Waltham Forest (Parliament Politics Magazine) – A punk rock festival is set to bring live music and high energy to Blackhorse Road in Waltham Forest this weekend, promising a thrilling experience for fans.
In what promises to be its largest event to date, Decolonise Fest, a long-running festival that showcases the skills of people of color in the punk scene, will take place at Signature Brew Blackhorse Road on Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7.
The 2025 lineup also includes Ipswich alt-rapper Native James, art punk supergroup The None, and rising British-Asian star Hyphen, in addition to Ivor Novello Award-winning performer Master Peace.
A two-day celebration of “radical ideas and solidarity,” Decolonise Fest will feature talks, seminars, and music conducted by people of color from various alternative arts scenes.
The eighth incarnation of Decolonise Fest, which began modestly in the South London punk venue DIY Space for London, is the biggest iteration of the festival ever held and will take place in Waltham Forest at the 300-seat Signature Brew Blackhorse Road.
Over the weekend, Ashaine White, Steel, Dogviolet, Bona Rays, The Genes, and Midwich Cuckoos will perform additional sets.
Nova Twins, Bob Vylan, Big Joanie, Whitelands, and Grove have all performed at Decolonise Fest in the past, demonstrating the festival’s reputation as a breeding ground for alternative music talent.
Spider, Currls, and Dead Air were the main acts during the festival held at Signature Brew Haggerston last year.
The festival’s organizers have most recently taken the idea outside of London by hosting the Decolonise Fest: On Tour series, which features local bands and artists of color in places like Glasgow, Birmingham, and Leeds.
How does the festival support DIY punk culture and community activism?
The festival is organized by a collective of activists, musicians and community organizers working for punks of colour, that embraces a self-managed, grassroots approach, common with DIY punk ethics.
It is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run event that seeks to promote community good, rather than make a profit, consistent with DIY punk’s value of autonomy and independence from the mainstream profit agenda. The festival creates a platform for talented musicians of colour, who are routinely pushed to the margins of the mainstream punk scene, to present their music, while also providing an active reclamation of space from within the punk community and an active challenge to systems of exclusion and white supremacy in punk culture.
The festival promotes anti-colonial, connecting punks of colour to global struggles against colonial legacies and purports standing in opposition to legacies of white supremacy through culture.