The best late summer UK festivals to book in 2025
Green Man, August 14-17
If Boardmasters takes the title of 'Most beautiful seaside festival', than Green Man, which takes place in the stunning surroundings of the Brecon Beacons, in Wales, surely edges the competition for mountains and greenery. It sells out as fast as Glastonbury – before announcing the line-up, may we add – and is constantly declared by attendees to be the best-kept secret in the music industry, so if you're going, count yourself lucky. The finest names in indie and electronica, from Underworld and Wet Leg to Wunderhorse, TV on the Radio, Beth Gibbons and Yard Act, are set to perform alongside countless exciting new bands. Tickets are sold out, but for more information, click here.
All Points East, August 16-24
No self-respecting millennial Londoner's summer is complete without at least two trips to this Victoria Park festival. Nestled in the heart of the beautiful east London park, All Point Easts always attracts the brightest names in indie rock, rap and electronic music across its August run. This year's line-up features drum 'n' bass titans Chase and Status (Sat 16); Scottish DJ Barry Can't Swim, supported by Aussie hedonists Confidence Man (Fri 22); Brit-sweeper Raye, and rising rap star Doechii (Sat 23); and Noughties indie heroes The Maccabees (Sun 24). Tickets here.
Reading and Leeds, August 21-24
Every British teenager's drunken rite of passage returns for another year, split across two sites in Reading and Leeds across the August Bank Holiday weekend. But it's not just about the cider-fuelled shenanigans in the campsites or the late-night dance tents: the line-up is always packed with stars, and this year – headlined by Hozier, Chappell Roan, Bring Me the Horizon and Travis Scott, with Limp Bizkit, Bloc Party and Amyl and the Sniffers also set to appear – is no exception. Tickets here.
Lost Village, August 21-24
Lost Village, described as a 'playground for adults' with a focus on community is a beautifully designed boutique festival in Lincolnshire, with luxury accommodation and a brilliant electronic-heavy line-up this year featuring Caribou, Barry Can't Swim and Four Tet. There's also an eclectic array of debates, interviews, creative workshops and talks throughout the four days, as well as a serene lakeside spa and mind-and-body healing activities from sound baths to yoga and massages. The decadent woodland feasts are not to miss either. Tickets here.
Victorious Festival, August 22-24
Bringing some of the biggest names in rock and indie to Portsmouth's Southsea Common on Bank Holiday Weekend, Victorious has gone from strength-to-strength in recent years, and 2025's line-up easily holds its own against the behemoths that are Isle of Wight or Reading and Leeds; catch sets from US mega-rockers Queens of the Stone Age and Kings of Leon, arty indie heroes Vampire Weekend and the ever-reliable likes of Madness, Michael Kiwanuka, Bloc Party and The Charlatans. Tickets here.
FORWARDS, August 23-24
This relatively new city affair takes place in Bristol with some of the finest names in electro, pop and soul making up its eclectic line-up; there's DJ Barry Can't Swim, Grammy-winning rapper Doechii, soul singer Olivia Dean and indie favourites The Last Dinner Party to sink your teeth into, plus many more. Tickets here.
End of the Road, August 28-31
Always a wonderful way to round off the summer, Britain's most laid-back – and arguably coolest – festival returns, bringing the talented likes of Father John Misty, Self Esteem, Sharon Van Etten and the Attachment Theory and Black Country, New Road to the tranquil surroundings of Larmer Tree Gardens, near Salisbury. Tickets here.
