Festival Review: All Points East - Tyler, The Creator - Victoria Park, London
Two nights, one Tyler, the Creator, and a summer’s worth of surprises.
East London belonged to Tyler, the Creator this bank holiday weekend. Two nights, one headliner, and a genuine first for the festival, no artist had ever closed two nights of All Points East in the same year before. Victoria Park had already hosted Jorja Smith, Tems and Lorde this summer, but nothing matched the scale of what came next.
FRIDAY
The trip in from Barking made for an easier one than last time, and getting through the gates was smooth, arriving just in time for AG Club. Filling the East Stage early doors is never an easy task, but they more than delivered, mosh pits forming despite the rain, breakout 2020 viral hit ‘Memphis’ still landing as hard as ever, and a brilliant sample of Deniece Williams’ 1976 cut ‘Free’ proving fifty year old music still has plenty to say to a festival crowd fifty years on. Over on the North Arena, Love Spellsbrought a more intimate energy, a live band amplifying songs from Love Is the Law, a gorgeous, stripped back shoegaze rendition of ‘Kiss Me Slow This Time’ the highlight of a set that suggested he’s built for far bigger stages than this one.
Vince Staples was one of the most anticipated sets of the day and delivered, an aggressive ‘Blackberry Marmalade’ opener giving way to a full live band and a genuinely rebellious energy that ran well past his allotted thirty minutes, funny as ever between songs; ‘TV Guide’ bringing some of the best crowd participation of the day. Ravyn Lenae turned in one of the standout sets of the afternoon, working through newer material from Blue Island in a silver dress under a punishing sun, taking the crowd on a Chicago detour before ‘Saturday Night’ and ‘Love Me Not’ landed as two of the best individual performances of the day. Yebba brought a captivating set built on ‘Distance’ and ‘Yebba’s Heartbreak’, the latter genuinely transcendent. Fakemink, despite being thirty minutes late, won hearts with an unexpected singalong, a remix of Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ that had the whole tent thinking of an ex that got away. BB Trickz stole the best stage energy of the day on the smaller X Stage, a flirtatious set with frenetic dancing from her friends accompanying her. She brought the party from Spain las Mariah the Scientist delivered a captivating set over on East Stage with her 2025 album Hearts Sold Separately, throwing her hat into the crowd three songs in.
Clipse brought the biggest crowd of the day for the Thornton brothers’ reunion, sixteen years since their last album together. A DJ warmed things up before Pusha T and Malice walked out into cuts from Let God Sort Em Out, ‘Chains & Whips’ and ‘P.O.V.’ among them, before an emotional ‘The Birds Don’t Sing’, family photos playing on screen behind them, and a braggadocious ‘m.t.b.t.t.f.’ rounding out one of the most complete sets of the whole weekend. Rochelle Jordan brought the most dance heavy set of the day to the X Stage, before Rex Orange County opened with ‘Apricot Princess’ and ‘So Far/So Good’ to a raucous reception, all culminating in the moment he brought Rayvn Lenae out for a remix of her hit ‘Love Me Not’. Turnstile turned in the most dramatic set of the day, walking out to Dolly Partonand Kenny Rogers’ ‘Islands in the Stream’ before the rain only added to the drama of a set following Never Enough, Brendan Yates calling London a second home for the band, closing on a haunting cover of The Stone Roses’ ‘I Wanna Be Adored’.
Tyler, the Creator closed out day one on a stage built as a fictional Victoria Park tube station, a full scale train carriage and pyrotechnics greeting an expectedly huge East Stage crowd. He opened with ‘Big Poe’ before powering through ‘She’ and ‘Are We Still Friends?’, pausing to joke it had been “a year since I hung out with you motherf*ckers.” A runway parting the crowd gave high energy renditions of ‘Noid’ and ‘Darling, I’, before he spoke about his early days signed to XL Recordings and being label mates with Adele. ‘Earfquake’ brought the whole crowd into one last singalong, before an engrossing New Magic Wand’ performance closed a genuinely wonderful first night.
