The runaway success of Outbreak Festival continues this Sunday, 23 August, in London’s Victoria Park.
First staged in Sheffield in 2011, the festival was founded by 14 year olds Jordan Coupland and Lee Fellows as a predominantly hardcore punk showcase, but today it’s developed into more a celebration of a range of alternative and underground scenes and communities. As well as promoting individual shows, Outbreak has a three day festival in Manchester and spread their wings for the first time in 2025 for a one dayer in the capital.
Last year’s London event saw Turnstile headline as a part of the Lido Festival, and now they’ve graduated to be a part of the bigger All Points East series of events. From small beginnings come great things.
The peerless Deftones headline, and the day is stacked with a line-up including JPEGMAFIA, Idles, Amyl and the Sniffers, Interpol, and a whole range of artists on a bill that’s heavy with the inevitable clashes that come with such an amazing set of acts in just one day – people will inevitably moan about such a first world problem, though. Sucks to be them.
Beats Per Minute will be along for the ride again, and here’s our guide to six acts you should check out earlier in the day that you might miss as you aimlessly traipse around the site trying to get acknowledgements from strangers about that obscure band t-shirt that you’re so proud of. These recommendations come with zero clashes, too. You’re welcome:
Show Me The Body (1.55pm, North Arena)
New York’s post-hardcore beauts Show Me The Body kick off the day a mere 25 minutes after the gates open with their acerbic genre-hopping and gloriously chaotic noise. Formed in 2009, the three piece meld hip-hop, sludge metal, and banjo playing into a cacophonous racket that’s both compelling and challenging. Their recently released fourth album, Alone Together, continues the anti-establishment themes of their earlier work while also celebrating the need for unity. This’ll be a ragged and righteous communal thing, even at such a horribly early time.
Mannequin Pussy (3pm, West Stage)
They’re messy, they’re magnificent, they’re Mannequin Pussy.
Their last album, I Got Heaven, was critically acclaimed by those with good taste and continued the band’s ability to shift from harsh punk noise to more melodic earworms in a manner few others can produce.
A Mannequin Pussy live show is often raw, explosive, and unpredictable but always fun. Marisa Dabice commands the stage with an intensity that can shift from delicate to ferocious in seconds, while the band deliver every song with visceral force. It’ll mean missing Deafheaven, but it’ll be worth it and that’s a promise.
Wisp (4.15pm, West Stage)
There’s a lot of hyperbole online – both positive and wildly negative – about Natalie R. Lu (aka Wisp). She’s seen as the face of Gen Z shoegaze or an industry plant. Her debut single “Your Face” went viral on TikTok which quite a few have taken issue with and there’s no time here to really dissect how problematic that is other than saying it’s a decent song and, truth be told, probably her worst to date.
Last year’s album If Not Winter placed the shoegaze/dreampop dynamics at the fore of her songwriting and it’s all the better for it. Distant, ethereal vocals and distorted guitars are the order of the day and even though she may not be doing anything wildly original (as seems to be an issue for many online commentators) there’s more going on beneath the layers than you’d get on first listen. It’ll be interesting to see if the textures translate to the live setting.
Ecca Vandal (4.55pm, X Stage)
South African born, Australian raised, capital letter loving human whirlwind Ecca Vandal’s second album LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO UNFOLLOW often comes across like At the Drive-In fronted by Lola Young (yeah, I said it) – a sprung coil of punky and vitriolic good times through an unapologetically feminist lens.
She knows her way around a musical hook and a catchy chorus and has already spent some of the summer opening for Deftones on the Australian leg of their tour. There’s an optimistic defiance at the heart of her work, even when she’s railing against late stage capitalism and corporate greed, and for those who think the situation’s futile you may as well just dance the pain away while we can.
Concrete Vehicles (5.40pm, Rising Stage)
The Vancouver seven-piece Concrete Vehicles are a bricolage of sounds. Debut album Station on the Hill is quite a ride as it jumps from noise rock, post-punk, math rock and jazz textures at regular intervals. Jagged guitars, pounding percussion, sax and synths might remind you of the mighty Hella or Italian maestro’s Zu as washes of sound contort and twist tracks out of shape. The shifting dynamics on the record highlight the fact that there’s a push and pull in the band that gives excellent results. No song sounds like what came before, from the skittish math dance of “Concrete Vehicles” (linked below) or the melancholic “I’ll Follow”, the band weave an aural palette that defies easy pigeonholing which can only be a good thing. How this all works out in the live arena, only time will tell.
Blawan (6.10pm, X Stage)
Jamie Roberts’ mangled and skewed electronica may serve as a welcome respite from the guitars of the day, but there’s a connection between his work as Blawan and the central ethos of Outbreak as he does things on his terms, and his terms only.
Blawan’s music is for anyone who likes their electronic music dark and relentlessly inventive. Last year’s excellent SickElixir album pushed the boundaries further as Roberts explored distorted textures and distended beats that ebbed and flowed in and out of shape at alarming rate. Like a Lynchian dream, the work is marked by a refusal to take the easy route and you’re left guessing as to where things are going next. All of the ingredients for an interesting dancefloor, then. Maybe it’s not as dead as Charli XCX says.
Outbreak Fest takes place on Sunday 23 August in London’s Victoria Park – tickets here.
