WIDE AWAKE FESTIVAL 2025 (London Brockwell Park, 23/05/25)

The final edition of Wide Awake (thanks NIMBYs) was sadly also the weakest, but there was still plenty to whet my deviant music appetites. It was a pleasure to catch Famous, a band with the manic, kaleidoscopic energy of a Spencer Krug project without sounding much like one, a final time before they split. Mannequin Pussy were an intense burst of ferocious feminist punk, Mermaid Chunky was like watching "The Magic Roundabout" on hallucigenics, CMAT's mad Irish country made me understand the hype (a bit) and W.I.T.C.H's funky Zambian rock would have been amazing if it hadn't been taken place in the most humid tent on Earth. No stand-outs then, but also no duds.