WORDS: NIALL DOHERTY
It’s a sunny Tuesday morning after the culmination of BST Hyde Park 2025 when Jim King takes a seat in his London office and wonders to himself if the team at AEG Presents have just delivered their best ever run of shows. King, who is CEO of European Festivals, knows that there’s an illustrious history to live up to but he thinks 2025 was the one that topped them all, a year in which not even the news that ELO’s final ever show was cancelled due to Jeff Lynne becoming ill could dampen the excitement.
“It’s hard to remember a better series since we started back in 2013 on every level,” King declares. “If you look at the quality of the performances, collaborations, the new artists that came through, the new headliners that prove their worth, and then those artists who have been mainstays of our industry for generations still proving their sheer quality and talent in the performances they gave.”
He says if you look across all of the metrics used by him and his team – sold-out shows, record ticket sales, fan feedback, exciting new artists – then this was the gold standard.
“I can’t think of a better series,” he beams. “I almost have to check myself saying that, because you look back to Adele, the Rolling Stones, Pink, Springsteen and more… but from a forward-looking perspective, I’ve never felt more excited about our industry after seeing what happened this year.”
It was a line-up both generation-spanning and generational, taking in extraordinary sets from Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan, Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Sabrina Carpenter (pictured above) and Zach Bryan, with the latter pair both playing two-night stints in central London. Over a decade on from BST’s launch, it has become a firm fixture in the UK’s musical calendar.
“We were hugely ambitious with our plans for BST from the very first year,” King says. “We've refined it and improved it but we always set out for BST Hyde Park to be one of, if not the world's best event, certainly of its kind. That’s not meant to sound arrogant in any way because we're hugely respectful of other events, but that was our ambition.”
King contends that he and his team want BST “to be a destination event where people come to see special things”.
“Something magical happens in the centre of London on a summer's night in Hyde Park, where fans come together with their favourite artists,” he says. “That has created this fantastic relationship between fans and the event.”
There’s a lot to look back on, then, but King’s summer is far from done. Next up is All Points East in Victoria Park, the event kicking off on August 15 with headline sets from Cleo Sol and Chase And Status over its first weekend, with Barry Can’t Swim, Raye and The Maccabees topping the bill over three nights a week later. As well as looking back over a hugely successful BST, he tells us about what to expect from this year’s All Points East.
The world's biggest artists today are under 40 years old and are selling out multiple stadiums
Jim King
Now we’re midway through, how would you rate this summer for live music? Some are saying it’s the best ever…
“It's something we've talked about since the industry came back from Covid, the growth in stadium shows, the growth in outdoor events, specifically in London, but around the UK, and the growth in that has been startling. I think it just goes to show the strength of London, the strength of the UK as one of the most important music markets in the world and the quality of our fans. The UK fans and London fans demand great music events. They're very passionate about them and that's why they buy so many tickets for them. It's our job to keep serving up quality events, quality tours into the UK.”
What do you think it says about the pull of BST that two of your headliners this year, Olivia Rodrigo and Neil Young, were also top of the bill at Glastonbury?
“Well, that's not the first time. We do share lots of artists. They're two important cornerstones in that part of the summer and we welcome it. What better for an artist to anchor their European tour than around two of the best shows in the world, both respected in their own lanes. They're very different events, not really comparable in many ways, but what artists would not want to play at Glastonbury and also not want to play at Hyde Park in the same run?”
What was your personal highlight from this year’s performances?
“It’s very hard to say because so many of them connected differently with me, it's impossible for me to say which one resonated most strongly with me. I think Stevie Wonder's closing set, knowing that Jeff Lynne was ill, and that was going to be, unfortunately, the last night, but it was the perfect reaction because I've never seen Stevie Wonder better than he was that night. It was a dancefloor all night, the most incredible way for BST to finish. Within that context, Neil Young was the best Neil Young show I've seen in as long as I can remember, the setlist was just on fire.”
There was some chatter about him going over the curfew and the plug being pulled…
“Well, he crept over it and we acted in the way that we have to act, and which he was understanding of. It's art at the end of the day and artists will get lost in what they're doing, and so they should. We have to respect the curfew. We're very fortunate to work in the area and environment where we are. We have to respect the conditions of that and Neil completely understood that. It impacted on the last 15 seconds of the set. I watched that as a fan and it didn't impact it at all, it still sits there as one of the best ever Neil Young shows I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a few.”
One big disappointment this year was the cancellation of ELO after Jeff Lynne fell ill. Will it be rescheduled?
“It was really disappointing because I knew how much it meant to Jeff and his team. It was the first show we put up on sale for this series and sold out on the first day. He could have sold multiple nights, such was the interest. I felt desperately sad for him and his whole team that he was unable to play his last show with us. It certainly won't be rescheduled. Whether he is planning to come back and play again, it’s not something that we know about at the moment and probably too early to say, but certainly something for them to consider. But health is more important. We wish him a speedy recovery.”
On a more positive note, it must be very pleasing for you that there were so many first-time headliners this year too…
“It is, if only to stop people talking about the talent pipeline. I think it's been the biggest bullshit argument or presentation of a position for five to 10 years. I've never bought into it. If you look at the number of stadium shows that are taking place, and the number of nights at arenas on tours, it's almost exclusively with artists under the age of 40. The biggest artists in the world at the moment are under 40 years old and they're selling out multiple stadiums. You could say Coldplay are just on the other side of that. But Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and now we get to Olivia Rodrigo, who could have easily sold two Hyde Parks. It’s really difficult to sell two Hyde Parks, it's harder to sell than two stadiums. Noah Kahan sold out Hyde Park in a day and could've sold two. Sabrina Carpenter sold two Hyde Parks. All of these acts are in their 20s. Then you get to Zach Bryan. The last time Zach played in the UK, he did 1,000 tickets at Islington Assembly Hall two years ago and comes back and sells 130,000 tickets in Hyde Park.”
