Touching down in Liverpool’s Sefton Park for its 2025 edition, BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend was guaranteed to be the north-west’s music event of the year. Branded “scousechella” by attendees and commentators, in reference to California’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the festival brought huge names, secret sets and new artists divided between four stages. With something for everyone as usual, the line-up spanned genres and generations, bringing the city of Liverpool together for a bank holiday weekend to remember.
Hometown heroes The Wombats opened Friday’s main stage lineup with ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come’, the lead single from their most recent album Oh! The Ocean, before frontman Matthew Murphy introduced his band, saying “hello Sefton Park, I used to come running here as a kid”. After the infectious ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’, Murphy stated “this is a very special day for us, we were born not far from here”, implicitly emphasising what’s best about BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend: whatever the location, the festival sees acts from the local area who have topped charts play huge stages in the place they started.
Natasha Bedingfield’s set featured a cover of The Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’, as well as her own hits such as ‘Pocketful of Sunshine’, ‘These Words’ and the currently inescapable ‘Unwritten’, which are all contributing to a resurgence in her career. Following a dose of noughties hits, it was off to the New Music Stage for a night of dance music. While Barry Can’t Swim delivered an impressive DJ set, it was difficult not to be disappointed after previously witnessing his live show: his talent was evident in the songs of his own that were played, but their elements did not coalesce with the effect that full band instrumentation can bring.
Katy B, however, brought impeccable vocals across dance classics such as ‘Turn the Music Louder’, ‘Katy On a Mission’ and ‘Lights On’, while D.O.D., KETTAMA and Nia Archives prepared the crowd for Confidence Man with their own fresh takes on electronic music. A highlight of Nia’s set was ‘Get Loose’, her recent speed jungle release with DJ and producer Cheetah which combines high-octane breakbeats with call-and-response vocals. Fresh off the back of a world tour in support of their third album, 3AM (LA LA LA), Australia’s favourite indie-electronica act Confidence Man brought a 45-minute snippet of their live set to the New Music Stage. Complete with outfit changes and complex choreography, their high-energy performance was met with a suitably raucous reception, and provided an early highlight for the weekend as a whole.
Tom Grennan’s Friday night headline set featured a vast array of guest appearances, with Ella Henderson and KSI as well as local legends Melanie C and Dave McCabe of The Zutons joining the stage at various points. While KSI’s vocals indicated he should stick to YouTube, Grennan’s own scratchy style became irritating after a while, and certainly did not hold up against a member of the Spice Girls. Additionally, the guest appearances were highly publicised before the show, but it felt impossible not to see the number of them as a hint of over-reliance on names bigger than his own.
A secret set from none other than mega-star Ed Sheeran opened the Saturday of BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend, but the surprise act’s identity did not remain concealed for long: the excitement was palpable on the way into Sefton Park, with thousands flocking to the New Music Stage which eventually had to be shut off to prevent overcrowding. With an undeniable back catalogue of hits behind him, the Ipswich singer-songwriter performed an hour-long set which turned the tent into an early afternoon singalong and took the crowd on a journey via loop pedals.
Describing the process of his live show, Sheeran explained that “this thing at my feet is called a loop station, everything you hear today is completely live, there’s no backing track whatsoever, and at the end it’s deleted and it won’t be the same at the next show”. Sheeran also paused to clarify his appearance on a smaller stage at the festival: “I’ve played BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend five times before, and I’ve never played the new music tent, even when I was a new artist starting out. I often think that these stages have the best energy”.
Tom Odell was joined for ‘Another Love’ by rising singer-songwriter Myles Smith, who was due to perform his own set on the main stage later in the day. Sugababes followed, and the highlight of their set came in the form of a cover of Lorde’s ‘What Was That’, which they had previously performed in the first ever BBC Radio 1 Anthems Live Lounge. Blossoms were plagued by sound issues, but a dash to Inhaler on the New Music Stage compensated as the Irish quartet raced through highlights from their three albums.