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The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Dad helplessly watched as seaside fair ride derailed leaving his 3 kids – including son, 4 – trapped & injured onboard
A DAD helplessly watched as a seaside fair ride derailed leaving his three kids trapped and injured onboard. A "loud bang" was heard by witnesses after the ride came off the tracks with people screaming "to get the kids off". 5 5 Over a dozen children were left with injuries at Coney Beach Pleasure Park in Porthcawl, Wales, yesterday evening after the ride derailed. Matthew Baker, 44, was on a family day out when his four-year-old son wanted to go on the Wacky Worm ride. He described how there was a "jaunting, jiggling noise" after the ride completed one lap. The ride then suddenly stopped and lifted the train off the rails completely before crashing back down and bouncing up again. Matthew claims that a section of the security fencing flew off and nearly hit his partner following the impact. After witnessing the horror, Matthew and two other men rushed to the ride and "ripped" at the gate to reach those still on board. "My four-year-old had a busted lip - there was a lot of blood - and he has bruises on his body," Matthew told WalesOnline. "My 15-year-old hurt her left knee, and my 13-year-old daughter, who was sitting behind them, hit her chin so hard her jaw is swollen and she's badly bruised around the ribs." He added: "Physically, there was nothing major," Matthew said. "But mentally, it's difficult." Emergency services raced to the scene after witnesses reported seeing the Wacky Worm ride derail shortly before 6pm. The English seaside town with no arcades or rides but named the best in the UK The ride - described by the amusement park's website as "the perfect first thrill ride for kids" - had a number of children on it when it suddenly derailed. South Wales Police confirmed that 13 children and one adult were injured as a result, with some needing hospital treatment. Footage circulating on social media shows adults helping the children off the ride. Witnesses also reported seeing seeing children bloodied after the derailment. A spokesperson for South Wales Police said yesterday: "Officers were called to Coney Beach Amusement Park, Porthcawl, Bridgend at around 5:50pm this evening following an accident involving one of the rides. "At this time we have confirmed that 13 children and one adult have sustained minor injuries. "Some of these have required hospital treatment. "The amusement park will remain closed tomorrow while officers and health and safety personnel carry out their investigation. "Please continue to avoid the area to allow Emergency Services access." Coney Beach Pleasure Park said in a statement that it was instructed by police to clear the site after an accident on a "third party ride" not owned by the park. The park apologised for the disruption and confirmed it will provide refunds to affected customers as soon as possible. A statement added: "Due to an incident on a third-party ride not owned by Coney Beach, we were instructed by the police to clear the site for further investigation. "We apologise for the disruption and will be providing refunds to affected guests as soon as possible. We will be releasing instructions on refunds shortly. "We thank you for your cooperation." 5 5
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
'Comrade Princess': Which 'appallingly behaved' Royal won over a Communist dictator with her drunken antics?
On the latest episode of the Mail's Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things podcast, hosts Robert Hardman and Kate Williams reveal their picks for the worst Royal houseguests of all time. From Tudor Royals who bankrupted entire counties with their extravagant appetites to a light-fingered Queen coveting her hosts' antiques, British monarchs throughout history have darkened the door of many an obliging host. In the episode, Royal biographer Hardman singles out one princess for her 'appallingly bad' behaviour on state visits. You can listen to the latest Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things by clicking the player below or here. Many dignitaries, ambassadors and fellow Royals have shared anecdotes in their memoirs about the legendary drunken escapades of Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II. While Margaret's dry wit and well documented love of alcohol could prove too much for some hosts, she also possessed a remarkable ability to charm the most powerful figures of her era. Was Princess Margaret really the worst Royal houseguest? Famously barred from America by British diplomats in the 1970s due to her lavish spending and party lifestyle, Princess Margaret had a reputation for being a loose cannon. Hardman told co-host Kate Williams of one occasion where the princess behaved 'phenomenally rudely', which epitomises how her rebellious spirit could scupper important diplomatic events. The Royal biographer said: 'I was going through the diaries of Cynthia Jeb, who was the wife of the former ambassador to Paris in the 1950s. 