The Maccabees make emotional return for huge All Points East 2025 closing set

Which is why, no doubt, so many people are here in East London’s Victoria Park as soon as gates open, intent on watching as much of today’s stacked programme as possible, dry and dusty conditions be damned. Opening one of All Points East’s four smaller stages, Slow Fiction may be a long way from their New York stomping ground but seem entirely at home as they power through cuts from last year’s ‘Crush’ EP, their Sonic Youth-esque scrawl and frontwoman Julia Vassalo’s distinctive vocals proving arresting enough to stop more than one passer-by in their ambling tracks.

Beneath the crossed arches of the X Stage enclosure, meanwhile, are Man/Woman/Chainsaw - a band who, having been a standout fixture on the London live circuit since before they were old enough to drink in the venues they play, are now rightfully greeted by ever-bigger crowds. Still, though, there’s an enduring sense of playfulness to proceedings: taking the opportunity to road-test unreleased material, the six-piece revel in dynamism, delivering tempo shifts and trading vocal duties such that anyone watching is kept on a knife-edge.

Over in the tented canopy of the Cupra North Arena, Nottingham folk-rockers Divorce are busy proving themselves to be an effective bridge between today’s old guard and new prospects: though their album ‘Drive To Goldenhammer’ only arrived in March, it stands as one of the year’s best debuts, and today’s tight set - replete with lush dual harmonies, infectious buoyancy and, brilliantly, a Wallace and Gromit-inspired new song - gets a reception that firmly suggests they’ll be playing similar such stages for years to come. 

A band who’ve very much had their minds on both their past and present over recent months, The Cribs’ arrival at the East Stage today doubles as a reminder of the hefty breadth of their discography to date. Fresh from announcing details of their forthcoming new album ‘Selling A Vibe’ (coming in early 2026), their set also comes just a day on from their tiny War Child show at The Shacklewell Arms, in which they capped off celebrations for the 20th anniversary of their 2005 album ‘The New Fellas’. As such, today’s set is peppered with tracks from across the Wakefield trio’s career, but unsurprisingly it’s the raucous ‘Men’s Needs’, scuzz-drenched ‘Mirror Kisses’ and rabble-rousing chants of ‘Hey Scenesters’ that glean the biggest reactions today.

Is there a more iconic image this festival season that Ireland’s giddiest star CMAT diving headfirst into the crowd for a rousing final chorus of ‘Stay For Something’? It’s perhaps only eclipsed by the last notes of her set today, which see her lifted aloft to crowdsurf her way back to the East Stage after a triumphant turn in the second-to-headliner spot. As per her recent turns across mainland Europe this summer, her set fizzes with effervescent energy and glee, while today’s appearance also includes a bigger helping of her forthcoming ‘EURO-COUNTRY’, now that its release is just around the corner. As ever, she - and her Very Sexy CMAT Band - are an unabashed riot of fun, with the set landing as the perfect release as the final countdown to The Maccabees begins.

Across site, in another display of the unabashed joy of today’s indie nostalgia, comes a set from Sunderland stalwarts The Futureheads, who - playing the X Stage - have absolutely packed the open-air structure out, before a humongous singalong to their 2004 bangers ‘Hounds of Love’ threatens to be heard halfway down the park. Aussie folk-flecked trio Folk Bitch Trio may be somewhat on the wrong end of that, when they take to the American Express Stage not far away, but their gorgeous offerings - lifted from recent debut ‘Now Would Be A Good Time’ - are stirring nonetheless.

Having already topped the bill at All Points East once before - back in 2021, when they top-and-tailed the post-pandemic return with Foals - it’s little surprise that most of crowd gathered for CMAT quickly turn on their heels and leg it towards the West Stage for the opening chimes of Bombay Bicycle Club. While the trek is reasonably brutal (thanks to that pesky dust), we’re rewarded with a goosebump-inducing, euphoric run through some of the band’s most iconic hits. The fact that CMAT herself - a self-ascribed superfan of the band, too - also makes the trip for an appearance for a rendition of ‘Rural Radio Predicts the Rapture’ makes it all the more special. If you could bottle joy, it’d probably look something like this. 

As the dust emphatically doesn’t settle on today’s dizzyingly busy support bill, all paths really do point East. The Main Stage lights go down, the screen flickers, and a montage of old photos and videos from The Maccabees’ formative days flashes up; the intervening decade falls away, and it could be 2015 again. What follows is a selfless, impeccably judged setlist spanning all four of the band’s albums, leading us by the hand through flippant swimming pool-related carnage (opener ‘Latchmere’) to earnest, particularly poignant pleas for enduring connection (‘Precious Time’) with deft confidence and unconcealed joy. In fact, so absorbed are the band in playing together once more that they barely seem to notice when the sound briefly cuts during ‘Love You Better’ and ‘Can You Give It’; unsurprising, really, given that this crowd can apparently sing every word of every song loud enough to not warrant accompaniment.

Between the backdrop - which flits between the album covers for ‘Colour It In’, ‘Marks To Prove It’, and more ambiguous cityscapes - and the disco ball lighting, which lowers as they launch into ‘Spit It Out’ to cast Felix White and Orlando Weeks in shades of silver, there’s a curious timelessness to tonight. Though shared memories and nostalgia obviously loom large, it doesn’t feel as if The Maccabees are striving to emulate the past; instead, they seem to suggest that the present moment was, somehow, exactly how it was meant to all play out. “We’ve come back to do this for a reason,” grins Felix.

Because, as well as celebrating the band’s already-cemented place in people’s hearts, acknowledging and honouring the lives soundtracked by these songs, this evening is also about giving the audience new moments to remember. And, for everyone here, there are few surprise guests that could send up as much of a roar as Jamie T - “Jamie, Jamie, Jamie fucking T” - who, in a wonderfully full circle moment, joins the band onstage for ‘Marks To Prove It’, just as he did at their ‘last’ Ally Pally show in 2017. That they then launch into a cover of ‘Sticks ‘N’ Stones’ with the man himself is the cherry on top of an impossibly tall cake; if there’s ever been justification for residents around Victoria Park making noise complaints, 50,000-odd people shouting “lightweight prick” in unison might be it.

Taking a moment to address the audience pre-encore - a triple-header of ‘Toothpaste Kisses’, ‘Grew Up At Midnight’ and ‘Pelican’ that perfectly epitomises The Maccabees’ emotional range and resonance - Orlando looks out at the sea of faces who, for years, thought they’d never again be stood here. “All of you bought tickets. You gambled. It’s unbelievable: that you took that risk, paid that money, and put your faith in the love that you had for our band, and the love you had for the occasion that this might be.” Safe to say, the gamble paid off. Anyone fancy another flutter? 

Tags: Bombay Bicycle Club, CMAT, The Maccabees, All Points East, Festivals, Reviews, Live Reviews