Wolf Alice are back, and they might just be the best band in the world right now. The band opened their set with ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’, the brilliantly dynamic, effortlessly operatic debut single from highly anticipated album The Clearing, allowing entrancing frontwoman Ellie Rowsell to exhibit her unbeatable live vocals. Other highlights included the frenzied aggression and distortion of ‘Play the Greatest Hits’, as well as ‘Delicious Things’ and ‘How Can I Make It OK?’ which contributed to the tangible sense of catharsis brought by London’s indie-rock titans.
UK rap’s current greats and frequent collaborators Aitch and AJ Tracey performed an exclusive b2b set before it was off to the main stage once again for Newcastle’s most prominent indie hero, Sam Fender. A Sam Fender festival set is never complete without pyrotechnics: flames lit the sky during the lockdown-inspired, punk-tinged ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’, and the final chorus of ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ closed the night with an impressive firework display.
Whilst in the midst of a huge UK tour in support of her latest album So Close To What, Canadian superstar Tate McRae stopped off at Sefton Park to open the main stage on Sunday, delivering pop perfection with her ever-growing collection of hits. McRae is not only known for her distinctive vocal texture, but also for her dancing: after breaking out as the first Canadian finalist of American reality show So You Think You Can Dance, she has continued to incorporate intricate routines into her live show. As one of the biggest bookings of the weekend, McRae stunned the Sefton Park audience with her dance segments, all in spite of a herniated disc.
After a nightmare corporate lawsuit threatened to end their existence and forced a name change, hard life have triumphantly returned to the festival circuit for the first time in a couple of years. “This is our second show in the past two years”, frontman Murray Matravers declared to resounding cheers from a crowd evidently glad to have the jazz-rap meets indie innovators back on the scene, and willing to miss rising superstar Lola Young’s main stage performance. Their set included past classics that soundtracked the latter half of the 2010s, including ‘pockets’, ‘ojpl’ and ‘nightmares’, but also offered glimpses at upcoming album onion in the form of lead single ‘othello’ and recent release ‘OGRE’.
Fat Dog are guaranteed to create chaos wherever they go, even at a festival as tame as BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend. Lead singer Joe Love often joined the crowd, and pits opened at the BBC Introducing stage for ‘Running’ which came as the last of six songs from the South London quintet. Jorja Smith then brought her signature silky smooth R&B vocals in quite the contrast on the main stage, mixing past hits such as ‘Blue Lights’ and ‘Teenage Fantasy’ in with newer material influenced by UK garage and bassline.
Wet Leg have been a staple booking on the British festival circuit almost every year this decade, culminating in a headline performance at last year’s edition of Truck Festival in Oxfordshire. Despite a delay in their set time due to the predictably wet weather of north-west England, the Isle of Wight band proved they’ve still got it ahead of upcoming album moisturiser. HAIM followed, cementing their place as the world’s favourite trio of sisters with a healthy dose of pop-infused soft rock illuminated by their expressive, interactive on-stage personas.
Little Mix star JADE closed the New Music Stage for the weekend with her first ever solo show, which demonstrated her potential as a star in her own right and proved that she was able to command a stage almost alone. Her set featured a cover of Madonna’s ‘Frozen’, alongside a medley of Little Mix hits including snippets of ‘Shout Out to My Ex’, ‘Sweet Melody’, ‘Woman Like Me’ and ‘Touch’. “You guys remember I was in a girl band?”, the star asked, and even though she spoke in jest it was clear to see how emotional the performance was for her.
JADE finished her set with the brilliant, kaleidoscopic ‘Angel of My Dreams’, which was released as her debut solo single last July. The song instantly caused controversy on its release due to an apparent dig at Simon Cowell and his record label Syco Music in its lyrics, yet even in this context it remains a beautiful track. Combining the force of a power ballad with the frenetic energy of club-ready synths, ‘Angel of My Dreams’ was the perfect choice to end JADE’s set and the festival as a whole.
Overall, BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend was the perfect way to open 2025’s festival season, featuring a meticulously curated lineup of impressive names, local acts and newer discoveries. Those who missed it can catch all the action from BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Liverpool across BBC TV, radio and online.
