Barry Can't Swim, All Points East 2025 • Festivals • DIY Magazine

Amid swelling plumes of dust, this Friday at All Points East hosts Barry Can’t Swim - aka Josh Mainnie - taking to the stage for his first ever headline set. Fresh from toppling the UK Dance Charts with 2025 album ‘Loner’, Barry is anything but as he stages a lineup chock-full with joyous, feel-good club music.

Before the main event, The Blessed Madonna storms the West Stage with her pulsing house cuts. Out of all the acts tonight, she makes a pointed effort to prove that dance is inherently political. For every sun-soaked selection she plays, a provocative slogan is plastered across the main screen (“World leaders go fuck yourself! Tabloid media thumb screws reality!”). It’s a necessary reminder of rave’s subversive origins – especially in a time where the far right’s clutch is gripping Britain tighter every day.

Shygirl’s demented club pop provides the perfect escape by proving she can get as down and dirty as the dusty park itself. Donning a coquettish silk bow tie, and surrounded by slinky backup dancers, the Londoner rarely lets the momentum slip, commanding her crowd to give “ENERGY, ENERGY!”. It’s all killer, no filler; opening with the glamorous ‘Cleo’, she runs through hits like ‘Freak’, ‘Fuck Me’ before her rip-roaring remix of Charli xcx’s ‘365’.

If you thought that wasn’t enough, buckle up for Confidence Man, who have made it their mission to conquer every festival imaginable this season. The Australian dance group start strong with a mighty run of crowd-pleasers – ‘ALL MY PEOPLE’, ‘I CAN’T LOSE YOU’ and ‘NOW U DO’ among them – but it turns out they have an even bigger surprise up their sleeves. Enter JADE, who launches into a fully choreographed routine to her collab with the pair, ‘gossip’. The crowd laps it up, and it makes for a huge highlight in an already-packed day.

Finally, it’s time for Barry Can’t Swim, who makes a boisterous entrance by sounding a siren before exploding into a psychedelic feast for the eyes with ‘The Person You’d Like To Be’. It’s his birthday today, he says, and he’s determined to celebrate in style with a full orchestra and some of the most impressive lasers Victoria Park has likely ever seen.

He bounds between everything from the seductive gurgles of acid house to the transcendent salsa chants of ‘Kimbara’. Special guests also make an appearance: Låpsley emerges for a stirring rendition of the sensual, piano-led ‘Woman’, while somedeadbeat - Irish poet Jack Loughrey - recites his monologue on ‘Deadbeat Gospel’. Following up with ‘Still Riding’ and ‘How It Feels’, Barry closes out with the classic ‘Sunsleeper’, before an impromptu round of ‘Happy Birthday’ chants come from the crowd. Barry may not be able to swim, but he sure can host a banging line-up.