Our Mutual Friend, Suggestions 27/11/25
15 December 2025
It was a shaky start – news of legal action against the festival for not following regulations meant rumours swirled that it would be cancelled just days before but Wide Awake brushed this off and carried on. After sadly missing out last year, I was determined to drag our founder Isla along to experience the best of London Day festivals and it was well worth it.
Daniel Avery did an amazing job at curating the Dazed stage which took place inside a giant big top tent. The first act we caught there was Chanel Beads who were, as always, captivating and incredibly cool. As he did at their Pitchfork show last year, Shane Lavenders requested that the lights facing that band be shut off so that they were backlit, leaving the audience with a shadow puppet-esque view. Maya McGrory (who recently released her own solo album as Colle) was particularly enchanting whenever she was on the mic. They were also joined by regular King Krule collaborator Gal Go on sax.
Shout out to Hello Mary who we unfortunately missed but heard great things about from others, they’re definitely on our radar for the future.
A horrible timing clash meant that while I planted myself firmly at Fcuckers, Isla made a mad dash across the park to catch parts of deBasement, Mannequin Pussy and English Teacher – but I was told they were all definitely worth the sprint. Fcuckers were just insanely fun, they had the entire crowd jumping and dancing around, particularly to their opening and closing songs ‘Homie Don’t Shake’ and ‘Bon Bon’.
We also caught Nadine Shah who was a powerhouse with bellowing vocals and a crazy stage presence. She even brought out Spider from the Pogues to perform ‘Boys from the County Hell’ which prompted certain people to join arms and dance around in drunken circles – no naming names.
CMAT was the penultimate act on the main stage, riding the high of her recent TikTok virality. Everyone with an embarrassingly high screen time could be seen dancing along to ‘Take A Sexy Picture of Me’. After a while, I ran off to catch Cobrah who ended up being pretty late. I wasn’t complaining though as it meant Sega Bodega (who I’d sadly resigned myself to not seeing) had extended his set past his designated time. Her eventual appearance was worth the wait, however, giving the sexiest performance of the day even featuring a very brief Cou Cou Chloe appearance/lap-dance that left everyone in the big top tent hot and bothered.
Wide Awake is an undeniably political festival as shown by their refusal to give into the campaign against their headliners Kneecap which was kicked off by their divisive Coachella set earlier this year and culminated in a terrorism charge against member Mo Chara. We caught whispers of a secret set which turned out to be a speech from Jeremy Corbyn on the main stage mid-way through. He championed grassroots music venues, the power of community, and Palestine. Headliners Kneecap reinforced similar messages during their set, really hammering into the audience the importance of standing up for what you know is right despite the consequences.
The support Wide Awake provides to grassroots venues should also be championed, with them providing stages for MOTH Club and The Shacklewell Arms as well as the South East London DIY skate spot The Grove. The world feels like a scary place at the moment and it’s beautiful to see so much community still remains. Walking around the festival we encountered so many fellow journalists, local musicians, and industry people all of whom were keen to chat and share thoughts/cigarettes. Afterwards, Isla texted me to say she had “the bloody best day ever” and I wholeheartedly agree.
