punk outfit Snõõper erupted onto the stage and genuinely bounced all the way through their set, featuring their trademark silliness and songs about bed bugs. Frankie and the Witch Fingers got the crowdsurfers going with their heavy psych blended with rock, deep fuzz and a tonne of fun. There was a kid in the front row who was having the most fun I have ever seen and it wad infectious. jasmine.4.t started the set with an acoustic, intimate ‘Kitchen’ and she radiated pure joy, which utterly captivated the audience, proving why she’s the hottest name in the current singer/songwriter space, and becoming my new ‘sad girl music’ queen.
Elsewhere, on the Wide Awake (aka main) stage, Mermaid Chunky delighted with their unique brand of weird and wonderful. The audiovisual – and multi-instrumentalist – duo of artists Freya Tate and Moina Moin got the crowd moving with their psychedelic trance / ambient folk melodies basked in milkmaid serenity, while a troupe of dancers dressed in fluffy pastels and surrealist makeup weaved through the crowd, ultimately ending up on the stage with the band. After being introduced by Jeremy Corbyn himself, Nadine Shah took on the Wide Awake stage with a performance boiling with quiet rage against societal expectations and hypocrisies. With a colossal, almost confrontational voice and a Palestinian flag pinned to the lapel of her blazer, she connected with the crowd and stared us all deep into our souls, launching straight into ‘Holiday Destination’:
Fatalities in the water
Traffic jam by your side
Feed your son, feed your daughter
How you gonna sleep tonight?The bad guys they are winning
And now I’m worrying for our health
Damn your men, damn your women
Damn the children, damn yourselves
CMAT was the first reason (before Kneecap took to the main stage) for the outpouring of Irish flags on the perimeter and her show was entirely bonkers, in the way how in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ all the best people are. Walking onto the stage and promptly mooning the crowd, it was a high octane country fever dream from the get go, including some line dancing with her band, high kicks and hijinks. Her set included live debuts of two songs: ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ and ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ and her frank chat between songs about the inspiration coming from reading comments about being ‘fat and too ugly for the BBC’ (shocker!!) really resonated with her audience, who don’t even know how lucky they are to have an idol like CMAT (spoken like the true child of heroin chic era that I am).
The Bad Vibrations stage was home to the more punk lenient headliners, and leading the charge were Mannequin Pussy who got the whole crowd – men in particular – to scream from the top of our lungs ‘PUSSY!!’, multiple times. It was a passionate, riotous and ferocious performance. Marisa “Missy” Dabice has the stage presence that seamlessly blends the rage of Courtney Love with the showmanship of Lady Gaga in the same way as the songs go from anger-filled punk anthems to sensual and seductive ultra femininity, which she once called profane. They were one of the highlights of the festival and laid the ground for Sprints, the third act waving the flag for Ireland, who came in hard with their bleak, grunge infused noise rock. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Karla Chubb’s dry chants turn into harrowing screams in a flash. Working through her traumas using songs as a vessel, Sprints managed to keep the crowd contemplative and on board for the pain vivisection.
But it was Peaches who truly set the Bad Vibes stage alight with her provocative as ever performance. Emerging on stage in a dress made of fake breasts and hair piece designed by Charlie Le Mindu (who, believe it or not, used to cut my hair for a hot second), she proved just why she is the ultimate feminist and queer icon. She was soon joined on stage by her dancers performing as hairy vulvas – very apt for the track ‘Vaginoplasty’ – before launching into a string of equally provocative costume changes and crowdsurfing help up by the crowd that treasures her dearly. Her set delivered a mix of Peaches classics – I danced in the photo pit to ‘AA XXX’ which was my Peaches awakening back in the early 00’s – as well as more recent material, and of course it closed with a rendition of ‘Fuck The Pain Away’ that verged on a communal karaoke. But most importantly, Peaches spoke to the community that she’s been championing all along:
If they say they’re a they, then that’s what they are.
If he says he’s a he, then that’s what he is.
If she says she’s a she, then that’s what she is.
Should be simple, but it is political. And Wide Awake have paid the unfortunate price – standing by what’s right and standing by Kneecap amidst their controversy, as well as being in the middle of a NIMBY debate, they proved that they are an essential festival for counterculture. They create a safe space for self expression and artistic exploration of both their audience as well as the artists they bring to us and they will for sure go down as standing on the right side of history. They have been my favourite London festival because they genuinely feel as if anyone you ever bumped into at a gig discovering your next musical obsession play at your favourite small venue was suddenly in the same place at once. I cannot wait to return in 2026. Also because those vegan corn dogs are the bees knees. And I cannot leave without giving a massive shout out to the BSL interpreters, who brought unrivalled energy to their performance and inadvertently taught a whole park full of people how to sign FREE PALESTINE.
Wide Awake is promoted by Bad Vibrations and takes place as part of Brockwell Live.