Live Review: Kneecap - Crystal Palace Park Series, London 27/06/2026

Kneecap returned to the Belly of the Beast for their biggest ever festival headlining slot as part of Crystal Palace Park Series; creating a memorable (nearly) all-Irish Glastonbury featuring the likes of Madra Salach, Gurriers and The Mary Wallopers. 

Everyone is in lively spirits long before Kneecap come on stage for the impeccable Madra Salach; playing to what they say is their biggest ever gig. Crystal Palace Park certainly looks daunting and it allows them to live up to their reputation as one of the most exciting new names in music right now; running through a catalogue of tracks released from the0ir EP thus so far: including; notably, dedicated to all the Irish who built London, ‘The Tunnel Tigers’, a fearsomely unique cover of Ewan MacColl’s track. 

The snarling folk outfit builds and builds with a quasi-Liam Gallagher sound to the vocals of Paul Banks, who has shades of Lisa O’Neill in the bands’ aesthetic delivery and echoes of both Lankum and the Mary Wallopers – up later – in their DNA. It’s the Irish folk resurgence leading the way early on with arguably a contender for the best act of the whole day – they can take their experience learned from playing festivals like The Great Escape and apply it to bigger venues.  It’s a fusion of trad Irish music, house, techno and DNB and the long quiet sound that just builds and builds before the melody kicks in is chaos – ‘Blue & Gold’ and ‘The Man Who Seeks Pleasure’ feel like a seamless transition from ‘The Tunnel Tigers’: “I knelt down to kiss you, lick the sugar off the cane – for the man who seeks pleasure is the man who seeks pain,” sings Banks in the sweltering heat, sending a massive crowd stunned into silence. We even have time for comedy; Paul – adding to the band, reads off the Wikipedia page after a much talked up introduction to provide a primer on Crystal Palace Park for those who may have not been before.

The turnaround is impressive; organised, and efficient for a festival that has played host to bands like The Rolling Stones and more in its heyday. Industrial post punk band Gurriers – no longer seemingly walking onto Franki Valleri’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ - have the worst of the heat but that doesn’t stop them from being good enough to gel up the crowd anyway: ‘Nobody’s Coming to Save You’ plunges into the despair of continuing a sense of normal life whilst the world is at war; asking how we’re meant to continue when we’re aware of all the horrors going on around us. It feels like a primer for the new material to see how much it works and it’s a transition with the older tracks that worked as well as The Great Escape: they’re in a tricky phase where they have to mix up their setlist that won them such plaudits for album number two and they are able to do that with the experience and skill of many bands twice their lifespan.

---

---

Dan Hoff is able to get that crowd in the pit to move even despite the heatwave and the amber warnings; and it doesn’t take long for us to get going with the chaos: what is old is new again - ‘Nothing Happens Twice’, ‘Party Lines’ are entirely new tracks fed into the melting pot of old-favourites: ‘Des Goblin’, ‘Top of the Bill’ and even Paul Banks gets a chance to come back out for another go – joining the band for ‘Approachable’. It’s a rare opportunity to see this band at the top of their game; a post-industrial punk set that matches the grit and despair of a hopeless world. Their transition from ‘Come and See’ into ‘Nobody’s Coming to Save You’ works wonders – the natural evolution of their craft.

Next act on is Biig Piig; who takes advantage of a crowd that came here to dance and yeets herself into the pit to get stuck in. The Irish rapper with a tendency to perform in English and Spanish thrives off the chaos; having worked with artists like Lava La Rue and Metronomy she is able to really tear up the room. Her debut ’11:11’ comes in swinging – with three hits pulled from the album – a run of ‘4AM’, ‘Decimal’ and ‘Favourite Girl’ gets the runout. “Oh you could’ve hit me with the bad news first,” she sings on ‘4AM’, about the crisis of dependency; “I know you don’t wanna be alone / ‘cause no one does” catches a puncturing heart. Her voice is a full throttle track that engages as a muted, just-left the club vibe that feels a bit odd as a festival opener; but gets the crowd warmed up – and the seven year discography has really given her plenty of material to work with; influenced by trip-hop and R&B and jazz, but it’s the latter of the club ready strobing synth songs that get the run out here. Her high energy tempo is brought up the more the dance vibes come in – and ‘Switch’’s chorus comes from the heart with a distinctively powerful impression. 

