Barry Can’t Swim is the cover star of DIY’s 2025 Festival Guide!

Anyone lucky enough to be at Glastonbury last summer knew that something special was afoot when it came to Barry Can’t Swim. Hot on the heels of his Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut ‘When Will We Land?’, his performance at Worthy Farm last year was one for the history books, with the entire Park Field shut off in the wake of his performance. So if that’s not enough to have you giddy with excitement at the idea of his return to festival season this summer - with a new album in tow, no less! - we don’t know what else to tell you. Ahead of the release of his second record ‘Loner’ and his upcoming packed live schedule - which culminates with a huge show at this year’s All Points East - we caught up with the Scottish producer to find out more.

If, as he says, “the album is completely an expression of my past year,” then it’s clear that that supersonic flight to stardom was not without turbulence. It’s titled ‘Loner’ after all. “If I’m honest, I’ve been a bit hesitant whether to just tell the truth about the album title,” he says frankly in our cover feature. “Because I just fucking hate it when people who have everything going for them say ‘my life is so hard’.” Nevertheless, he admits, “over the last year I started to feel quite distant from myself. In order for me to process everything and deal with the imposter syndrome that came with having to step onto a stage in front of loads of people, I detached from what I was really doing.”

Elsewhere in this bumper issue, we get prepped for festival season the only way we know how: by wrangling a load of our favourite artists, and quizzing them on what’s to come. Turn the page to dig into chats with fest faves Sprints, DEADLETTER, and Panic Shack, as well as a rather special conversation with Ezra Furman about her tenth album and its celebratory live outing. 

Plus, we also give you a handy guide to getting those last-minute festival essentials, share our hot tips on the best new artists to catch before they get big, and unveil our bumper index of all the best events to get down to this summer. 

To dive into all of that and more, just click the button below to grab your very own print copy of our 2025 Festival Guide, order via our online shop, or check out the digital edition below.