'She recounted a dinner where Princess Margaret behaved appallingly. 'Margaret turned up very hungover. She was on a sort of tour of Europe, and this grand lunch at a chateau had been laid on for her. 'All the bright, young things of the time had been invited, and it was set to be a very special occasion. They were all said to be very excited to meet the princess. 'The morning of, she says: I can't go – I have got a cold. There were reports that she kept doing a sort of fake cough, which convinced no one. 'The Queen mother went to the lunch, but Margaret stayed behind. No sooner had everybody gone, did the princess call round a hairdresser called Alexandra. 'Alexandra was the hairdresser of the day in Paris. Basically, she just wanted to have her hair done.' Historian Williams shared another anecdote of Margaret's often erratic and displeasing behaviour, again involving alcohol. 'If you invite Margaret to a dinner, she'll be rude to you. She'll turn up late. But she'll enjoy a sing along', Williams began. 'One night, at a ball given by the legendary hostess Lady Rothermere, the princess grabbed the microphone from the leader of the band and demanded the music of Cole Porter. Robert Hardman: 'President Tito was so charmed by her, that he addressed her as comrade princess.' Listen here Get your weekly dose of Royal scandals and palace intrigue on this Mail podcast Hosted by Royal Historians Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams, Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things looks at the Royal Family - the secrets, the palace intrigues, and the Crown's bloodiest moments. Listen wherever you get your podcasts now. 'Everyone stopped dancing, and the princess suddenly starts manically singing. From the back of the ballroom, there were loud boos. People fell silent. 'It turned out that the man who was booing was the painter Francis Bacon, who was also drunk and was telling people her singing was awful and she needed to be stopped. 'So, you do need to be careful with Princess Margaret when she comes round – because she could say anything, or sing anything.' However, her unorthodox behaviour could prove surprisingly charming to some of the most difficult-to-please guests to enter the Royal household. In the early 1970s, Yugoslavia's Communist dictator President Tito was due to meet Queen Elizabeth II in Britain, to lay the ground for closer commercial and political ties. Cold War tensions had left relations between Yugoslavia and Britain decidedly frosty. Worse still, Tito was a staunch communist whose ideology was fundamentally at odds with the monarchy. Enter Princess Margaret, who proved the monarchy's surprise card up its sleeve. 'Margaret was able to wow one of the most terrifying monsters of her day', said Hardman. 'The princess was sent to Yugoslavia before the state visit. She was the first Royal to ever visit the nation. 'President Tito was so charmed by her, that he addressed her as comrade princess. 'She's still fondly remembered by that title in what used to be called Yugoslavia.' To listen to full episode, documenting history's worst Royal houseguests, search for Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
Pet Shop Boys: The night our ‘foolish idea' brought London to a standstill
It was, on the face of it, a somewhat improbable idea. One of Britain's most successful pop groups, Pet Shop Boys, would write a new 73-minute score for Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent movie Battleship Potemkin, about a revolt against the Russian ruling classes. They would then perform this score, as the film played on a giant screen, one summer Sunday night in the middle of Trafalgar Square. The proposal had come from Philip Dodd, the director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, who approached the two Pet Shop Boys — Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe — in April 2003. There were good reasons to expect that Tennant, in particular, would be receptive to the plan. He had a longstanding fascination with Russian and Soviet history — an interest that has seeped into Pet Shop Boys songs and videos such as Go West and London. Still, Tennant's first instinct was to say no. 'I didn't really want to do it, to be honest, at the beginning,' he says. 'I thought, it's a lot of work and we won't get paid anything.' He laughs. 'And it was, and we didn't.' He also presumed that Lowe wouldn't be enthusiastic, but he was wrong. 'It was something different,' Lowe explains. 