Skepta has announced the first wave of acts for Big Smoke Festival 2025. The London festival made its debut last summer, created and curated by the multi-talented rapper. The event will return to Crystal Palace Park on August 9 and 10.
Big Smoke Phase one lineup
My only UK live solo performance of 2025, ft. Grime MC FM B2B The Den, Chip, Chy Cartier, Skyla Tylaa, Jordss, Bxks & more to be announced
Final tickets drop this Friday at 10am, sign up now https://t.co/ghFoHyfPLQ pic.twitter.com/mSdykYFbg1
— Big Smoke – (@Skepta) March 4, 2025
Skepta has confirmed the first round of acts for its opening day on August 9. The ‘Shutdown’ hitmaker himself will headline on the Saturday, joined by a handful of exciting names.
JME and Frisco will present a b2b set – a collaboration between their collective sets “Grime MC FM” and “The Den”. The previous performances from each set has hosted heavyweight lineups of emcee’s, including Jammer, Novelist, Lethal Bizzle and Manga Saint Hilaire to name a few. Both JME and Frisco performed at last year’s Big Smoke Festival.
Also joining the bill are the alt-trap newcomer Chy Cartier and grime icon Chip, whose new album ‘Grime Scene Saviour’ is dropping next month. Skepta recently joined Chip onstage for a ‘Grime Scene Saviours Set’ at Outernet, featuring a stacked lineup full of grime royalty.
On the Sunday (August 10), Skepta’s dance label Más Tiempo will be taking over, with the rapper himself providing a DJ set. He originally got his start in music as a DJ, and in recent years has ventured into house music, spinning the decks at clubs in Miama and Ibiza, and releasing a popular house remix sampling Amy Winehouse called “Can’t Play Myself”.
In a press release, Skepta shared his enthusiasm for the upcoming event, saying: “Big Smoke is a festival in London, for London and I can’t wait for fans to see what we’ve got planned for this year’s edition. We continue to think of new ways to do things differently, so I’m excited to release the full line-up. See you at the Bowl in August- greaze!”
Tickets for Saturday go on general sale this Friday (March 7) at 10am. A pre-sale for Sunday is scheduled to go live at the same time – you can sign up for that here. Tickets for the Sunday are expected to go on general sale at the end of this month.
Fans of the quintessential grime artist have been waiting a while for new music – he announced his sixth album, ‘Knife and Fork’, at the start of 2024. Since then, he’s released two singles, ‘Gas Me Up (Dilligent)’ and ‘Alpha/Omega’, the latter of which was produced by legendary trap producer Lex Luger.
He also collaborated with Flo Milli for a smooth grime/R&B track “Why Lie?” last October. We can only wonder if after announcing the Big Smoke Festival line-up he’ll be dropping some new material soon.
