LOUD WOMEN Fest London 2026: what DIY community sounds like

Two days on from LOUD WOMEN Fest London 2026 and I’m still trying to work out quite how to sum it all up. Nineteen artists from seven countries, two stages, ten hours of live radio, an alarming quantity of stringed instruments that weren’t guitars, Ukrainian folk horror, country music from Nova Scotia, riot grrrl from Colorado, gaffer-taped dancers, a SpongeBob cake, an unexpectedly competitive raffle and a semi-improvised Dolly Parton tribute. Quite a lot happened.

The thing I heard again and again throughout the day was some variation of: “That was my favourite band.” The lovely thing was that everyone seemed to be talking about a different band. That, really, is what we wanted from this lineup. No two artists sounded the same, looked the same or came from quite the same place. There were huge differences in age, nationality, genre, experience and perspective, but somehow it all made sense together. It felt like a rather beautiful snapshot of what LOUD WOMEN has become over the past 11 years.

My day had started at the deeply civilised hour of 7am on BBC Radio London, talking to Carrie and David Grant, who hyped the Fest up in an extremely satisfying BBC way. They also read out a gorgeous message from SheBeat, sent from the train down from Edinburgh, saying how excited they were to be playing. Hearing that before most sensible people had even had breakfast felt like a very lovely way to begin.

By 1pm, MADELINE had the unenviable job of opening the whole festival upstairs in the Studio. Opening a Fest is never easy, but there was a great crowd there from the very start, which was genuinely exciting to see. Madeline brought such a fresh, hopeful voice to the day, with beautiful songs and an incredibly impressive performance, then stayed around supporting everyone else afterwards. Thank you, Madeline. We’ll see you in Nova Scotia pretty soon.

Downstairs, I welcomed listeners to our first ever all-day live LOUD WOMEN Fest broadcast on Resonance FM and explained that, although we were broadcasting from a punk festival, we would do our very best to mitigate any particularly punk language. Muddy Summers & the Dirty Fieldwhores promptly demolished that promise with an expletive-laden poem followed by ‘Get Off My Tits’. Piney Gir made some hasty radio apologies to anyone delicate enough to be listening at 1.30 on a Saturday afternoon and I accepted full responsibility for the entirely foreseeable consequences of booking Muddy Summers. They gave the main stage exactly the stomping, rabble-rousing opening it needed and we love them very much.

Upstairs, SheBeat are a great example of the kind of people we love working with. Jodie and Ian White are wonderful musicians, Jodie has a gorgeous voice and writes heartwarming songs, but there’s much more to it than that. People often ask me, “How does my band get on a LOUD WOMEN bill?” Well, this is how. You do the work, support other people, become part of the scene and be an excellent human who makes working together an absolute pleasure.

Jodie presents LOUD WOMEN NORTH on Louder Than War Radio, as well as helping us put gigs together. Only three days before London she had been in Edinburgh helping host our LOUD WOMEN night with Second Idol + SheBeat + YIOTA + Von Dodds. That lovely message being read out on BBC London that morning somehow summed her up. We love you, SheBeat, and we’ll see you again at LOUD WOMEN Fest Newport in October.

Then came The NaNaz, whose journey we have been incredibly lucky to watch from close quarters. They grew out of the Nana Punk workshops in Wales, which I was honoured to get involved with, and only a few months ago we took them across the Atlantic to LOUD WOMEN Fest NYC, complete with a BBC documentary crew. Watching them grow into such a powerful, confident and exciting band has been brilliant, and it’s very easy to understand why they are capturing people’s imaginations around the world.

The NaNaz also brought a BSL interpreter for their set, meaning Deaf audience members could be properly included in the performance. We have previously tried to secure funding for BSL interpretation across the whole Fest, and seeing how much it added to their set has made us even more determined to try again next year. We shall get the funding minions onto it.

Naturally, because this was The NaNaz, there was also a special guest guitarist in the form of Ralf Little off the telly, dressed as “a punk”, complete with spiky dog collar. Wherever The NaNaz go, something unexpected tends to follow. We’re delighted that they’re helping us bring LOUD WOMEN to their hometown next month at Le Pub, which I regularly insist is the best venue in the UK. No idea what will happen there. I’m expecting quite a lot.

Our wildcard of the day was FOLKULAKA, and I am feeling extremely chuffed with myself about that booking because several people came up afterwards and told me they might be the best band I have ever booked. Ukrainian folklore, horror, traditional music, astonishing voices and a visual performance that was simultaneously beautiful and genuinely terrifying. The costumes, the horns, the contact lenses and some deeply unnerving eye contact made them impossible to look away from.

