The sun blazed down on Kalei­do­scope fes­ti­val 2025 at Alexan­dra Palace, on one of the hottest days of the year. Annu­al one-day event Kalei­do­scope has been designed to offer some­thing for every­one – and as a fam­i­ly-friend­ly fes­ti­val, you could say it delivers. 

For those vis­it­ing north Lon­don’s “Ally Pal­ly” for the first time, the palace on the hill and its park­land with grassy slopes makes for an awe-inspir­ing sight. Kalei­do­scope’s crown jew­el is the Main Stage, set on the slope with views of the Lon­don sky­line behind with land­marks like The Shard glit­ter­ing against the clear blue sky. Best of all, no duck­ing and div­ing is required in order to get a clear view of the main stage act – sit at the top of the slope and you’ll be able to see everything.

There’s a large fenced-off area for chil­dren with some activ­i­ties under cov­er (very wel­come con­sid­er­ing the 30-degree heat), a the­atre per­for­mance tent, face paint­ing, The World’s Tallest Bub­ble­ol­o­gist – and plen­ty of room for kids to just career around excitedly.

At one end of Alexan­dra Palace, the ter­race out­side the Phoenix pub is trans­formed into Cloud 10, a dance are­na that seemed to be per­ma­nent­ly packed, fea­tur­ing a steady stream of DJs and with a good many ex-ravers present, recall­ing good club­bing times and dressed for the occa­sion. The Ibiza style weath­er helped too. This year’s DJ line­up includ­ed DJ Spoony and Eat Every­thing, keep­ing the ener­gy high through­out the day.

Set in the grounds, a small­er and more inti­mate sec­ond stage called the Fringe was in oper­a­tion. I caught part of a set by North Lon­don steel band Pan Nation and a cou­ple of well-received com­e­dy acts – an amus­ing but not very child-friend­ly turn (cov­er your ears!) by Andrew Maxwell, and Shap­pi Khor­san­di who shared some wry obser­va­tions of life as a post-menopausal woman. Most of her com­men­tary about declin­ing sex dri­ve was met with laughs by the women present, not so much by the men.

The main stage opened with a rous­ing per­for­mance by the R Voic­es Choir, who were also first on stage last year. Their inclu­sive ethos – any­one can join their choirs – adds a refresh­ing com­mu­ni­ty spir­it to the event. And Kalei­do­scope makes sure their line­up has a female/male balance.

Brit­pop is on revival mode and Sleep­er, front­ed by the ever-charis­mat­ic Louise Wen­er, were part of that move­ment. Their set was a reminder of just how many hits they have in their back cat­a­logue, such as Sale of the Cen­tu­ry and Inbe­tween­er and it was a real thrill to see them and appre­ci­ate all over again just how good they were. Louise ded­i­cat­ed Deli­cious to all the women in the crowd.

While I was ini­tial­ly unsure about the wis­dom of includ­ing a DJ on the main stage, Sara Cox proved me wrong. Her set was a crowd favourite – full of dis­co clas­sics and a per­fect­ly curat­ed track­list that had every­one danc­ing and singing along.

Goldie hit the stage next with a set that remind­ed every­one why he’s a drum and bass leg­end. And to round off the night in peer­less fash­ion were dance supre­mos Faith­less. Per­form­ing with­out the icon­ic Maxi Jazz can’t be easy but Sis­ter Bliss and the crew han­dle it with grace and pow­er. Maxi’s spir­it was every­where, espe­cial­ly dur­ing Insom­nia, when his image lit up the screens. It was an emo­tion­al moment.

A brief pow­er out­age about a third of the way through was the only hic­cup in what was oth­er­wise a spec­tac­u­lar evening and the lasers beam­ing out from the stage and the euphor­ic crowds danc­ing all com­bined to cre­ate a stun­ning finale.

One crit­i­cism is that the main-stage line­up is a bit thin (only five acts in total on that great stage – come on Kalei­do­scope, give us more!). How­ev­er this day fes­ti­val con­tin­ues to be a great fam­i­ly friend­ly sum­mer event, mak­ing the most of the palace and its grounds. And with the per­fect weath­er and a relaxed atmos­phere, this year’s Kalei­do­scope was one to remember.

Kalei­do­scope fes­ti­val 2026 tick­ets on sale soon