Two pioneering acts are announced to set the stage alight at South Facing Festival this summer. Scottish band Mogwai headline with very special guests, hypnotic Irish folk group Lankum, in an unmissable double bill at Crystal Palace Park on 7 August 2025. This exclusive event marks Mogwai’s only UK summer appearance and Lankum’s only London show of 2025.

Mogwai, formed in Glasgow in 1995, have become one of the most influential bands of their generation. With eleven acclaimed studio albums, including The Bad Fire released earlier this year and their 2021 chart-topping As The Love Continues, the band has also scored projects for Amazon Prime and Apple TV+. Last year saw the release of Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound, a documentary directed by longtime collaborator Antony Crook, which premiered at SXSW 2024 and is screening worldwide.

Irish quartet Lankum, comprised of Ian Lynch, Daragh Lynch, Radie Peat, and Cormac MacDiarmada, have redefined folk music with their immersive, experimental sound. Their Mercury Prize-nominated 2023 album False Lankum has cemented them as one of Ireland’s most vital musical voices. The Lankum live show has evolved into a modern day powerhouse, with the band’s acoustic instrumentation (uilleaan pipes, fiddle, accordion, guitar, tin whistle and percussion) and close-harmony vocals transforming into a vast, kaleidoscopic wall of sound.

South Facing is a multi-day, open-air festival that takes place each summer in the historically significant Crystal Palace Bowl. The festival boasts a huge choice of top-end street food and drink options including street food, craft ale and rum shack, and is easily accessible from London and all over the South East thanks to the various train and bus routes, including Crystal Palace (TfL Overground and National Rail), Penge West (TfL Overground and National Rail), and Gipsy Hill (National Rail). So far this year, announcements have included Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Basement Jaxx, Skepta’s Big Smoke festival and Flackstock.

Previous years have included huge headline performances, with Grace Jones, Damian Marley, Supergrass, Sleaford Mods, The English National Opera, Richard Ashcroft, Becky Hill, Bombay Bicycle Club, Jungle, and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, all gracing the stage.

SOUTH FACING FESTIVAL 2025:

MOGWAI & LANKUM 7 AUGUST

FLACKSTOCK 8 AUGUST

BIG SMOKE / SKEPTA 9 AUGUST

TINLICKER 16 AUGUST

BASEMENT JAXX 22 & 23 AUGUST

NILE RODGERS & CHIC 24 AUGUST