For all ages, by all ages: A play-by-play of We Out Here Festival 2025

We Out Here’s unique selling point is the way its line-up brings together an intergenerational cast of artists, record labels, club nights, collectives and crews. It's storytelling via curation, and something I paid tribute to when I last reviewed the festival for Mixmag in 2021. Now I’m back and have brought my newborn son with me, contributing to the cross-generational narratives that are increasingly taking place on the festival’s dancefloors and fields, as well as its stages and DJ booths. 

Four years have passed quickly, and We Out Here is now a big tent for people of all ages to dance to music made by people of all ages. This is of course encouraged by the line-up, but also We Out Here’s evolving commitment to including everyone, from the festival’s naughty corner (the deliriously loud and intimate Lemon Lounge) to an ever-expanding kids zone and all of the workshops, discussions, outdoor swimming sessions and slam poetry competitions in between. 

If that all sounds terribly twee - and borderline WOMAD - it needn’t do. All of the UK music tribes are here and they all meet each other in the middle, making for one of the most genuinely diverse and welcoming festival crowds in the country. If anyone had told me I’d be raving with my baby boy to Kahn and Pinch’s dystopian bass frequencies back in 2021, I’d have laughed. Now, I’m thankful that this exists and that the intergenerational histories of music scenes and their dancefloors are being celebrated and brought to life in vivid ways. 

It’s worth noting that We Out Here now feels like a fully-functioning festival, with multiple side quests on offer, from bangin’ dance tents to expertly-curated panels and interviews, as well as a whole, very tranquil, wellness area. I left the site at around 9:PM each day feeling incredibly fulfilled. In the spirit of this review and the festival’s mission, I drafted in the best Gen Z tastemaker in the business, Kieran ‘DotWav’ Rushton, who was on duty reporting into the early hours. Even the written copy is intergenerational – how sick is that?

8:PM - 9:PM — Echoes of the Revolution: The 70's & 80's Cuban Scene with Emanuel Pavlova [Radio 1001]  @ WOH Radio

Kicking off Cafe 1001’s curated WOH Radio takeover, London-based vinyl collector Emanuel Pavlova presented a one-hour journey exploring the Cuban revolution scene of the 1970s and 80s. Emanuel captured how artists responded to post-revolutionary shifts and helped shape Latin music forever. The set saw blends of disco, jazz funk, Rebel Radio excerpts, ICAIC film soundtracks, and tracings of Cuba's sonic journey through political tension and creative expression, revealing how music reflected and redefined the nation's cultural identity during a pivotal era. Kieran ‘DotWav’ Rushton

8:PM - 10:PM — Tim Reaper & Sully & Dwarde - Distant Planet VS Future Retro @ The Grove

Now a staple of We Out Here, the triple b2b session from Tim Reaper, Sully and Dwarde was nothing less than what you wanted to hear at the first night of The Grove: high energy and explosive drum'n’ bass and jungle. Their energy on decks is hypnotic and there’s never a dull moment when the trio get together, cutting their way through swirling melodies, rave-ready breaks and 808 patterns that scratch your brain and rewire your internal circuits. If anyone’s got the ID on the ‘You Remind Me’ flip, let us know! KDR

2:PM - 3:40PM — Channel One @ The Bowl

Channel One’s annual session at We Out Here has become a festival rite of passage, rousing festivalgoers after a hard night’s partying like lions from their slumber. The tradition is marked by hundreds of ravers trooping across the field to The Bowl, a wonderful natural amphitheater cradled in sunlight. Mikey Dread gets straight to the point, drawing for walloping dub with its messages of Rastafarian unity and liberation that make you feel like things might just turn out alright. Aba Shanti-I at this same spot on Sunday is an equally crucial experience too. Seb Wheeler

2.25PM - 3:PM NAYANA.AB, Tomorrow’s Warriors takover @ Big Top

Ushering in positive vibrations, London-based singer/songwriter, NAYANA.AB and her band gracefully took the stage at the Tomorrow's Warriors takeover in the rising talent-focused Big Top tent on Friday afternoon. She captivated the early festival risers with a soulful mix of jazz infused, alternative r’n’b ballads about the trials and tribulations of living in London, the ups and downs of musicians, and welcoming strangers with smiles. She also gave anecdotes in between tracks, urging the audience to rethink how they interact with one another, putting respect and love at the forefront. Her 2025 track ‘JOY’ soundtracked the grand finale, leaving aheartfelt truth imprinted on the audience. KDW

5:05PM - 6:05PM — Nala Sinephro @ Main Stage

You could hear a pin drop during Nala Sinephro’s last show at The Barbican in London. A quiet room is presumably the perfect place to hear her pristine spiritual jazz, so seeing what she and her band could conjure on a perfect blue-sky summer’s day was an intriguing prospect. Against the backdrop of festival chatter and clatter, Sinephro’s compositions seemed to take a heavier, dronier weight that scaled several epiphanic crescendos and had no problem muscling in for attention as puffy white clouds bobbed over the fringe of the Main Stage. SW

7:30PM - 8:20PM — Nidia & Valentina @ Lush Life

A sunset live show from two masters of their respective crafts was an unmissable booking at We Out Here and nice proof that the festival’s curation has plenty of weird ‘n funky nooks and crannies. Lisbon batida scene leader Nidia and Italian super drummer Valentina Magaletti’s Estradas album fuses two distinct approaches to rhythm and as the sky turned pink over the festival site, their club-not-club tracks took on a loose, mildly lysergic feel, as if the pair were jamming to suit the bucolic occasion. SW

