London’s Victoria Park set for more events and bigger festivals

London’s Victoria Park is set to host more events going forwards, with the maximum capacity for these events set to be increased.

The park currently plays host to the likes of All Points East and Field Day, two events which could get even bigger now the capacity for major events has gone up from 5,000 to 20,000. Medium sized events that can currently accommodate 500 people will also have their capacity raised to 5,000.

On top of this, the number of events the East London park can host has now been increased from 10 per year to 12.

Despite this, some locals have expressed opposition to the plans. According to Roman Road, community group Victoria Park Friends said that they “believe that increasing the size and frequency of events would be detrimental to both park users and residents.

“Major events are noisy which causes significant distress to both park users and residents, particularly young children and older people,” the group said.

However, Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman argued that the council has “no choice” but to increase the capacity of festivals in Victoria Park as a way of generating income, but that is still in the interest of locals.

He said: ‘We have to squeeze as much as we can from our assets, from our contracts, from our parks and everything that we do in this borough because we have to protect our residents.” [via TimeOut]

So far, two sets of acts have been announced for this summer’s All Points East. Loyle Carner was the first headliner to be confirmed in November, and the artists set to appear alongside him on August 17 include Loyle Carner, Nas, Ezra Collective, Sainté, Joe James, ENNY and Navy Blue.

Last month, it was confirmed that LCD Soundsystem will be headlining on August 23. They’ll be joined by the likes of Jai Paul, Pixies, Floating Points, Jockstrap, Nation of Language, a live show from Sofia Kourtesis and Eyedress – tickets for the day can be purchased here.

Last year’s edition of the festival saw The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Walkmen and more take to the stage.

The Strokes’ set was described as “a brilliant balancing act” in a four-star NME review, despite battling sound issues. It added: “The New York indie icons bring big-hitters and less obvious choices to All Points East as they battle, once again, with volume levels.”

Stormzy also performed a career-highlight headline performance as part of his ‘This Is What We Mean’ day. In a four-star review of Stormzy‘s performance at All Points East 2023, NME wrote that the “rapper’s rainy return” offered a  “change of pace”. It added: “A performance in two acts risks alienating more casual fans but ultimately pays off for Stormzy’s only UK show of the year.”

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