Bombay Bicycle Club to headline special one-off show at LIDO Festival
Bombay Bicycle Club will headline LIDO Festival at Victoria Park on Sunday 14 June 2026, performing their debut album “I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose” in full to mark twenty years since the band formed. The North London indie legends will also play their second album, “Flaws”, during an earlier afternoon set, making for an emotional double performance in their hometown. Metronomy, Alice Phoebe Lou, Billie Marten and Lucy Rose complete the bill, with more acts still to be announced. Tickets go on sale Friday, 30 January at 10 am.
The celebration comes at a significant moment for Bombay Bicycle Club, who have spent two decades pushing boundaries in British indie music. Released in 2009 when the band members were barely out of school, “I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose” captured a frenetic, urgent energy that resonated with a generation and has remained a touchstone record ever since. Its follow-up, “Flaws”, took a different approach entirely, stripping back to acoustic arrangements and folksy melodies that soundtracked lazy Sunday mornings rather than Saturday night chaos. Together, the albums showcase the experimental spirit that has defined the band’s career, from number one records to Mercury Prize nominations.
The band explained their excitement about returning to Victoria Park after a successful show last summer. Playing both albums in full offers them a chance to revisit songs they haven’t performed in years and honour the place these records hold in their fans’ hearts. For many, these early releases represent formative listening experiences, making the performance particularly meaningful.
Joining them as special guests, Metronomy will play their first UK show in three years and their only live appearance of 2026. The English electro band emerged in the late noughties as new wave artists who connected with club culture before earning a Mercury Prize nomination in 2011 for “The English Riviera”. Known for eclectic cross-genre styles that blend indie rock with springy electronica, they’ve built a reputation for glossy, sculpted songs that translate into magnetic live performances.
South African artist Alice Phoebe Lou grew up on a mountainside, attending Waldorf school before making her first life-changing trip to Europe at sixteen. Armed with just a guitar, small amp and an intoxicating voice, she quickly built a global following through street performances and self-released music. Her journey from releasing debut EP “Momentum” in 2014 to earning a 90th Oscar nomination for original song “She”, alongside artists like Sufjan Stevens and Mary J Blige, has been relentless. Her new album “Paper Castles” blends electronic soul with psychedelic folk, highlighting honeyed vocals whilst revealing a limitless approach to craft. As a truly global artist who refuses to stay put creatively or physically, she’s eager to introduce both longtime fans and newcomers to this intimate collection exploring romance, struggle, solitude and adventure.
Billie Marten’s musical education came from parents who surrounded her with Nick Drake, John Martyn, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, Kate Bush and northern folk artist Chris Wood. Her critically acclaimed debut, “Writing of Blues and Yellows” arrived in 2016 when she was just seventeen, a diary collection of quietly beautiful songs. Second album “Feeding Seahorses By Hand” followed in 2019, described as a gentle and reserved masterpiece.
After leaving Sony at the end of 2019 and choosing new management, Marten signed to Fiction Records during lockdown via Zoom before reuniting with producer Rich Cooper. The creative overhaul empowered her to experiment and rediscover herself, leading to frequent touring throughout the UK and the US. Fourth record “Drop Cherries” explores social commentary, the struggle between modernity and tradition, nature, mental health, relationships and a general voyeurism on the world as she observes it.
Lucy Rose began performing her fragile, emotive acoustic songs publicly in the late 2000s, drawing comparisons to Laura Marling, with whom she shares influences, including Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Originally a drummer in her school orchestra in Warwickshire, she moved to piano and then guitar when drumming didn’t satisfy her creative ambition. After deferring a place at University College London at eighteen, she finally began sharing the pastoral, folk-inspired pop music she’d been writing in her parents’ house.
Her sound evolved from the gentle folk-rock of her 2012 debut “Like I Used To” through the conspicuous electronics of 2015’s “Work It Out” to the more intimate, textured acoustic arrangements of 2019’s “No Words Left”. Many will recognise Rose from her unforgettable backing vocals on Bombay Bicycle Club’s album “Flaws” and subsequent touring with the band, making her LIDO Festival debut supporting them a full circle moment.
The band themselves have consistently opened their studio doors for collaborations, welcoming unlikely legends like Damon Albarn and Chaka Khan onto records, whilst also influencing a new generation. Artists including Jay Som, Holly Humberstone and Nilüfer Yanya have proclaimed Bombay Bicycle Club as inspiration during their own fledgling careers, with some later contributing to the band’s more recent releases.
Launched in summer 2025, LIDO Festival takes a unique approach by putting artists first and allowing headliners to programme each day entirely themselves. They bring favourite artists, collaborators, newly tipped talent and their own style to every aspect from the acts to artwork and stage design. Named after Victoria Park’s Lido Field, the event combines hand-picked music lineups with a strong sustainability focus and community events during the week.
The second edition also features Maribou State topping the bill on Saturday 13 June and Irish singer-songwriter CMAT, one of last year’s most celebrated debut artists, headlining Friday 12 June. Last year’s inaugural festival welcomed Massive Attack, Jamie xx, Outbreak Fest with Turnstile, Charli XCX and London Grammar whilst offering a meticulously curated blend of established names and rising talent. The first-ever midweek programme in The Neighbourhood provided free arts and wellbeing activities for the local community, reinforcing the festival’s commitment to cultural enrichment.
LIDO has already won numerous awards as a sustainable music event after just one year. It took The Festival Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards 2025 for its green ethos and boundary-pushing bookings, as well as the LIVE Green Award at the Access All Areas Awards 2025. The festival set a new benchmark for sustainable large-scale events through a landmark green power strategy delivered in partnership with Grid Faeries and Ecotricity. London’s first main stage powered by a 3MWh solar-charged battery combined with hydrogen and portable battery technologies, sustainable food concessions and zero landfill waste management to achieve 32 hours of completely battery-powered operation. By embedding sustainability at its core whilst delivering an unforgettable experience, LIDO Festival is rapidly establishing itself as not only London’s newest festival but potentially one of its greenest.
