It’s not been an easy sum­mer for fes­ti­vals, and each week brings fur­ther can­cel­la­tions. The good news is that a sur­feit of one-day music events is hap­pen­ing in Lon­don’s var­i­ous green spaces. Most fes­ti­vals have reached their final tick­et release, so if you’ve got your eye on some­thing, best snap those tick­ets up with­out fur­ther ado.

Kaleidoscope festival

Alexan­dra Palace has a long his­to­ry with music events stretch­ing back to the 1960s. It’s not sur­pris­ing real­ly as its grounds are an ide­al spot – a per­fect for relax­ing and tak­ing in the views of the city cen­tre, plus its slop­ing grounds mean that every­one can get an unin­ter­rupt­ed view of the main stage. And now fam­i­ly event Kalei­do­scope is tak­ing place for its sec­ond year at the icon­ic spot on Sat­ur­day 24th July.

Head­lin­ers this year are the icon­ic Groove Arma­da. More artists were added to Kalei­do­scope’s stage once the fes­ti­val was def­i­nite­ly going ahead. The full music line­up sees these artists on the bill: The Coral, The Staves, Ibibio Sound Machine, House Gospel Choir, Nor­man Jay MBE, Greg Wil­son, Matt Jam Lam­ont, Mr Wilson’s Sec­ond Lin­ers and The Glo­ry ft. John Sizzle.

Kalei­do­scope also fea­tures a Com­e­dy and Words tent which includes play­wright and author of Trainspot­ting, Irvine Welsh, plus addi­tions to the com­e­dy line­up, Regi­nald D Hunter and Glenn Moore. In true fam­i­ly fes­ti­val style there will be lots going on for kids of all ages: The Fly­ing Seag­ull Project, a mix of com­e­dy, clown­ing, mag­ic and cir­cus; Sto­ry­s­tock, explor­ing the joys of sto­ry­telling; Spare Room Arts and world-famous bub­ble­ol­o­gist Sam­sam Bubbleman! 

Tick­ets are now avail­able for Kalei­do­scope 2022

Ealing Blues festival

Till very recent­ly it looked like the annu­al Eal­ing Sum­mer fes­ti­vals weren’t going to hap­pen. But then Eal­ing Coun­cil decid­ed to go ahead and a grate­ful local com­mu­ni­ty breathed a sigh of relief. As usu­al, the fes­ti­vals take place in Wal­pole Park. Eal­ing Blues fes­ti­val takes place over two Sat­ur­days, 31st July and 7th August this year, and there are lots of oth­er fes­ti­vals shar­ing the same space over the month includ­ing Jazz and Com­e­dy. Tick­ets are very rea­son­able, at under £10 per person.

South Facing

This brand new, month-long, out­door con­cert series takes place at the Crys­tal Palace Bowl, where the amphithe­atre which has been untouched for the last decade will come to life again. Hmm, how to pick a cou­ple to rec­om­mend? Well, we like Sat­ur­day 7th which fea­tures artists on the Heav­en­ly record label plus oth­ers: The Orielles, Fat White Fam­i­ly and Jane Weaver and more are set to appear; Sleaford Mods top the bill. Sun­day 15th August fea­tures Krud­er & Dorfmeis­ter, The Comet Is Com­ing, KOKOROKO, Gilles Peter­son and more. The Streets has two shows, an extra has been added as the first is sold out.

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Check out https://southfacingfestival.com/

Wide Awake festival 

Wide Awake makes its inau­gur­al appear­ance Fri­day 3rd Sep­tem­ber. This fes­ti­val gets our thumbs up for its fab­u­lous­ly var­ied and inclu­sive line­up, includ­ing indie, post punk, elec­tron­i­ca, tech­no and jazz. It’s an impres­sive, and impres­sive­ly big line-up with over 30 acts set to play, so mak­ing your choic­es is not going to be an easy task. 

Scalp­ing, Dream Wife, David Avery and Black Coun­try New Road are among those appear­ing. DJs include Dr Rubin­stein and Ivan Smagghe.

Please note: Tinari­wen have can­celled their tour due to Covid issues. Boy Harsh­er are sad­ly no longer appear­ing. Please refer to the lat­est line­up for details

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Tick­ets for Wide Awake are on their sec­ond and final tier. Tick­ets avail­able here

Cross the Tracks

Cross the Tracks first took place in 2019 and gets its sec­ond out­ing this year on Sun­day 5th Sep­tem­ber at Brock­well Park. The jazz, funk and soul extrav­a­gan­za has just added Lianne La Havas to head­line. Also Sons of Kemet, whose albums encom­pass­ing rock, Caribbean folk and Afrobeat have seen them win numer­ous awards. South Lon­don singer song­writer Sasha Keable, 10-piece jazz group SEED Ensem­ble, and British rap­per Kofi Stone. 

They join En Vogue, The Cin­e­mat­ic Orches­tra, Sis­ter Sledge, Jor­dan Rakei, Giles Peter­son, Green­tea Peng, Nubya Gar­cia, Yussef Dayes, Ash­ley Hen­ry, Chan­nel One, Chil­dren of Zeus and Nor­man Jay MBE, plus many more. Like Wide Awake, you’ll be spoilt for choice.

Tick­ets have sold out but 3‑day tick­ets are avail­able on sale now via xthetracks.com.

Main image: Cross the Tracks
All tick­et info cor­rect at time of posting