SATURDAY
The rain tried its best again to dampen the festival spirit, especially when mixed with tube travel issues. It meant sadly missing Quadeca and PARTYOFTWO, though Danny Brown’s ‘Psychoboost’ set the tone perfectly walking in for day two. MIKE’s North Arena set made the small stage feel enormous, great to catch even in passing. Syd followed with another intimate main stage moment, a delicate performer whose words land far heavier than her soft delivery suggests, closing with the Disclosure track ‘Birthday’, which she features on.
Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats, fresh off their new album ii, the follow up to 2020’s Unlocked, stepped in as a brilliant late replacement for Ghostface Killah, high energy from the first note, ‘Walkin’’ igniting mosh pits everywhere it went and proving six years apart hasn’t dulled their chemistry one bit. Samara Cyn kept the North Arena’s run of intimate sets going, jumping on the MPC herself, further proof she’s one of the best upcoming female MCs going.
Dijon was heavily anticipated and delivered, leading his band and fans through hits from ‘Yamaha’ to ‘Talk Down’, an instrument heavy, carefree groove throughout. Leaving early to catch Jim Legxacy paid off entirely, his North Arena set the single most anticipated of the whole weekend and the craziest crowd to match, four Lime bikes inexplicably on stage, every song popping off, a genuinely moving slideshow tribute to his dog (who was blasphemously refused entry due to a strict No Dog policy) and “we love jim” chants breaking out as the arena had to be cornered off for overcrowding. “I cannot believe how many people are here,” he told the crowd. “Funnily enough, I’ve never actually been to a festival before. This is my first time going to a festival, so you lot are etched in my memory now.” The Lewisham rapper, fresh off a BBC Sound of 2026 runner up spot and a BRIT nomination, won’t be playing rooms this small for much longer.
Daniel Caesar followed with an enchanting, almost holy set, a sky blue clad choir behind him, his voice arguably the best of the whole weekend, ‘Rain Down’ and a cover of Jimmy Cliff’s ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ acting as a sobering wind down before the night’s final stretch. DJ Gummybear closed out the X Stage showing off genuinely dynamic talent, playing multiple instruments alongside singing and DJing in the same set. Baby Keem brought a huge crowd for the penultimate slot, arriving atop a sunken casino stage set nodding to this year’s Ca$ino album, opening with ‘No Security’ and working through cuts including ‘Good Flirts’ before some frustrating sound issues threatened to derail things. The crowd’s energy powered through regardless, ‘Family Ties’ landing as chaotically as you’d expect from one of the biggest songs either he or his relatively unknown cousin has ever put out.
Tyler, the Creator closed out the whole weekend on the same tube station set, pyrotechnics exploding as he launched straight into ‘Big Poe’ and ‘St. Chroma’. “The energy tonight is right this time!” he joked, needling the crowd against the night before. ‘Are We Still Friends?’ and ‘Sugar on my Tongue’ followed before Rex Orange County returned for an emotive ‘Boredom’, Tyler applauding the crowd afterwards for “What a great night.”, teasing us that the surprise guests weren’t finished. Then A$AP Rockycareered down the runway for a manic ‘Who Dat Boy?’, telling the crowd, “y’all don’t understand how much y’all have lifted my spirit.” A hymnal singalong to ‘Like Him’ gave way to ‘New Magic Wand’, before ‘See You Again’ closed things out, three songs spanning three hugely influential albums for an artist at the very top of his game.
Across the two days, Tyler and friends gave fans one last dance before summer properly ended, a bank holiday weekend that ran the full range from heavy hip hop to soft acoustic detours. Tyler’s own set was undeniably stronger on the second night, tighter, looser, clearly buoyed by the extra day of momentum behind him. Still, the vibes stayed high enough across both days that even the rain never really stood a chance, and every act on the bill, big or small, seemed to feed off the same relentless energy that’s defined this whole run of shows in the park. It’s been a brilliant couple of weekends at All Points East, capping off an even better summer of music in London, and a genuinely fitting way to sign it all off.
Words by Alex Peters
Photo Credit: Connor Mason
Photo Credit for image of Tyler, The Creator: Perry Gibson
