Christopher BarrettAEG Presents is to debut LIDO Festival in Victoria Park in June 2025, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and supporting grassroots talent.
Building on the success of AEG’s 10-day All Points East (APE) festival in the park, which consists of six days of concerts and four days of free activities for locals known as In The Neighbourhood, the promoter is planning to run LIDO over two weekends.
The first headliner to be announced is Jamie XX, who will perform with support from acts including Arca and Sampha on 7 June.
Named after Victoria Park’s historic Lido Field, LIDO will feature “carefully curated music line-ups alongside community-driven activities during the week”. While no capacity has been disclosed, LIDO is understood to be a “medium size” festival.
AEG said the new festival will bring substantial benefits to the local area, including improvements to Victoria Park, and like APE, will engage local suppliers, employ local staff, and boost local spending on accommodation, food, and entertainment. The festival’s midweek programme will also provide free arts, culture and wellbeing activities, offering a platform for local talent. The promoter said its 40,000-capacity APE festival already contributes more than £45 million to the local economy each year.
In partnership with East London Arts and Music, a full-time industry academy for 16-19 years olds, LIDO will provide students with hands-on experience in the creative industry including offering students the chance to perform, as well as vocational opportunities in festival production, technology, and the wider music industry.
The festival dates and entertainment line-up are yet to be announced, but it is understood that as with AEG’s BST Hyde Park (cap. 65,000) show series and APE, LIDO will be produced by LS Events.
AEG Presents CEO of European festivals Jim King said, “LIDO Festival represents the next stage of AEG’s festival journey. [It] allows us to push our ambitions further in working with young people within the industry and those who aspire to be. Most excitingly, this centres about a new generation of artists, whether they’re headlining or performing for the first time.
“The vision of supporting the artists’ journey further develops as we program each day directly with the headliner. This delivers a show that fans know has the artists’ musical soul embedded throughout. This is one of the most exciting aspects of Lido Festival, knowing that everyone on the bill means something to the headliner closing out the show.”
Tower Hamlets Council cabinet member for culture and recreation Cllr Kamrul Hussain said, “This new festival, coming to our multi award-winning Victoria Park, has the potential to provide more opportunities for residents to benefit from cultural events; increase expenditure in and boost our local economy through visits to the borough; and generate more income to support council services including the upkeep of our parks and open spaces. We look forward to working with AEG, to ensure that community benefits are at the heart of the new LIDO Festival.”
Earlier this month, it was announced that Broadwick Live-owned Field Day festival will return to Brockwell Park next year, having been staged in Victoria Park as part of the APE show series for the past four summers. The festival’s relocation will also see it moved from August to May.