The (anticipation of) summer starts here – we’re looking forward to months of camping in fields listening to bands, imagining endless sunshine as compensation for the fact that summer never truly arrived last year, and also winter has been very cold. The expectations around weather may or may not be unrealistic, but the bands in fields are definitely real – welcome to the musical festivals special 2025.
On the cover this month, you'll find rising star fae Fife Jacob Alon, brilliantly photographed by Nico Utuk. The shoot required a delegation to cross the water and set up a rudimentary festival site in a Dunfermline park, and the results are wonderful. We sit down with Alon in an Edinburgh gallery cafe for an in-depth walk through their debut album, In Limerence, touch on meeting Elton John, and look forward to their upcoming festival dates in the UK and beyond.
This year’s special explores accessibility and direct action within the festival space, as well as offering up an enormous tick list of lineups to e
