Festival review: Saturday at Splendour 2025 in Wollaton Park

As the rain came down and the grassy hills of Wollaton Park began to fill with people, the Confetti Stage was brightened by the “bisexual jazz fusion” sounds of Moonlit, recent winners of the Ultimate Battle of the Bands competition. 

The student six-piece sounded utterly tight and focused, but not at the expense of also oozing jazzy fluidity, and being hugely entertaining, as they were led by vocalist Aminat.

This band has already come a long way in the few months since their competition win, gaining confidence in each other and the innate skill of Moonlit as a collective.

On the Bodega Stage, we found Swallowtail (above) amid a swirling wall of shoegaze noise which echoed around the brick walls of the courtyard area. An effortlessly cool band, the quartet combine rampant noise with crisp and occasionally operatic vocals from Katie Prescott. Their powerful set definitely wowed, and there were some surprising moments too, like the striking image – and brilliant sound – of an electric guitar played with a violin bow. 

Bloodworm (below) were next up on this stage, blasting out their goth-punk tunes with skill and intensity. “Batman lived here. Just some trivia” was a typical aside from vocalist George Curtis, who led the three-piece through a really crowd-pleasing set.

In the interim, Mollie Ralph (above) had smashed out a surprisingly loud, genre-hopping set on the Confetti Stage, blending an infectious, thrilled kind of energy with thrummy guitars and her unique, soulful vocals.

Manchester’s chill-indie-funk powerhouses Cassia were next on that stage, and were on top form. Creating an expansive and effortlessly cool sound with just three people on stage, they really know how to maximise their sound, and this came into full effect; the pop-leaning wall of sound they crafted sounded fantastic throughout the whole set. 

(Props to the sound engineers on the Confetti Stage, as every act we saw there had an exceptional quality and everything sounded perfectly in balance, especially with acts with larger numbers.)

The funk and indie fusion that Cassia fuse is completely festival ready. The entire crowd loved it, moving and grooving along to every tune. It was a joy to see, let alone to hear. Overall, this was a chilled and truly joyful set to watch, and the whole 30 minutes served as a testament to both the musical and creative abilities of the Mancunian trio. They’re definitely worth a watch at any festival.

The expansive Main Stage was then taken over by Nottingham-born Vicky McClure with Our Dementia Choir, who this year were joined by special guest Emeli Sandé. The choir has been a key part of the Splendour line-up in the past and you could sense that the whole crowd were expecting a feel-good, life-affirming set in 2025 – and that’s exactly what they got. You could also see and hear the incredible way in which music can uplift people, no matter what may be going on in their lives.

After Emeli led the choir in a song, Vicky made sure energy levels were at maximum, both on the stage and off it, with singers, carers and audience all joining in at full volume for a medley of big-hitting favourites (picture Bryan Adams blending into Oasis, followed by a dose of Sweet Caroline).

The band-blending continued on the Main Stage for perhaps the day’s quirkiest act. The concept of Elvana is simply tailor-made for summer festivals. At their core they are a Nirvana tribute act; however they come with one key catch – their frontman is an Elvis Presley impersonator. As ridiculous and entertaining as it sounds, their performance at Splendour was an absolute hoot.

“There’s a 10-year-old kid in a hat there that says TW*T – welcome to the Great British Isles!” announced frontman, er, Elvis, as the audience laughed in unison. 

“Elvis” declared they came to Nottingham today from their hometown of “DisGraceland”, as they played through Elvis classics including Viva Las Vegas and A Little Less Conversation – with a Lidl-inspired Dad joke to introduce the latter. It’s the Nirvana tracks that got the crowd going, though, with Smells Like Teen Spirit unsurprisingly causing wild limbs, before closer Lithium saw a sea of giant yellow balloons launched into the crowd for a party finish. Heaps of fun and thankfully not too long until they play Nottingham again – they’ll be back at Rock City in February ’26!

Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brooke Combe proved to be another great Splendour booking. She’s been featured on the legendary KEXP in-studio sessions and has gone viral multiple times on social media for her soulful cover versions. On the Confetti Stage, she pumped out some fantastic originals, playing perhaps one of the most danceable sets of the day.

Back on Main, Natasha Bedingfield (above) played a storming set. Her voice sounded great and her songs sounded fresh and pumping. She seemed genuinely thrilled to be in Nottingham, too, as she pleased the crowd with her big hits, culminating of course with Unwritten.

What makes Spendour so great is the diversity of the acts, and how easy it is to see them all. Just a quick walk through the fairground area takes you from a pop big hitter to a hard-hitting underground local act. On the Bodega Stage, we caught part of the roaring set from Keo (below): a dark, shoegazy, grungy, powerful performance. 

What a contrast to Irish breakthrough folk-rock act Kingfishr (below) who played shortly afterwards on Confetti. Their set was pure joy from start to finish, including the moments while frontman Eddie attempted to combine singing with eating a kindly-donated ice cream. This is a band who seem hardly able to believe their luck: a group of engineers who met at University, formed a band, got jobs – and then quit after six months to pursue their music.

