The ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025: Why this shortlist matters
- Merna Atef
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025 Festival Award: The six UK festivals that defined summer
At the end of October, Rolling Stone UK announced the nominees for The Festival Award at the ZYN Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025. The magazine described the category as a tribute to the events that “defined our summer in fields across the UK” – and the list is tight and telling:
All Points East
Body Movements
GALA
LIDO
Glastonbury
Green Man
The awards ceremony itself takes place at London’s Roundhouse on 20 November 2025, with multiple live performances and a Rolling Stone UK Hall of Fame induction, backed by headline sponsor ZYN.
Taken together, the six nominated festivals tell a bigger story about British live music in 2025: a scene where the country’s most famous mega-festival sits alongside boutique dance weekenders, a queer electronic celebration and a brand-new “fan-first” event in East London.
All Points East – the city festival that feels like a season
Where: Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets, LondonWhen in 2025: 15–24 August.
All Points East has quietly become London’s defining city festival. Rather than one long camping weekend, it stretches across separate headline days in Victoria Park, combined with a free mid-week programme, In The NBHD, of community events and activities.
In 2025, the festival’s main shows were headed by Cleo Sol, Chase & Status, RAYE and a reformed The Maccabees, creating four very different focal points for different crowds across the run.
Rolling Stone UK’s decision to nominate All Points East recognises what the festival has become: a modern, urban alternative to the mud-and-tents tradition, rooted in East London but drawing fans from across the country. Its emphasis on community impact and sustainability – publicly highlighted on its own site – also reflects a wider shift in festival values.
Body Movements – a queer dance utopia in Southwark Park
Where: Southwark Park, south LondonWhen in 2025: 24 August
If All Points East is the big-tent city festival, Body Movements is its underground cousin. Billed as “a festival celebrating queer electronic music in Southwark Park”, it brings together dozens of LGBTQ+ crews and collectives across multiple custom-built stages.
The 2025 edition featured more than 60 artists and crews, with names like Mura Masa, HAAi, Cakes Da Killa, Midland and I. JORDAN on the bill.
Where many mainstream festivals are still catching up on diversity, Body Movements starts from it. The nomination signals how far queer club culture has moved towards the centre of British festival life – and how important these spaces are for community as well as music.
GALA – ten years of South London dance culture
Where: Peckham Rye Park, south LondonWhen in 2025: 23–25 May (10th anniversary edition)
GALA began as a small South London day party and has grown into one of the UK’s most respected boutique festivals for house, disco and left-field club sounds.
In 2025, GALA celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a three-day run in Peckham Rye Park. The line-up leaned heavily into DJs and live electronic acts: Floating Points, Caribou, Moodymann, Theo Parrish, Avalon Emerson, Ben UFO, KiNK and many more across the weekend.
It’s intimate by design: multiple stages tucked among trees, a heavy focus on sound quality and a loyal London crowd. Rolling Stone UK’s nod underlines how dance-focused boutique festivals now sit alongside rock and pop giants in the national conversation.
LIDO – a new “fan-first” festival in Victoria Park
Where: Lido Field, Victoria Park, East LondonWhen in 2025: 6–15 June
LIDO is the newest name on the shortlist – and possibly the boldest. The festival’s first edition in 2025 stretched over 10 days in Victoria Park’s Lido Field, describing itself as a “fan-first festival” with big artists curating their own days and a strong focus on sustainability and local community.
Headliners across the run included Jamie xx, Charli XCX, Turnstile and Massive Attack, supported by line-ups that mixed legends with newer names.
Coverage of LIDO’s debut highlighted the organisers’ attempts to rethink how large festivals deal with environmental impact, from operations to site design, while still delivering heavyweight performances.
For a brand-new event to be nominated alongside Glastonbury and Green Man after a single year suggests Rolling Stone UK sees it as a key part of the future festival landscape.
Glastonbury – the blockbuster benchmark
Where: Worthy Farm, Pilton, SomersetWhen in 2025: 25–29 June
It’s no surprise that Glastonbury appears on the list. The 2025 edition of the festival drew around 210,000 people to Worthy Farm, with The 1975, Neil Young and Olivia Rodrigo headlining the Pyramid Stage and Rod Stewart taking the traditional Sunday “Legends” slot.
The line-up also featured heavy-hitters such as Charli XCX, RAYE, The Prodigy, Loyle Carner, Alanis Morissette, Biffy Clyro, Wet Leg, Wolf Alice and Nile Rodgers & Chic, spread across multiple stages.
2025’s Glastonbury became known not just for its headliners but for memorable guest appearances and political flashpoints, from surprise collaborations to controversies around on-stage statements by acts like Kneecap and Bob Vylan.
In the context of the Festival Award, Glastonbury represents the maximalist end of UK festival culture: sprawling, chaotic, and still the emotional anchor of the summer for many fans.
Green Man – Wales’ cult favourite goes big
Where: Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park, near Crickhowell, WalesWhen in 2025: 14–17 August
Where Glastonbury is huge and hectic, Green Man is often described as the UK’s best independent festival – and Rolling Stone UK has previously reviewed it in exactly those terms.
Set in a valley surrounded by Welsh mountains, Green Man combines music with literature, science, film and arts programming.
The 2025 line-up was one of its strongest yet, headlined by Kneecap, Wet Leg, Underworld, TV On The Radio and Beth Gibbons.
The bill mixed cult heroes and adventurous bookings – from CMAT and Perfume Genius to Yard Act and Asha Puthli – reinforcing Green Man’s reputation for programming that feels thoughtful rather than algorithmic.
What this shortlist says about UK festival culture in 2025
Looked at together, Rolling Stone UK’s six nominees sketch a clear picture of how British festivals are evolving:
Scale is no longer everything. Glastonbury and Green Man anchor the traditional camping experience, but they sit alongside LIDO, GALA and Body Movements – all more focused, often single-site or city-based events.
City parks are now key festival territory. All Points East and LIDO both run in Victoria Park, Body Movements in Southwark Park and GALA in Peckham Rye Park, turning London’s green spaces into seasonal music hubs without requiring fans to camp.
Identity and community matter. Body Movements’ explicit queer focus, GALA’s roots in South London dance scenes and Green Man’s Welsh setting all give their audiences a strong sense of belonging that goes beyond line-ups alone.
Sustainability is moving centre-stage. Both All Points East and LIDO publicly foreground environmental policies and local impact, reflecting a wider industry push picked up in festival overviews from outlets like Pitchfork and TriplePundit.
For fans, the Festival Award shortlist is a reminder that “the UK festival scene” is no longer one thing. In 2025 you could watch Olivia Rodrigo close Glastonbury, dance to Floating Points in Peckham, see Massive Attack reinvent Victoria Park, or spend a day immersed in queer electronic crews in Southwark – and all of those experiences sit side-by-side in Rolling Stone UK’s definition of a summer well spent.