8:20PM - 9:10PM — Pa Salieu @ Main Stage 

It’s a good thing that MJ Cole’s headline show came correct because Pa Salieu’s appearance threatened to shut down the main stage there and then. Donning a British-Gambian flak jacket and backed by a stage show themed around recent album ‘Afrikan Alien’, he dropped bangers from that LP and debut ‘Send Them To Coventry’ with ease, with singles like ‘blessing me’ lighting up the setlist. An immense performance. SW

9:30PM - 10:30PM — Equiss @ Carhartt WIP 

Teleporting Wimborne St Giles to New Jersey for an hour, Equiss,one-half of producer supergroup OSSX, took the helm at the new-for-2025 Carhartt WIP dome, with its wooden dancefloor, bespoke design and tidy soundsystem. Delivering homemade Jersey Club remixes and refixes to a clued-up crowd, Equiss blended recognisable vocal stems over those classic OSSX drums. It was hard not to move as Equiss was on just as the evening hit, the energy setting our crew up for a whole night of dancing. KDW

12:PM - 1:PM — Marisia Osu @ Main Stage

Heads are soothed and limbs massaged by Polish harpist Marisia Osu’s gorgeous and delicate harp playing. It feels like a mass morning (well, morning in festival time) ceremony, in which the whole camp is waking up together blissfully and lazily. Following on from Andre 3000’s set here last year, it’s great to see We Out Here continue its commitment to ambient on the Main Stage. SW

5:PM - 7:30PM — Eves’Drop Collective & Friends, Cosmodelica @ Love Dancin’

Love Dancin’ sounds better every year. The tent, with its disco ball, wooden floor and bespoke, surround-sound system delivers music with clarity and weight, urging euphoria from its audience at whatever time of day. Love Dancin’ also epitomises We Out Here’s intergenerational approach to curation and congregation, it’s booth and ‘floor full of all ages. Eves’Drop collective were doing a fine job of working the system with classic UKG when we stopped by, delivering one of those great, collective festival moments where everything comes together. SW

7:PM - 8:30PM — Kahn & Pinch, Trinity Takeover @ Rhythm Corner

Great to see an afternoon and evening dedicated to legendary Bristol community venue Trinity Centre and the low-end styles that are incubated on its dancefloor via huge soundsystems that are wheeled in and out of the former church. We Out Here has always welcomed jungle and d’n’b, so it’s great to see dubstep getting the same red-carpet treatment in the festival’s flagship dance arena, especially with all this new-school ‘140’ going about. Kahn and Pinch represent two generations of the Bristol dubstep scene and seeing them go toe-to-toe on brutalist bass, eski edits, their own anthems and a handful of certi classics was well fun. SW

8:30PM - 10:PM — Neffta-T, Trinity Takeover @ Rhythm Corner 

The Rhythm Corner turned things up a notch this year, not just with the newly-installed screens but also with the curation. Bristol-based Neffa-T, whose 6-deck technical mix took the internet by storm a couple of weeks ago, welcomed in Saturday evening. Playing a mind-boggling mix of 140, grime, techno and DJ Rashad for good measure. Neffa-T’s energy is unmatched; he keeps the hype rising throughout the duration of his sets and gives the audience no moment to rest. KDW

Rohan Rakhit @ Roller Rink

Delivering an eclectic set, blending rare jazz, funk, disco and East Asian tunes, Daytimers mainstay and Worldwide FM broadcaster Rohan Rakhit delivered a killer set to a jam-packed Roller Rink. Accompanied by Sticky Dub on the mic, the place was filled with ravers looking to dance the penultimate night away. This was one of the many sets Rohan had over the weekend, each catering to a different vibe, wether it be late at night or early in the morning Rohan kept true to his style every time. KDW

5:30PM - 7:PM — Natasha Diggs @ The Bowl

It’s Sunday afternoon. A golden sun sends dappled light through the foliage. Expertly selected vocal house belts out of a punchy soundsystem. Your friends are on the form of their lives. Stranges are smiling at you. Life is good. Life is… Great. Out to Natasha Diggs for serving exactly what was needed in The Bowl to a fully up-for-it crowd that felt like Southport Weekender in the middle of a proper naughty forest rave. SW

7:40PM - 8:40PM — Kokoroko @ Main Stage

We Out Here was forged in the cauldrons of the young UK jazz renaissance and whenever any of the acts that played the early years of the festival return, it feels like a homecoming. Kokoroko’s anthem ‘Abusey Junction’ was included on the 2018 UK jazz compilation on Brownswood that We Out Here takes its name from and here they are, celebrating the final stop of an international tour in support of new LP ‘Tough Times Never Last’. Their elegant grooves suit the moment (another sunset!) perfectly, as the crowd winds down gently from a pitch-perfect weekend. SW

Amy Kinsboro - Pineapple takeover - The Grove (7pm-8pm)

Opening The Grove on Sunday’s sunny evening, Pineapple Records affiliate Amy Kinsboro took it there with Miami bass, bounce, and juke flavours. It felt weird seeing The Grove in the daytime, but somehow it also felt like we had been transported to another festival away from the main festivities. If I had one wish from a genie, it would probably be the IDs of Amy’s whole set... KDW

For more info and updates for We Out Here, click here. 

Seb Wheeler is a digital strategist, music & digital media writer, DJ and curator, f ollow him on Instagram; Kieran Rushton is a freelance writer and co-founder of DOTWAVNOTWAVE, follow him on Instagram.