arrives at with a line-up that feels like it has been beamed directly into Victoria Park from the alternative gods: , , Amyl and The Sniffers, , , , , , , , and more… all leading up to UK 2026 festival exclusive.

For a festival built around alternative music, there’s something satisfying about seeing London’s Victoria Park filled with people who look like they’ve been pulled straight from the pages of a 2000s Kerrang! magazine. But it’s also busy. Very busy. Maybe too busy? 

Then there’s the dust. No blemish is safe. By the middle of the day, every visible pore is coated, a brown moustache has permanently formed across my face, and every tattoo seems bigger due to the layer of dust encouraging them to grow. A very ‘East London’ look, I must say. But bandanas have become the most popular accessory in the field. I have ignored advice to bring one after experiences at APE the day before. Pfft. Today is for the punks. We don’t need lung protection. We have cigarettes for that!!

I am wrong. Very wrong. Here, Clash wipes the dust from its face and runs through the highlights of the day.

Australia’s newest export collides punk, industrial rock, and hip-hop with enough energy to kickstart the festival. Ecca Vandal barely seems to stand still, throwing herself around the stage and bouncing between genres with a restless intensity that instantly pulls the crowd in. She’s also about to support Deftones in Edinburgh and Dublin, making her a fitting choice for today’s bill.

It’s great to see a female musician leading from the front with male musicians behind her, following a tradition pioneered by Joan Jett that puts women firmly at the centre of rock and alternative music. Dedicating “songs for the girls,” Vandal creates a space for everyone to let loose, while her electric blue hair becomes the focal point of the stage. She plays Village Underground on 15th August. Buy a ticket to see Ecca Vandall now. She won’t be playing venues this small ever again.

Everyone knows Amyl and the Sniffers. One of the hardest-working touring bands around, the Australian four-piece return to London with Lakota Vella of Melbourne punk band Public Figures (replacing bassist Gus Romer for the rest of the year). It’s a seamless replacement. Vella already feels like part of the furniture.

“Commit crime!” yells Taylor. “But only the girls,” she winks before launching into “Me and the Girls.” It’s another moment that puts women at the centre of the festival. And Outbreak gets something important right this year: gender balance. Seeing women take up space on these stages changes that. It gives women in the crowd someone to connect with, someone to aspire to, and, importantly, the feeling that they belong here too. I leave their set wanting to book another drum lesson. That’s why these line-ups matter.

The crowd is fully immersed in the show as The Sniffers prove why they’re one of the hottest bands right now. Playing tracks from each album, ‘Jerkin’’ is the one that gets the crowd most hyped. There are some sound issues, a recurring theme at All Points East (with The Strokes’ 2023 APE set still being a major talking point this weekend), but the driving force of Amy Taylor, Dec Martens, Bryce Wilson, and Lakota makes up for it. Their set builds slowly before exploding into full pace, including a new country rendition of ‘Big Dreams,’ which appears on their upcoming country album due 4th September.

Bristol punks and 6music-favourites IDLES pull the second-biggest crowd of the day, and Victoria Park seems to have been taken over by their t-shirts despite Deftones being the main event. People are seen peeling away from Amyl and the Sniffers ten minutes before the end, sprinting across the park to claim a spot. It makes sense. IDLES haven’t played London since their headline show at Ally Pally in 2024, and their live shows have earned a reputation for being sweaty, chaotic, and completely unrestrained.

That energy is immediate. The band barely gives themselves a second to breathe, throwing themselves around the stage with the kind of intensity that makes the huge field feel like a tiny punk venue. Vocalist Joe Talbot is constantly in motion, dragging the crowd along with him as the band crashes through their set. There’s no distance between the stage and the crowd here. 

‘Danny Nedelko’ and ‘Mr. Motivator’ send the field into full chaos, with bodies bouncing, voices roaring, and the energy never dropping. A sax player adds another layer of noise to the already raucous set, although, from where I’m standing, I genuinely cannot hear it. APE, seriously sort your sound out.

This is band everyone is here to see. As Deftones take the stage, the entire festival atmosphere shifts, with everyone suddenly competing to secure a decent viewing spot.

Formed in 1988, Deftones have spent almost four decades building a sound that refuses to stay in one lane. Blending nu-metal with anything from shoegaze, industrial, and alternative rock, this live show has all the promises to be a unique one. The contrast between vocalist Chino Moreno’s delicate vocals and full-on screams shows the rare ability this band has mastered to shift between sounds. There’s a reason their live shows have become such a big deal. They don’t simply recreate the records; they make them feel bigger.

That ability rolls across Victoria Park, with obscure visuals including The Holy Mountain looming behind the stage. You can hear their influence in the younger bands scattered throughout the crowd, particularly Turnstile, but seeing Deftones themselves makes it obvious where that DNA begins. Then comes ‘Swerve City.’ It’s one of those rare ‘I was there’ moments, the kind that makes spending an entire day inhaling Victoria Park dust feel entirely worthwhile. Who cares if I spent the next day sneezing black stuff and now have the lung capacity of the dude in My Name Is Earl who speaks through an electrolarynx?

I was there when Deftones played Outbreak. A set that will go down in history.
Definitely worth the internal damage, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Words by Jazz Hodge