All Points East: Barry Can’t Swim

When Barry Can’t Swim stepped onto the West Stage at All Points East, there was no sense of hesitation. The Scottish DJ and producer has been building a reputation for dance tracks that are as musically intricate as they are euphoric, and tonight was the moment that reputation met scale. With a full band in tow, plus horn and string sections, his debut headline set felt as ambitious as it was celebratory — a kaleidoscopic blur of sound, colour and movement that turned Victoria Park into London’s biggest open-air dancefloor.

Barry’s catalogue, though young, already reads like a festival arsenal. How It Feels, Still Riding, Childhood and All My Friends — tracks from this summer’s album Loner — landed with seismic weight, each one stretched and reshaped by the live instrumentation. Where his studio productions have always hinted at a jazz-inflected sensibility, the horns and strings made that influence explicit, bending club tracks into sprawling, progressive forms without losing their pulse.

The surprises kept coming. Låpsley joined for Woman, her voice soaring over Barry’s rolling rhythms; onedeadbeat stepped out for a rowdy take on Deadbeat Gospel; and Like It’s Part of the Dance flickered with the instantly recognisable hook of Brandy’s I Wanna Be Down. By the time the blissed-out Sunsleeper closed the set, Victoria Park wasn’t an audience anymore — it was a mass of bodies locked into the same groove. “Big up yourselves,” Barry grinned, and you believed him. This wasn’t just a step up, it was a statement.

Before Barry, Orbital reminded everyone why they’ve spent three decades at the heart of British rave. Their set swung from the caustic fury of Dirty Rat (a Sleaford Mods collaboration) to the eternal ecstasy of Chime, with diversions into Satan and a delirious mash of Belinda Carlisle and the Spice Girls. Greta Thunberg’s voice rang out over Victoria Park — “Our house is on fire” — a sharp reminder of rave’s political edge amid the euphoria. Just when it seemed the night couldn’t get stranger, Confidence Man sprinted from the East Stage to crash Holiday, delivering it with their trademark manic energy.

Confidence Man’s own set earlier in the evening had already been a festival highlight: a futuristic, high-octane spectacle that opened with Now U Do and tumbled headfirst through I Can’t Lose You and more. Janet Planet and Sugar Bones pinballed across the stage and into the pit, choreography exploding in every direction. JADE joined them for Gossip, a knowing crossover moment ahead of her solo slot on Saturday.

Across the park, the bill was stacked with equally boundary-pushing sets. Shygirl blurred pop, rap and club into something feral and magnetic; Interplanetary Criminal and DJ Heartstring kept the BPM high, serving up peak-time chaos; while Marlon Hoffstadt’s Daddycation — a UK exclusive — flexed his tongue-in-cheek take on euphoric trance.

All Points East has always been about variety, but Friday felt like a coronation. From the veterans of rave to the next wave of innovators, the through-line was energy, invention and a refusal to play it safe. At the centre of it all, Barry Can’t Swim emerged not just as a promising newcomer, but as a headliner for years to come.