Festival Review: Jorja Smith + TEMS - All Points East, London 22/08/2026
One festival, one day, an endless list of surprise guests: All Points East Friday.
It was a long old trek to the far side of London, tubes swapped for buses and buses swapped for more tubes, but Victoria Park had a genuinely special Friday waiting for us. All Points East opened its 2026 run on Friday 21st August with a line-up curated entirely by Jorja Smith and her label FAMM, and from the moment we walked through the gates it felt less like a single headline slot and more like a whole weekend of pop and R&B royalty packed into one day.
Katy B kicked things off on the West Stage and it was an immediate trip down memory lane, tearing through the hits with the kind of crowd control and energy you'd want from an opener with this much history behind her. Over on the East Stage, Destin Conrad brought a completely different pace, a nice reggae groove running through a genuinely chill, eclectic set that had the crowd swaying one minute and emotional the next. Even if the stage felt a size too big for him, it was an undeniably great set.
We arrived a little late for DJ EZ but caught enough relentless bangers to remember exactly why we chased him down again after one of the best sets of Boomtown just last week. He played a Bicep 'Glue' edit that soundtracked the evening better than almost anything else all day.
Odeal was the best set of the day up to that point, smooth and steady, a live band adding real depth to his R&B, and a Justin Timberlake 'My Love' remix that unexpectedly resonated with the crowd. It felt like the kind of performance that wins over a whole new set of fans in real time.
Then came Tems, drenched in that trademark calming energy from the first note. She swooned the crowd with 'Wait For You', which was as captivating live as it is on record, and just as we settled into the groove, Dave appeared out of nowhere for 'Raindance', The raucous crowd reaction told you everything you needed to know. It wasn't the last surprise guest of the night either.
Nia Archives followed over on West Stage, back for another summer show after an incredible performance at Parklife. Donning a silver glittery dress and opening straight into 'Crowded Roomz’, she then worked through new ‘Emotional Jungalist’ cuts and then back into the earlier catalogue. 'Cards on the Table' was a genuine highlight, and there's a moment in her live shows now, starting with a reprise of ‘Silence Is Loud’ right before the album’s opener, that hits like pure catharsis every single time; dance and music and love all rolled into one. She closed by telling the crowd she was taking them to Brazil, finishing on 'Baianá', as the whole field started shuffling East for the main event.
As the sun finally went down over Victoria Park, Jorja Smith took the East Stage to close the night, opening slow with 'Blue Lights' and working through some genuinely beautiful, stripped back renditions before the guests started arriving. Odeal was first to come out and then UK garage legend Kyla came out for the original ‘One Dance’ that tipped straight into 'I Lied, You Lied'. Nia Archives reappeared, this time in a colourful wig to perform their joint single 'Get Me Down' together before sliding behind the decks herself, spinning while Jorja worked through the hits.
AJ Tracey turned up for a rapturous run through 'Ladbroke Grove', Katy B returned for 'Katy on a Mission' after a clip of a young Jorja singing along to it as a schoolgirl was shown, and Loyle Carner joined for 'Loose Ends'. Devlin arrived for a hyped cut from Jorja's new record, performing ‘The City’, before things slowed down, with one last dance for 'Little Things' and then closing out on a hypnotic performance of 'Be Honest'. Time genuinely flies when a set is stacked that deep with guests, it barely felt like one artist's headline slot, more a celebration of everyone she's worked with.
Getting back out was its own kind of chaos, everyone funnelling into Mile End at once, long queues snaking back onto the Central Line, dust covering us head to toe by the time we made it back into central London. But it was a special day, every single artist delivering, and the sheer volume of guest appearances made it feel like a whole weekend condensed into one.
Words by Alex Peters