Looking ahead, where are you at with next year’s festival?
“We’re where we always are at this point. If everyone we want who we've asked to play says yes, it will be amazing, but we've got to get a few more of them to say yes. What usually happens is we're in discussion with many artists for ’26 and some of those touring periods will naturally then delay to ’27 so rather than it's a case that we were booking ’27, things from 2025-26 start moving backwards just because of other commitments the artists have.”
Is there scope for more BST dates or is nine a fixed number?
“Nine's the maximum, I think it’s a good number. As a body of events in London, I think it's the right number. We obviously have to be extremely sensitive to our neighbours and park users and the community that we work so closely with. I think three weekends is the right balance.”
John Giddings has said BST Hyde Park, or any city event, wasn’t a real festival because you can go home and have a shower…
“Well, are we going to rename the Royal Festival Hall because John doesn't think it's a festival?! I've been to the Isle of Wight Festival… I remember going home for a shower and then coming back the next day…”
Who’s on your BST bucket list?
“There's plenty of artists we would love to come and play who are busy in other cycles. I'd love Coldplay to come and play. I would love Beyoncé to come play Hyde Park, I would love Chappell Roan to play. I think the growth into country and country-influenced artists will continue. I would love Sade to come and do it, artists who've not performed for many years. I'd love Harry Styles to come and play. Ed Sheeran has never played BST Hyde Park. I’d love Radiohead to come and play. There's still a great deal of amazing artists, both young and those who have been in our industry for decades, who I would love to come play. Lady Gaga is another one.”
Turning our attention to All Points East, what has been the key to it establishing itself at a lynchpin for August events in London?
“What we set out to achieve with All Points East was the most contemporary, relevant artists that we could book with highly creative bills across multiple stages and then deliver that with really high quality production, so fans could arrive early and navigate their way around multiple stages with ease and get as much in musical enjoyment out of the event as they possibly could, from 2.30pm through to 11 o'clock at night. I think where we've landed with All Points East, we certainly feel that that's there. It's a very varied bill across the six shows but the support line-ups all connect together for each headliner on each day. What we want to come out of that is if I walked out to the office here or you walked out into yours, on the Monday morning after the last show at All Points East, everyone's talking about their different experience.”
One of the things about both Lido and All Points East is it's a landing point for artists to have their first headliner opportunity
Jim King
Homing in on some of the big acts, Raye’s headline slot feels like a big moment that’s been a long-time coming…
“She's sold out already, 50,000 tickets. Incredible singer-songwriter, amazing voice and also incredible performer. We were in no doubt that that show was always going to be one of the highlights of the UK summer season. It also has a great bill, with Doechii, one of the rising gold stars at the moment, already a headliner in our own sense.”
Cleo Sol and Barry Can’t Swim are two acts who’ve been elevated to headliner status. Why was now the time for them to make that leap?
“One of the things about both Lido and All Points East is it's a landing point for artists to have their first headliner opportunity. It's a very important part of what both of those festivals offer. Headliners aren't defined, in my opinion, by the capacity of the show. Just because someone can't sell out Wembley Stadium or sell 65,000 tickets at BST Hyde Park, it doesn’t not make them not headliner. Their headline performance is in the quality of the performance which they give. Barry Can't Swim is at that point where he has the tickets and he's earned the right to be there. Everything about Cleo Sol just exudes quality and her headline performances in the US at Hollywood Bowl show that she has the presence and the stature and the music to be a headliner as well.”
When it comes to the Chase & Status day, were they involved with helping to curate the other acts on the bill?
“Yeah, every act is involved. There's a lot of stages, so we take on most of the booking but both Lido and All Points East are about special curation across the day. Chase & Status is one of those artists who've been around for longer and earned their right to be there. Those guys are going to sell 50,000 tickets headlining All Points East.”
And then there’s the last night with The Maccabees headline show…
“There’s just a feeling of triumph and celebration about their return. You go through the list of the rest of the bill and I can't think of a better place, if you like guitar music of not just that era, but from the years before and the years following it. It’s a wonderful, feel-good moment, not just full of nostalgia, full of hope for the future. The market needs those types of shows.”
All Points East has a great record with sustainability and accessibility. What can you tell us about specific measures taken this year to keep pushing that forward?
“We have a really exciting partnership this year with ELAM around education, working with the students and staff there and giving opportunities to both of those across the whole of Victoria Park. A lot of the really groundbreaking sustainability principles around environmental position started with Lido and then we take that forward into All Points East. We've hit unbelievable levels of recycling never seen before, as well our use of mains power and battery power, reducing our fuel use to record low numbers across both festivals. If you look across the fabric of all AEG’s European festivals, you'll see sustainability principles as the driving pillars of how we operate. Accessibility-wise, we work very closely with Attitude Is Everything and have done since 2013. The facilities that we have at all of our festivals are gold and diamond status. We get led by those guys. They're the experts. We follow them. We’re very respectful and very honoured to be partnered with them across all of the events that we that we manage and we try to hit the levels that they ask us to do, There's always more that we can do in terms of ensuring that accessibility is not just a visible presence but is part of the fabric of the operation and a starting principle of how we plan, both for sustainability and accessibility.”
Subscribers can read our recent report on the boom in headliners here.
PHOTOS: Jordan Hughes, Alfredo Flores, @ISHASHAHPHOTOGRAPHY, Sophia J Carey