---

---

The lone non-Irish holdout on the billing is South London locals Fat Dog and they come on to an England kit – appropriately nonchalant – and the crowd goes absolutely nuts within seconds. Their new album is begging for a cancellation – literally ‘Cancel Me’, is one of the title tracks – and show how much it doesn’t matter to them with ‘Go Fuck Urself’. For most bands it would run the risk of feeling a bit try hard; but not with Fat Dog. Their self-awareness really guides them here – it allows them to lean into the chaos and embrace it. The crowd is lawless, sweat-soaked and having a fantastic time, raucous and energetic with a touch of unserious charm to it that makes it instantly irresistible. They’re good dogs indeed – fitting right in with the lineup that is only The Scratch and Sprints away from being perfect (and you could argue Lankum and Lisa O’Neill too). Cult favourites like ‘King of the Slugs’ and ‘Running’ lead a barnstorming atmosphere that’s super intense and has the chaotic live performances to match; embracing the crowd with the kind of gusto and high-tempo energy that’s impossible to turn away from. The pit embraces the chaos with an adoring sense of rising to the occasion – inspiring a healthy dosage of cathartic embrace. Dance punk riotous saxophone carries the energy in the room and Chris Hughes matches the tempo of the pit. Joe Love is a firestarter; and putting Fat Dog on this billing it quickly becomes apparent is throwing a live grenade into a room and setting it off.

What follows is Mary Wallopers – and the crowd here love them; and you should too. They take aim at Elon Musk; the world’s first trillionaire; and remind the audience that it’s the rich who try to divide us but together we’re stronger. That comes through in the lyrics of ‘The Rich Man and the Poor Man’ – “the poor man died and he went up to heavenium / glory hallelujah hi rogerrum…. The rich man died and he didn’t do so wellium,” frontman Charles Hendry says, and there’s a real touch of the likes of Jinx Lennon in these tracks. Their growth from post COVID into a current force that they are today – building an audience on the back of performing on livestreams in Hendry’s home and being pulled from Victorious festival for championing a pro-Palestine flag; shows their heart is in the right place and they are able to use their voice for fighting anti-immigration politics head on. It’s very influenced by The Pogues to the point where they brought them out mid-set at Brixton Academy last year, and the crowd are in good spirits with plenty of traditional Irish dances, safe moshes and crowd-surfing to oblige. It just feels like it captures the vibe of a good time: though bawdy; is funny and lively – almost drifting into folk horror and the occult at times. An inspired; totally off the ball pairing for a folk horror day: The Mary Wallopers with British folk horror metal icons Green Lung.

Then it comes time for Kneecap. I don’t know how they do it; but they come in heavy coats and are able to pull off a gig in this heat. I haven’t seen this much police in one place in South London since the last time Kneecap headlined a festival; Wide Awake in 2025, and the crowd oblige for them here. There’s a joke about 30,000 paddies being in the belly of the beast from the host Mike Rice; who tells the crowd to take all their drugs early on long before the cops get there. It’s good natured and in good spirit; egging on the crowd – and it’s time for a touching tribute to well-known Palestinian human rights campaigner and activist Trevor Dietz, with a photo on the road with a “fuck Israel” t-shirt; Fontaines DC’s manager, who sadly passed away at 54 and was by many considered to be the band’s sixth member. His influence and relationship with many of these bands like Kneecap is befitting of a touching tribute that Mo Chara takes the time to dedicate the choice of Fontaines ‘Favourite’ to him on stage: rewarding a man who has left such a key influence on the Irish scene. Their set is powerful; emotional and rewarding – drawing with a guest appearance from spoken word vocalists for Kae Tempest to appear for the crowd on ‘Fenian’ track ‘Irish Goodbye.’ Móglaí Bap called it an ode to come to terms with the death of his mother in 2020 and the reality of what happened. 

---

---

‘Get Your Brits Out’, ‘Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite’ and ‘Better Way to Live’ are the old favourites; and they go down wonders here, mixed in with the anarchic; unregulated crowd. It was the first awakening of the festival’s diverse music range for a security used to a bunch of 30-something millennials here to party for Two Door Cinema Club and the Vaccines; and Kneecap’s strengths really pay off. ‘Fenian’ is filled with plenty of politically charged moments – and the band take the time to speak about the importance of well; speaking about Palestine: “no bigger crime being committed, in our generation, than what’s happening in Palestine right now.” Mo Chara; who has beaten the Government on 3 separate occasions (Kneecap 3 – Government 0, they joke), after sporting the flag of Hezbollah and chanting for Hamas and Hezbollah at 02 Forum Kentish Town gig; yet would prefer not to make it a fourth – so tells the audience to throw any prescribed organisation flags to other band members. It’s a riot – and they take the time to show support for the Filton 24 and call for a stronger voice of the people: “We know what’s right / yes the Israeli lobby is strong, but we’re fucking stronger,” Chara concludes – with a chant for a Free Palestine being taken up by a crowd of adoring fans.

As far as day twos go; Crystal Palace Park just gave fans exactly what they wanted with a well-organised festival that wasn’t afraid to pull its punches with a rowdy crowd of upstarts. It never felt oversold and it never felt packed out – the perfect range of healthy crowd to space throughout the building. 

Words by Miles Milton-Jefferies
Photo Credit: Ben McQuiade

---