Behind all that menace were three incredibly warm, funny and lovely people. At one point they remarked, with remarkable matter-of-factness, that they had been in a war zone the previous day and now here they were playing at a punk festival in London. That is quite a humbling thing to hear. They stayed with us for the whole day, still largely in costume, which made occasional trips in the Rich Mix lift more alarming than usual. Huge thanks to the Ukrainian Institute for recommending them to us. We really hope we can bring FOLKULAKA back to the UK again.

Then came returning LOUD WOMEN sheroes Hagar the Womb. They have played several Fests for us over the years, supported LOUD WOMEN loyally for a very long time, and are thoroughly part of the family. Co-frontwoman Karen sadly couldn’t make it, but Hagar found perhaps the only person in the world who could properly fill that space: Julie, one of the band’s original members, making this a very special little reunion in its own right.

We were also very pleased to see bassist Mitch in fine fettle. The last time I had seen him was on stage at Rebellion, where he had won my eternal admiration by somehow continuing to keep time while vomiting profusely. Thankfully there was no repeat performance on Saturday, and the front row remained perfectly safe.

Bullshit Boy came all the way from Hamburg, where we first met them at our first LOUD WOMEN Fest Hamburg at Hafenklang and immediately fell in love with them. Since then they have come to London to play a live session on the LOUD WOMEN Radio Show and become friends for life. Their London Fest set went down a storm, with plenty of people discovering them for the first time and immediately understanding why we keep inviting them back.

And on the subject of Hamburg, stay tuned. LOUD WOMEN will be returning next year. Wild horses could not keep us away from Hafenklang. We love the venue, we love the city and we love Hamburg’s vibrant, inclusive and supportive DIY music scene. Hopefully there will be more Bullshit Boy involved too.

Bill Ricky then took over downstairs and were just impossibly cool. What a treat to bring this alt-country band from Halifax, Nova Scotia to London. Every member is an exceptional musician and they seemed to collect new fans within about 30 seconds of starting. They had already raised the roof at LOUD WOMEN Fest Dublin the previous weekend and, I have to admit, sounded even better in London now that their actual bassist had arrived and they no longer had me depping with them. They stayed and partied with us for the rest of the day too. Bill Ricky forever.

Upstairs, French Toast delivered one of those performances where your eyes don’t quite know where to rest. Their music is gloriously genre-defying, pulling punk, synthy post-punk, jazz and theatre into something completely their own, and Lyly Riott is an extraordinary frontperson. She was in the crowd, on the floor, everywhere at once, drawing everybody into a performance that was powerful, emotional, unsettling and hugely entertaining.

Then there were the Toasties, French Toast’s dancers, in gaffer tape and balaclavas, adding a fairly eye-opening performance element of their own. My children were in the audience and certainly saw some things they hadn’t encountered before, so once again LOUD WOMEN Fest proved itself to be an educational all-ages experience.

Second Idol were by this point several days into an heroic LOUD WOMEN marathon. They had come all the way from Sydney and played Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool and London, picking up friends and fans everywhere, with Brighton still to come the next afternoon. They are a fantastic band and fantastic people, and Kate is also one of the people putting a huge amount of work into our LOUD WOMEN Fests in Australia this November. We love Second Idol and they are very much LOUD WOMEN family forever.

Another band whose name kept coming up in conversations afterwards was Lilith Left the Garden. Huge vocals, a fantastic band and a genuinely commanding live performance, plus possibly the most beautiful outfit of the entire day: an absolutely gorgeous purple velvet dress that I am still raving about.

We’re especially fond of Lilith right now because they recorded ‘Girl’s Pretty (LOUD WOMEN version)’ especially for our brand new compilation, LOUD WOMEN Volume 7. We gave them a ridiculously short deadline and they somehow came back with one of the highlights of the album. Happily they’re staying in London long enough to join us live on the LOUD WOMEN Radio Show on Resonance FM this Tuesday, so we don’t even have to miss them yet.

Then came Skint Knees, and the thing that struck so many people was simply how much fun it looks to be in this band. They are such a unit. They clearly love playing together and that joy shoots straight off the stage and into the room. Again, different people independently told me they had been one of their absolute highlights of the day. This band is going places, so if you are not already on the Skint Knees bandwagon, now would be a sensible time to get on. We need them back on a LOUD WOMEN bill ASAP.

