August 4, 2026 |
Looking for one last festival to squeeze into summer? Luckily, Rally has got you covered. The one-day event returns to Southwark Park on Saturday, August 29, bringing its DIY spirit and knack for booking your next favourite artist back for a fourth year running. Created as an antidote to algorithm-influenced line-ups, the festival has become one of London’s best days out for the musically curious – so much so that this year’s edition, its biggest yet, is completely sold out. No mean feat at a time when independent festivals are under more pressure than ever. The 2026 edition arrives under the theme Make Your Reality – a call to actively build the spaces we want to see thrive, trading nostalgia and digital saturation for realities formed in real time on dancefloors and in shared space. That extends beyond the music too, with a visual arts programme inviting artists to create work woven into the fabric of the site.
On the bill: Dev Hynes AKA Blood Orange brings his silky art-pop to the park, Daniel Avery supplies the after-dark techno and Norwegian duo Smerz, Chicago’s KeiyaA and NTS favourite Nabihah Iqbal round things out alongside James K, Optimo and many more. Tickets are gone, but a resale waitlist is live for anyone still chasing a way in. Same spirit, new stories – here’s where to be, and when.
BLOOD ORANGE
Dev Hynes isn’t just playing Rally – he’s curating it, so consider his set on the Channel stage the festival’s thesis statement. The Essex-raised artist has done it all: punk beginnings in Test Icicles, orchestral pop as Lightspeed Champion, five acclaimed albums as Blood Orange, scores for indie film auteurs, a Latin Grammy with Nathy Peluso and sold-out nights with the LA Phil and London Symphony Orchestra. Last year’s Essex Honey – a tender meditation on growing up in the margins of Greater London and the music that got him through – is his most loved record yet. Expect silky vocals and an adoring crowd.
JAMES K
Blending dream pop, trip-hop and ambient static with a hazy fluidity, James K works in the spaces between genres – and has done since 2013. The New York artist’s releases on Pan, AD 93 and Incienso has earned her a devoted following, and in 2025 she released her latest LP Friend, drawing in a slew of fresh fans with its enchanting melodies and resonant vocals. She takes the Agnes stage with a set built for losing yourself in. A highlight in waiting.
SMERZ
This one is for the introspectively-inclined. Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg, who together make up the Oslo and Copenhagen based duo Smerz, turn everyday life into dreamy, sonic collages, folding classical composition, electronic experimentation and pop immediacy into stories of love and loneliness. One week it’s Berghain or a choir piece at Oslo’s Munch Museum, the next a runway soundtrack – and, this August – it’s a Rally set primed to feel both intimate and expansive.
JAMES MASSIAH
South London’s James Massiah is a man of both letters and basslines. An NTS fixture who’s worked with Dean Blunt, Joy Orbison and fellow Rally act Daniel Avery, Massiah’s admirers range from performance poet and bard John Cooper Clarke to alternative rap mainstay Neneh Cherry – who he supported at Glastonbury in 2019. In his 2026 EP Contact High, Massiah worked with DJ Gawad to pair a dub-infused swing with a rapper’s pace, whilst his most recently released tracks Grave and Stoner see him join forces with emerging artist May to narrate the story of a foggy tale of love on a night out. Elsewhere, Massiah’s poetry night, Adult Entertainment, has handed the mic to the likes of Caleb Femi, John Glacier and Obongjayar to wax lyrical on the likes of nightlife, social struggle and nostalgia. Find him on the Skehans stage in all his sharp, seductive and streetwise glory.
COCO & CLAIR CLAIR
Nobody does spins deadpan (and slightly unhinged) tales of girlhood like Coco & Clair Clair. The Atlanta-born duo, comprised of Taylor Nave and Claire Toothill, met on Twitter as teens and have turned their bedroom-pop-cum-rap concoction into cult stardom – from their 2017 viral hit Pretty and beyond. Their 2024 album Girl sharpened their sound, all braggadocio and glimmering production, while new single Coldplay – gauzy, chic, out this summer – suggests the well hasn’t run dry. Bring your best friend and your worst attitude to the Channel stage at Rally 2026.
NABIHAH IQBAL
If you’ve ever whacked on NTS one afternoon and let it play out as it pleases, you likely already know Nabihah Iqbal. One of the station’s longest-running residents, the London-based musician and broadcaster has been digging through global sounds since 2013, and played everywhere from Glastonbury to the Royal Albert Hall. Her 2023 album Dreamer – written following a burglary that claimed its first draft – floats somewhere between dream pop, post-punk and dance music. Bringing a DJ set to Rally’s Mill Hill Stage, expect an array of balmy, borderless sounds.
TARIQ AL-SABIR
Now this one has Dev Hynes’ curatorial fingerprints all over it. Tariq Al-Sabir, who’s debut 2024 EP Unlike Yesterday Today I’m Ready was produced by Dev Hynes himself, specialises in experimental soul and cinematic electronics, all topped by his conservatory-trained voice. The Baltimore-born composer originally entered the scene as the voice behind The Wire‘s season-four theme tune when he was a teenager, and has since drifted between scenes that has made him a true polymath. From working with pioneering American composer Meredith Monk‘s on 2019’s Atlas performance and 2021 to 2023’s Indra’s Net performance, to Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn and soul legend Billy Ocean, his range never ends. Arrive early to his set at the Agnes stage, leave enlightened.
Optimo (Espacio)
Few names carry more weight in UK club culture than Optimo (Espacio), the duo formed of JD Twitch and JG Wilkes. What began as a Sunday night series at Glasgow’s famed Sub Club in 1997 became one of the most groundbreaking parties and DJ duos of its era, blazing the way for sets where genre wasn’t a consideration. Following the passing of JD Twitch last year, JG Wilkes has been carrying their legacy forward, with residencies in Brixton’s Phonox and a monthly NTS slot, every Optimo (Espacio) set is shaped by a desire to surprise and take their crowd on a journey they don’t expect. Spinning on the Visionaire stage, it’s a set that doubles as a slice of dancefloor history.
DANIEL AVERY
KEIYAA
Everyone from Solange to Jay-Z has co-signed Keiyaa, making it understandable why Dev Hynes has reserved a spot for her on this bill. The Chicago-raised, Brooklyn-based artist broke through with her 2020 debut album Forever, Ya Girl, a genre-dissolving swirl of R&B, jazz and soul that made her one of leftfield soul’s most influential voices. After a five-year hiatus, she dropped her sophomore album Hooke’s Law this year – a heady and kaleidoscopic exploration of identity. Expect resonant vocals, perceptive lyricism and the rebirth of a rising star on Rally’s Agnes stage.
Top image: photography by Jake Davis.
