The best artists to watch at London’s fast-approaching All Points East festival

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Having hosted the likes of Turnstile, Charli XCX and Massive Attack earlier this summer at the Outbreak London and LIDO festivals, east London’s Victoria Park welcomes back All Points East festival for five stacked shows this month, beginning on August 15.

Here are nine artists on the eclectic APE line-up who could potentially serve up the soundtrack to the best night of your summer.

DOECHII

Last year, following the summer release of Doechii’s second mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal, Kendrick Lamar hailed the 26-year-old Tampa rapper as the “hardest out”. Since then Jaylah Hickmon has won a Best Rap Album Grammy for Alligator Bites Never Heal, performed what may be the best-ever Tiny Desk concert for NPR, and served up a Glastonbury festival show that had awed music critics grasping for superlatives. See rap’s new queen at All Points East on Saturday, August 23, supporting Raye.

BARRY CAN’T SWIM

Joshua Mainnie’s 2023 album When Will We Land was one of the most anticipated EDM debuts of recent times – and it delivered in style. A colourful, propulsive but deeply introspective effort, it confirmed the Scot as one of dance music’s most essential modern producers. This year’s beautiful Loner takes things a step further, adding sprinklings of claustrophobic techno and surprising bursts of darkness to his multicoloured palette. His first major outdoor festival headline show (on August 22) is packing an all-star cast including pioneering big beat duo Orbital, so expect Barry to bring his A-game to make it a night to remember.

CMAT

Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson is a fucking star, and gig by gig, festival by festival, the world is waking up to this fact. The 29-year-old Dubliner was on fire earlier this summer at Wide Awake and Glastonbury, and excitement is building for her third album Euro-Country, set for release on August 29 via CMATBaby and AWAL, which she proudly describes as the “best thing I have ever made”. Catch her making more new friends in support to The Maccabees on August 24.

CONFIDENCE MAN

A riotous set at last year’s Glastonbury Festival saw Confidence Man’s popularity skyrocket; they are now officially everyone’s favourite camp Aussie dance duo. Well, quartet, technically speaking, but there can be no doubt that Janet Planet and Sugar Bones’ adorably awkward choreography and relentless energy have deservedly earned them a rep as one of the best live acts on Earth right now – and last year’s spectacular 3am (La La La) album – the band’s third – confirmed that they had the tunes to back it up. On a stacked day of EDM heavyweights at All Points East on August 22, it’s hard to overlook Confidence Man totally stealing the show.

DRY CLEANING

What a refreshingly out-of- step band Dry Cleaning were when they first emerged in 2018 with their self-released debut EP Sweet Princess. That you can’t now listen to BBC 6Music for more than half an hour without hearing Sprechgesang (literally ‘spoken singing’) is an indication of how Florence Shaw’s band have impacted the contemporary alt. rock scene. The south London quartet have been recording the follow-up to 2022’s Stumpwork album in France this summer, so look out for possible world premieres on August 24.

SAULT

Sault might just be the world’s most mysterious and enigmatic musical collective. Directed by producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Inflo, with invaluable assistance from his wife, R&B/soul star Cleo Sol, the group have released twelve albums in the past six years, five of them released simultaneously for free on November 1, 2022, but have only ever played one headline gig, hailed as “utterly astonishing” by one breathless reviewer. Expect the unexpected at APE on August 15.

The Murder Capital

Other Irish artists – Kneecap, Fontaines DC, CMAT, for example – may have boosted their profiles more significantly in 2025, but the criminally under-rated The Murder Capital remain one of the country’s most electrifying live bands. Expect some heartfelt state-of-the-world addresses from frontman James McGovern – likened in one Irish newspaper recently to an “Amnesty International Liam Gallagher” – and a fistful of under-the-radar bangers which will make you wonder why The Murder Capital aren’t shown more love.

WARMDUSCHER

Blessed with the same kind of chaotic, maverick energy that fires Sweden’s Viagra Boys, London post-punks Warmduscher were originally a Fat White Family off-shoot band, but have matured – if that’s the appropriate term here – into one of the England’s most singular left-of-the-dial artists. Not yet fully house-trained, their freewheeling, funky, post-midnight post-punk might leave stains on your soul that won’t easily be wiped clean. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

CHLOE QISHA

By any metric, Chloe Qisha has had a more than decent 2025 so far. In March, with just one EP, to her name, the Malaysian-born, London-based alt. pop star graced the cover of Rolling Stone UK‘s Future Of Music issue. And this summer she’s been promoting her second EP, Modern Romance, with high profile support slots at BST Hyde Park (with Sabrina Carpenter) and here, at APE on August 23, with Raye. Next up: supporting Coldplay at Wembley Stadium. If you’ve a soft spot for Olivia Rodrigo’s smart, sassy pop-punk, The Last Dinner Party’s theatrical baroque ‘n’ roll, Charli XCX’s hedonistic go-hard-or-go-home club bangers or Caroline Polachek’s arty alt.pop, Quisha can do the lot, and she could easily become your favourite new artist of the year.

For further information on All Points East, including details of how to buy any remaining tickets, visit the festival website.