RAYE, All Points East 2025 • Festivals • DIY Magazine

Taking over London’s Victoria Park each summer, All Points East sets the bar for festival programming, embracing today’s siloed fan culture with its impressive hyper-curated day bills. By the time today’s woman of the hour RAYE is up, this year’s All Points East has already played host to D&B upstarts Chase and Status, soul enigmas Sault and Cleo Sol, and the new face of tropico-house Barry Can’t Swim. Unsurprisingly, today’s show is very sold out, and DIY is raring to get stuck in.

But first, Chloe Qisha’s 80s-tinged alt-pop is contagiously fun on the enormous East stage. Melodramatic and sleek, ‘21st Century Cool Girl’ earns an early singalong, while the lithe ‘Sex, Drugs & Existential Dread’ sets hips a-groovin’ - think ‘Love Me’ era 1975. Barely a year into performing, the 26-year-old already has a Coldplay support slot lined up for this month - no pressure. This arvo, her band are tight and her wicked banter is endearing. While her crowdwork has room for improvement, it’s a solid introduction.

Cat Burns arrives next to brassy fanfare, looking totally at ease as she kicks into ‘alone’ from last year’s debut ‘early twenties’. ‘All This Love’ - a tender deconstruction of grief, from her upcoming second project - reflects the Streatham native’s gospel influences, and her admiration for Ed Sheeran is apparent in its plainspoken message. “I thought there was gonna be about seven people here,” she laughs; a glance around reveals the audience has grown enormously in the time she’s been on. Closing on her viral hit ‘go’, she has the park in the palm of her hand.

Soon, the day’s first big ticket item emerges; sporting an icy blue tracksuit and bold lip-liner, JADE is mesmerising as she ascends on the East stage to punch right into audacious electro banger ‘IT girl’. Flanked by a band, back up singers and dancers, the ex-Little Mixer swiftly puts her pop chops to work, leading clap-alongs as the crowd revels in her clubby melodrama. ‘Plastic Box’ - from her forthcoming solo debut - feels like an extension of her girlband origins, not a rejection; it’s gratifying to witness JADE growing authentically alongside her audience. She steps things up a notch, a cover of Madonna’s ‘Frozen’ dissolving into a pumping techno storm, before a medley of Little Mix tunes transforms an overcast Vicky Park into pure summer carnival. Her joy radiates as she speaks on finding her new direction, North East accent warm enough to melt iron, before wrapping with her spellbinding, genre-bender ‘Angel Of My Dreams’. Festival slots seldom come more wholesome.

A trek over to the West stage then finds FKA twigs - a last-minute sub in for absent Doechii (too swamped? Who knows). A jaw-dropping career retrospective ensues, blurring music, dance, and performance art, as twigs showcases her futuristic, sex-positive dance record ‘Eusexua’ with a troupe of statuesque dancers. The unit moves hypnotically under stark, white lighting, a huge backlit scaffold the focal point, and Twigs’ unearthly vocal cutting through the amorphous synth sounds. In short, it’s phenomenal, every aspect so considered, so artisan, and the setlist posits Twigs as true nonpareil. When the throbbing electronica ends, she delivers a skeletal rendition of ‘Cellophane’ over lilting piano, and the field falls silent. When she eventually exits, beaming, the roar of support is the loudest all day.

Then, the main event. RAYE’s return to All Points East is a resolute victory lap after a delayed-but-breakneck ascent to stardom. Her name in lights, stage crammed full with orchestra and choir - the Flames Collective - she’s a picture of vintage glamour as she powers into ‘Oscar Winning Tears’ and ‘The Thrill is Gone.’ in quick succession. ‘Flip A Switch’ is an early highlight, its trap beat contrasting with the elaborate arrangements in the best way; it’s loud, it’s sophisticated, and it’s quintessentially London.

Akin to Adele, RAYE is a powerhouse vocalist, but her gobby ad libs are equally entertaining. “This next song is about addictions - woohoo!” she jokes, before ‘Mary Jane.’ The festival soundsystem doesn’t fully do justice to the complexity of her arrangements, but the electric and orchestral elements still compliment eachother majestically. A rendition of ‘It's a Man's Man's Man's World’ follows and the set hits fever pitch; she’s on her knees belting James Brown’s iconic lyrics like her life depends on it.

It's the set's “nightclub section” where RAYE really shines, though. “I told you I love a big musical climax," she beams, “we have one fast approaching!” True to her word, ‘Black Mascara’ pulsates infectiously, pyro and lasers firing off as the field becomes a vibrant, tropical dancefloor, then follows ‘Prada’, her moment of crowning glory. It’s meta and theatrical, recalling peak Robbie Williams. Before the final hurrah that is ‘Escapism.’ she recalls early performances in empty rooms, “more people on stage” than in the audience. They were some shit gigs, she says, soulfully. “Let me tell you, this was not a shit gig”. We couldn’t put it any better.