'What was appealing was it was for a silent film — a piece of music to go with the visuals. And you weren't dealing with a Hollywood system where they could say, 'Oh, we don't like it — we're going to get John Williams instead.'' So the Pet Shop Boys agreed. As a first step they watched a Battleship Potemkin DVD together twice, muting its soundtrack of Shostakovich pieces, collated from various symphonies, so that it wouldn't influence them. Then they began to strategise. 'It was a challenge to see if we could write a long piece of music,' Tennant says. About half the score was written in the late summer of 2003; the second half was completed in the spring of 2004. As the work progressed their thoughts turned to how this music should be orchestrated. They decided to approach the German composer Torsten Rasch, because they'd liked his album Mein Herz brennt, based on the music of the death metal band Rammstein. • Pet Shop Boys: 'Clubbing in Berlin? It's nice to still dip a toe in there' Tennant simply sent him an email: My name is Neil Tennant. I am half of the British pop duo the Pet Shop Boys. I would like to get in touch with Torsten Rasch to see if he would be interested in collaborating with us on a project mixing electronic and orchestral music. Rasch agreed, although at first the collaboration stuttered a little. 'He thought our music was very repetitive,' Tennant says. And Lowe and Tennant found Rasch's initial orchestrations far too dissonant. But over time they found a productive middle ground. Then, after several delays and crises as sponsorship fell through, a date for the Trafalgar Square performance was set: September 12, 2004. On the afternoon of the premiere, the Pet Shop Boys prepared to soundcheck. They took their places next to the orchestra, behind a light mesh screen: thin enough to be seen through but thick enough to catch the light of the film projection at night. Afterwards they walked to a nearby hotel — 'How did we end up doing this?' Lowe muttered — where, in a typical Pet Shop Boys divergence, Tennant walked up the hotel stairs while Lowe took the lift. • Pet Shop Boys live review — high-end, hit-packed pop spectacle Soon it was time for a press conference. What did this project mean to the Pet Shop Boys, compared with their other work, someone asked. 'Well, it represents a big challenge for us,' Tennant began. 'The film itself is quite romantic and hard-hitting, and with the music we've tried to bring out those aspects, and also to bring out the emotion of it — the excitement, the horror, the freedom.' 'Good answer,' Lowe said. 'Gold star.' They retired to separate rooms to rest and get dressed. At the allotted time Lowe appeared in Tennant's room, full of cheery fatalism. 'Oh, we might as well go out in style,' he declared. 'It was always a very foolish idea.' About 25,000 people had gathered in Trafalgar Square. Tennant would later quote someone's observation that 'it must have been the biggest audience there's ever been for silent film in Britain'. It had been difficult to imagine quite how it was going to work — a huge crowd watching a silent Russian film in one of the busiest parts of London while music pulsed and cascaded over them. The reality was just as difficult to describe, except to say that people seemed captivated. 'It was really a very moving occasion to be standing on the stage,' Tennant recalls. 'We were under the screen with the orchestra, and you could see all these heads looking up at the film, and this drizzle, and the light. There was a very powerful sense of occasion — and meanwhile the buses were going past.' • The 30 best movie soundtracks of all time — chosen by the critics Back at their hotel, Lowe opened a half bottle of Moët & Chandon from the minibar to share and declared: 'Well, we got through it! That was exhausting.' 'Even doing nothing most of the time,' Tennant agreed, 'is exhausting.' They flew to Ibiza the next morning, but it was far from the end of the story, paving the way for other collaborations. In 2011 their ballet based on a Hans Christian Andersen story, The Most Incredible Thing, premiered at Sadler's Wells. In 2014 they unveiled A Man from the Future, an eight-part composition about the life of the computer pioneer and code-breaker Alan Turing, at the Royal Albert Hall. 'It got us into the idea of writing long-form, primarily instrumental pieces,' Tennant says. • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews As for the score itself, and that premiere, the band's quiet sense of satisfaction remains. 'I always remember reading a review which was very blasé about it,' Tennant says. 'As though it was the most normal thing in the world for Pet Shop Boys to perform a brand-new soundtrack to a classic silent film in Trafalgar Square with a symphony orchestra. With 25,000 people watching. As though it happened every day of the week. Whereas I think it's the only time it has ever happened.' Battleship Potemkin with soundtrack by Pet Shop Boys is in cinemas from Fri and released on Blu-ray/CD and vinyl on Sep 5. This is an edited version of an essay accompanying the release