The constant changes in sound continued with Maria Uzor, whose genre-resistant electronic music pulls from techno, electro, dub, rave, avant-pop and plenty more, but whose live performance has all the power and attitude we want from a punk festival. Maria is an incredible performer and it was great to have her back after her recent appearance at LOUD WOMEN Fest Bristol. She also joined us for a live session on Resonance FM earlier this summer, so there is plenty more Maria available if Saturday left you wanting more.

Then Diva Cup brought us a taste of the Colorado riot grrrl scene, all the way from Boulder. Great songs, a brilliant live performance and another young band who had people rushing up afterwards to ask who they were. Guitarist Maxx is also helping make our first LOUD WOMEN Fest Colorado at the Fox Theatre happen, which is another perfect example of the way this community works: people don’t just step onto the stages, they help build more of them.

Followers of Diva Cup may recently have had their hearts broken when the band announced that London would be their final show. They have subsequently exercised their absolute prerogative to change their minds and unbroken our hearts again. They are carrying on, although in another US city, which happens to be somewhere LOUD WOMEN plans to return to next year. This is all very much music to our ears. Diva Cup fans for life.

Shiv and the Carvers were another band that different people independently described to me as a genuine revelation. They gave a performance worthy of a stadium-sized crowd, and frankly they have the sound to fill one. Shiv is an incredible frontwoman and the whole band feels very much on the move right now. They’re touring the UK this week on their way to Reeperbahn Festival, so catch them while you still can in rooms where you can see the whites of their eyes.

We are also extremely proud and grateful that Shiv is one of the powerhouses behind our first LOUD WOMEN Fest Toronto. The Carvers aren’t playing that one, because Shiv has taken on the arguably more difficult job of helping organise it. We can’t wait to see her on home turf.

Downstairs, THWACK! brought yet another shift in sound. In fact, there were a surprisingly large number of violins and cellos at this particular Fest, meaning that for once THWACK! were not the only orchestral punks in the village. They still stood out, because THWACK! always do. The set also doubled as a birthday celebration for Chloe, complete with a SpongeBob SquarePants cake brought by Charlie and suitably celebratory energy. You really haven’t lived until you’ve seen THWACK! live, so please rectify that if necessary.

Then WREX, beginning an extraordinary three-gig LOUD WOMEN weekend. We are not necessarily known as an organisation that spends a lot of time giving men microphones, but George Donoghue is a notable exception. He and Mae Seaton share the vocals and the performance space beautifully, and there is something genuinely lovely about watching how naturally they work together. Their chemistry and energy are huge.

The next morning WREX got up and played our Brighton matinee at The Prince Albert, then drove to Canterbury and played for us again that evening. I saw them there too and you genuinely would not have known it was their third performance on very little sleep. They brought their A-game every single time. Absolute heroes, and I hope they have their feet up now.

Then it was I, Doris. I felt slightly embarrassed that we had somehow given our own band a much later slot than we usually take at a LOUD WOMEN show, but it was logistics rather than diva behaviour: it was simply the earliest time we could all get there. Still, if we were going to enjoy the novelty of a later slot, we felt we had better earn it, so we stepped things up with sparkly dresses and a set full of new songs.

We also threw in a semi-spontaneous, semi-improvised version of Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ in tribute to the late great Dolly, and invited people in the audience to join us. It quickly became a fairly enormous all-star version, with members of French Toast, Skint Knees and Bullshit Boy, Kitty and various other friends piling onto the stage. Danielle from Alliance for Choice deserves particular recognition for delivering a fully choreographed, highly literal interpretation of the lyrics. Absolute top marks. No notes. Love you forever, Danielle.

And a word here for Tee, who was behind the drum kit for I, Doris, because this gives some indication of how LOUD WOMEN actually works. In the course of one festival Tee helped provide the backline through Betty’s Crew and The Fickle Pickle Club, played drums with us, took a presenting shift on the radio as DJ Bubble Tee and supplied copious emotional support throughout. There are several people in Team LOUD WOMEN who seem to have quietly decided that one job per festival is for amateurs.

Then came the LOUD WOMEN raffle, a tradition that people seem to be genuinely and increasingly invested in. It’s always good fun, but it also tops up the festival funds and helps us pay the bands, so thank you to everyone who bought tickets. One gentleman appeared to win most of the prizes, but he had also bought an impressive quantity of tickets. You buy the ticket, you take your chances. Or, apparently, all the prizes.

