This year All Points East returned to Victoria Park in London, with a packed programme of headline shows and free midweek community events. Since its launch in 2018, the festival has drawn tens of thousands, and Saturday 16th August was no exception, with Chase & Status delivering an explosive headline set. The day also saw standout performances from Sammy Virji, Nia Archives, Shy FX, and Joy Orbison, each bringing their own eclectic mix of beats and energy.
What makes All Points East such a staple of London’s Summer calendar is the atmosphere it creates beyond the music. Victoria Park was alive with crowds spilling between stages, a mixture of ravers, and first-timers all sharing the space. Between sets, people relaxed on the benches or took refuge on the grass, queuing at food stalls serving everything from wood-fired pizza to bao buns, while others braved the fairground. The rides lit up the park with neon, their movement cutting across the night sky in sync with the beats echoing from the stages.
Spread across six stages, the venue offered a vibrant festival experience, complete with a diverse selection of food traders and bars. One standout brand presence came from Cointreau, who invited us to explore their Margarita Bar Experienc tucked within the heart of the festival. More than just a bar, it was pitched as a sensory experiment, a chance to test the theory of “sonic seasoning”, where music is said to shape the way we taste and experience flavour. The set-up itself felt vibrant and perfectly in line with the festival’s energy, with bartenders mixing up Cointreau’s signature serves: from the classic Margarita to frozen twists like Watermelon and Passion Fruit. After sampling a few, the Frozen Passion Fruit Margarita emerged as our clear favourite. A refreshing, tangy, and perfectly balance drink for a summer evening in Victoria Park. It was a clever activation, because it didn’t just offer cocktails, but folded into the festival’s atmosphere. In the middle of a high-energy event, it became a pause point that still carried the same charge as the music itself.
Saturday’s lineup captured the full spirit of All Points East, bringing together a blend of established icons and fresh new names. Sammy Virji set the tone with his high energy UK garage beats and house tracks, while Nia Archives delivered one of the standout sets of the day, blending jungle rhythms with infectious vocals that had the crowd locked in from start to finish. Jyoty kept the energy soaring with her genre-spanning selections, before legends like Shy FX and Joy Orbison took over with sets that reminded everyone of the deep roots and future-facing energy of UK electronic music. Each stage offered its own atmosphere, from intimate moments with underground selectors as day turned into night, all building towards the explosive headline set from Chase & Status.
As the evening began to close, all roads led to the main stage where thousands gathered for the night’s headliners, Chase & Status. The atmosphere was electric, a sea of bodies bubbling as the first bassline hit. Within moments, the crowd was a blur of movement, with mosh pits erupting at the front and waves of singalongs carrying through the park. The duo wasted no time in delivering a masterclass in Drum and Bass. Their set fused underground grit with main stage spectacle, blending deep, heavy drops with moments of euphoria. Lasers sliced across the night sky, strobes pulsed in time with the beat, and bursts of smoke gave each drop an added punch. Highlights included crowd favourites like ‘Disconnect’, which sent the audience into a frenzy, while newer tracks kept the energy fresh and relentless.
By the time the final track dropped, Victoria Park was vibrating with energy. It was the kind of performance that reminded you why festivals matter. Together with the unexpected sensory twist of the Cointreau Margarita Bar, the night became more than a series of sets; it was a multi-sensory journey. All Points East has cemented itself as more than just another festival, it’s a place where music and culture intertwine to create lasting memories.
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Words: Jamila Woodley
Photographer: Isha Shah, Bethan Miller-Carey, Jennifer McCord