LIDO, Body Movements and City Splash: A guide to London's 2025 day festivals
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Ahh, the London day festival. It seems as though a new one pops up in a green space every year – and for good reason, too. Not only do day festivals offer the same musical diversity as their camping counterparts at a fraction of the price, but there’s also no chance that you’ll be taking a laborious coach voyage to an outer M25 village you’ve never heard of to get there.
Everything you could need is within reach: so you can kiss goodbye to camping gear-induced back pain, rope-burnt hands from the constant pick-up-put-down of your tinny-stuffed bags for life, and sleepness nights spent in a soggy sleeping bag. Although festival season may indeed feel a light year away, now provides the perfect chance to browse London’s vibrant menu of options: whether you’re into left-field jazz, Afrobeats, queer techno or the so-bad-they’re-good pop relics of the 90s and early 00s. It’s a phrase repeated too often, but there is genuinely something for everyone when it comes to London’s 8-hour day fests. Here’s a little more about the best ones.
Dubbing itself a “fan-first festival”, LIDO is a new addition to the capital’s day festival circuit, with its inaugural edition taking place on Victoria Park’s famous Lido Field across two weekends in June. Musical proceedings are curated by the festival’s headliners, so its first-ever lineup is a smorgasbord of some of today’s finest electronic acts: Jamie xx takes over on June 7, enlisting the help of Venezuelan visionary Arca and The XX bandmate Romy, while June 14 headliner Charli XCX has curated a day for the party girls, including appearances from BRAT collaborators The Dare, A.G. Cook and The Japanese House. Its slick branding and alt-adjacent lineup mean LIDO’s crowd will likely be a who’s who of east London, but don’t let that put you off – the festival also promises community-centred activities and has several sustainability pledges in place to offset the private members club creative vibe of it all.
