Why does London get such huge events? BST Hyde Park does a great job each year of holding some of the biggest gigs going, and they manage to spread their wings over multiple musical genres.
While we do focus on rock / metal, we aren’t afraid to dabble into other areas. While the likes of Sabrina Carpenter (two dates) and Olivia Rodrigo (who opens the festival dates) aren’t perhaps our usual fare, there’s the excellent Noah Kahan, Zach Bryan (also two dates), Neil Young and Jeff Lynne’s ELO headlining on various nights. I’d even be tempted with the chance to catch Stevie Wonder, but I’m a child of the 80s.
While Young and ELO are definitely classic rock acts and under our traditional umbrella, there’s no denying the song writing capabilities of Kahan and Bryan, both of whom you’ll find on my last.fm scrobble list. Take a listen to Rodrigo and it’s all guitars, drums and emo-esque vocals. Definitely decent music and something we’d be disingenuous to write off offhand purely as she’s not classed as a rock act.
Music is a very malleable medium. Those genre edges blur pretty frequently, and we’re never going to judge or gatekeep!
Many of the dates have sold out, tickets going like the proverbial hot cakes, but some are still available as I write this. I guess we’ll see how long they last!
For tickets and further information, head over to the BST Hyde Park website. But I’d do it quickly before those last tickets vanish! Dates run from June 27th to July 13th.