Finally Lady Lazarus closed the whole thing, and there could hardly have been a more fitting band to do it. They helped spearhead our first LOUD WOMEN Fest Australia and then Caroline and Izzy organised LOUD WOMEN Fest Berlin after moving there. They’ve helped endlessly behind the scenes too, and are by now our beloved international adopted daughters and LOUD WOMEN family forever.

They absolutely brought their A-game, but perhaps the loveliest moment of the whole set was when Caroline invited Ayla, a 14-year-old bassist onto the stage to play a song. She absolutely killed it. It was a perfect little demonstration of what we want an all-ages festival to be: not simply allowing kids into the room, but allowing them to see that the stage might belong to them too.

Earlier, a dad in the audience had told me that he had been bringing his daughter to LOUD WOMEN Fest since she was 13. She is now in a successful punk band herself, inspired by some of the artists she grew up watching on our stages. That nearly did me in, frankly. It’s exactly why keeping the Fest all ages matters so much, and why we are so grateful to Rich Mix for giving us a London home where that is possible. Music scenes need generations mixing together. Somebody gets inspired, somebody picks up an instrument, somebody starts the next band. Keep passing it on.

Ten hours live on Resonance FM

For the first time, the Fest was broadcast live on Resonance FM all the way from 1pm until 11pm. Ten hours of live festival radio is quite a marathon, and it was beautifully coordinated and presented by an all-star cast of Piney Gir, Ruth Barnes, Dee Plume, X-Ray Bex, Delia Sparrow, DJ Bubble Tee and Anastasiia Starkova, taking turns behind the mic throughout the day and bringing the performances, interviews and general goings-on at Rich Mix out to listeners around the world.

Huge thanks to all of them, to the Resonance team and to Anastasiia for bringing the broadcast home at the end of the night. We very much hope we can share a recording of the day afterwards too, so stay tuned.

More than music

We were really proud to have Rainbow Migration with us throughout the day, talking to people about their vital work supporting LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration system. Their work includes practical, advocacy and emotional support, specialist legal advice, and helping people access things such as healthcare and housing.

And of course there was Danielle from Alliance for Choice, who I think we can safely say is family now. She had already been with us at LOUD WOMEN Fest Dublin the previous weekend and then joined me at the Vagina Museum during the week, before somehow turning up at Rich Mix with enough energy left to speak powerfully from the stage about Alliance for Choice’s work and the continuing fight for proper abortion healthcare access in Northern Ireland. And then, obviously, she did that ‘9 to 5’ choreography. Range.

The people who actually make this happen

I get a lot of thanks and a lot of praise for being the founder of LOUD WOMEN. I’m the person sitting at my kitchen table saying yes to almost everything anyone invites us to collaborate on, starting ridiculous projects and then occasionally remembering that somebody will actually have to make them happen.

But that’s the point: I might kick-start a lot of this stuff, but I absolutely do not make it happen on my own. LOUD WOMEN exists because there is a team of people who repeatedly turn my “ooh, yes, we could definitely do that” into an actual festival, radio show, tour, album, international collaboration or whatever other bright idea has escaped from the kitchen table that week.

Tee is a perfect example, providing backline, drumming, DJing and emotional support all in one day. And Lucy, my eternal right-hand woman, frequently has to become my surrogate brain when mine stops functioning, remembering the things I have forgotten, taking over when needed and occasionally making sure I perform basic human maintenance such as eating food and drinking water. I love you both enormously.

Huge thanks to the incredible team at Rich Mix, who kept a very complicated day running remarkably smoothly, and huge thanks to Tee at Betty’s Crew and The Fickle Pickle Club for providing the backline. It sounded great and made an enormous difference.

And massive love and gratitude to our brilliant crew: Charlotte, Laurie, Dom, Alise, Fi, Liz, Julie, Riley, Lucy, Ely, Ailden, Olya, Ruby, Jose, Sara and Laura. Thank you for keeping everybody supported, solving problems, keeping things moving and, most importantly, keeping everybody cheerful.

Then there are the bands themselves. Thank you to every single artist who travelled, played, stayed to watch other people, helped each other, shared gear, made friends and threw themselves into the day. Thank you to everyone who volunteered, everyone who joined us from our partner organisations, everyone who listened on the radio and everyone who bought a ticket and came through the doors.

I love LOUD WOMEN. Yes, obviously I do. But days like Saturday remind me that what I love most about it isn’t really the thing I started. It’s what thousands of other people have made out of it since.

Everyone went home with a different favourite band.

That feels like success to me.