As All Points East drew to its final weekend, so too did the clouds of dust kicked up by Victoria Park’s well-trodden fields—so much so that a weather warning was issued, sending many festivalgoers scrambling for face masks and old clothes. The scene had a faint whiff of Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads, but at least the skies held off the rain.
The festival’s closing day delivered no shortage of artists and moments, but the most euphoric rush belonged to millennials reliving their pre-smoking-ban youth at the Radio X stage. Though modest in size, the tent demanded early investment, with fans staking out spots half an hour before short sets began. Sunderland’s The Futureheads supplied the standout, hurtling the crowd straight back to 2005. Their spiky, communal energy proved they were never just about the hits—though their Kate Bush cover of Hounds of Love had the tent howling, their own Meantime reminded everyone of the band’s knack for refracting social unease into jagged pop brilliance.
Elsewhere, Bombay Bicycle Club blurred nostalgia with reinvention. Two years on from My Big Day, the album title was reborn as a giant stage prop, attracting a headliner-sized crowd. The Crouch End quartet teased their entrance with a timer and burst onto the stage in a brass-fuelled swirl of guitars, trumpets, and shoegaze shimmer, opening with Emergency Contraception Blues. Their set grew in scope with Balkan-tinged brass, funk, and chilled hip-hop grooves, plus a surprise appearance from CMAT, who had already delighted the main stage as penultimate act before the night’s real draw: The Maccabees.
The band’s appearance carried weight. Their last farewell had been at Alexandra Palace in 2017, and this marked the end of their brief reunion—eight years later, four albums strong, and with a setlist that honoured each equally. From the propulsive indie spark of their debut to the layered expansiveness of Given to the Wild, The Maccabees channelled euphoria and maturity in equal measure. Feel to Follow shimmered with the anxious guitar energy once shared by contemporaries like Editors and The Walkmen, while the run from the tender Love You Better into Precious Time triggered mosh pits as fevered as any in the park.
Then came the night’s biggest surprise: Jamie T, wearing a cap cheekily nodding to Original Pirate Material, bounded onstage to join The Maccabees for Marks to Prove It before tearing into his own noughties anthem Sticks ’N’ Stones. The crowd erupted.
Technical glitches briefly threatened to derail the set, but no one seemed to mind. What lingered most was the band’s genuine gratitude to be back. And yet, with no new material unveiled, an unspoken melancholy threaded through the jubilation: was this truly a comeback, or the last goodbye all over again?
As the dust settled, All Points East 2025 closed with a day steeped in millennial nostalgia—a generational time capsule as much as a festival finale. Political posturing from some acts fell flat, with statements and flag-waving drawing more shrugs than cheers. In contrast, RAYE’s headline turn the weekend prior—where her lyrics and presence spoke louder than rhetoric—still towered as the festival’s defining highlight.
Be the first to comment