The 2024 edition of London’s Wide Awake Festival has announced its first headline act: Australian psych rock heavyweights King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The festival will return to London’s Brockwell Park in Brixton on May 25.
Here we go… you guessed it: @kinggizzard are heading to Brockwell Park next May. Our most requested headliner EVER We’ve been trying to bring these guys over every year & here we finally ARE!
Grab your tickets now as they are gonna fly https://t.co/5VBGfqThFH pic.twitter.com/4BKwmOmeGu— Wide Awake (@wideawakeldn) October 3, 2023
The rest of the line-up is yet to be announced, with more announcements coming soon. This year’s edition of the festival saw Caroline Polachek perform as main headliner, with local bands Black Country, New Road, Warmduscher and Los Bitchos also in attendance. Other notable acts from this summer’s party include American psychedelic/alternative rock legends Osees, Swedish prog-punk pioneers Viagra Boys and Manchester-born, Berlin-based post-punk outfit The Underground Youth.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard has long been a favourite of Wide Awake Festival owner Keith Miller, who has recently described his love of the band in a statement: “We’re so delighted to finally nail down King Gizz! It’ll be 10 years since I first saw them in the Shacklewell [Arms] when they hit the main stage. We’ve tried to bring them over every year, and they were our most requested acts from our fans survey. I caught them up at Manchester Psych Fest in September and it was unreal. You will not be disappointed!”
Fresh off the back of a headline show at the Manchester Academy in September, an event that coincided with Manchester Psych Fest, the prolific and highly energetic Australian band, who transcend music genres as easily as they sell out headline shows, will return to the UK next year to perform for thousands of endlessly loyal supporters.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have also recently announced their 25th studio album, The Silver Cord, and have subsequently released the first three tracks from said album, along with a combined music video of all three songs. The tracks, namely ‘Theia’, ‘The Silver Cord‘ and ‘Set‘, are a perfect testament to the group’s commitment to musical exploration, being experimentally electro in nature and distant from their garage and psychedelic rock beginnings, and certainly different from their previous album release, the thrash metal laden PetroDragonic Apocalypse.
Watch the music video for ‘Theia’, ‘The Silver Cord‘ and ‘Set‘ below:
You can purchase tickets for Wide Awake Festival 2024 here.