The lyric “And if it all falls apart, at least we enjoyed it, and God knows I loved it” never made so much sense and never sounded so good as it did here in the Wollaton fields, belted out by hundreds of new and old fans.

While all this was going on, the rest of the site had been constantly buzzing with bars, food stands, independent merch stalls and fair rides. The huge, blue tent almost at the centre of the site was hosting another of Vicky McClure’s projects, Day Fever: basically, banging dance tunes in the daytime. Genius.

Vicky curates Day Fever with husband Jonny Owen, and is often assisted by Jon McClure of Reverend and The Makers. At Splendour, this collaboration also included the premiere performance of a new Reverend and The Makers song, leading to a packed and overflowing tent.

There were more dance anthems to follow on the Main Stage, too. Back in the 2010s, Clean Bandit truly ruled the radio circuit. They made hit after hit with some of the biggest pop acts on the planet, each song different in vocals but united in dance and pure love for the craft of music. In the live setting the result is something truly unique and absolutely fantastic in every single way.

Their live setup consists of a full band, alongside the two founding members, and two brilliant female vocalists who both have pop princess voicing, really helping to perform the songs. The entire set was, as expected, hit after hit after hit after hit, with every song being a dance-fest. The standout track was Rather Be, Clean Bandit’s flagship song, which sounded truly wonderful live with every single person singing and dancing alongside to every word and every beat. 

After a short changeover,Nottingham’s favourite musical son Jake Bugg returned for a truly special homecoming set. 

It was uncertain what he’d play; he has an expansive catalogue of indie-pop hits amongst some more recent piano ballads, but we were relieved as he tore into his older stuff, the music that really came from Nottingham and his life here.

His vocals and guitar were sublime and his band were fantastic, as always, through the entirety of the set. However, the best songs of the set were easily Seen It All and Slumville Sunrise. The first is a gritty depiction of youth culture in Nottingham, one that hasn’t really died out, but it's a truly brilliant song, everyone sang along and it felt great. This was a truly brilliant set from a true Nottingham Great. 

London-based Aziya (above) was a standout discovery back in the Bodega Stage courtyard. She performed an upbeat and ultra-cool set full of fizzy, alt-pop with attitude. The buzzy and anthemic diamonds and bbydoll were highlights, performed with absolute attitude. Aziya had a great rapport with the audience (which included some devoted fans) and told us afterwards - as she handed out stickers and badges - how legendary Nottingham gigs are. We hope she’ll be back to play a full set in the city soon.

Girl Group (below) closed out that stage shortly afterwards. They’re a great act to watch, a five-member “feminist music project” who work only with women and perform well-written songs layered with harmonies while engaging in energetic and sometimes tongue-in-cheek choreography, parodying and reclaiming the stereotype after which they’re named. They’re an impressively multi-talented group, too, constantly switching vocal and instrument duties. Unfortunately, their set was plagued by technical difficulties but they pleased the courtyard crowd nevertheless.

Between those bands, another of the day’s contrasts was provided at the Confetti Stage by the superbly-bearded blues man Seasick Steve (above). With his brilliantly down-to-Earth, old-school attitude he blew any final clouds away. His homemade instruments play a key part in his show, and in Nottingham one of those was a guitar which seemed to be nothing more than a piece of wood combined with a Green Giant sweetcorn can and a single string. It sounded rocking nevertheless.

Onto Saturday’s headliners, and it’s a show that very nearly didn’t happen. “We got here earlier today and none of our equipment had arrived” revealed Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke, detailing their logistical nightmares after just recently travelling back from Benicàssim festival in Spain. The band have been touring non-stop all year, busy celebrating 20 years of their iconic debut album Silent Alarm. Kele shouts out their incredible crew for getting them show-ready tonight, and what a show they deliver here at Wollaton Hall.

Opening on their breakout single So Here We Are, the band then bounce through the greatest hits of their impressive career, with classic tracks including Hunting For Witches, Banquet, One More Chance and The Prayer all getting everyone from the front pit to the hilltop grooving away. 

There are zero signs of any last-minute stress, as Kele effortlessly conducts the crowd throughout, jokes around with the band and just generally brings out the good vibes – all under an impressive light show, too. After closing their main set on a scintillating Like Eating Glass, they end the night on a bang with a euphoric encore run of Helicopter, Two More Years, Ratchet and, finally, This Modern Love. 

They may be 20 years into their career, but Bloc Party prove tonight they’re still one of the best indie bands around, and very worthy Saturday night headliners for Splendour’s big return. 

Splendour Festival took place on 19th and 20th July 2025 at Wollaton Hall. Check out our full photo gallery below, including all the above as well as Future Sounds of Nottingham winner Saffron Gray, Nectar Woode, The Amy Winehouse Band, LYVIA, Sofy and Starsailor.