BST Hyde Park Returns With A Host Of Stars

London’s biggest and best summer music festival series returns in 2022 after a pandemic-induced two-year hiatus, With British Summer Time bringing their Great Oak Stage back to London’s iconic Hyde Park. And what a ridiculous line-up they’re bringing!

Festivities kick off on Friday 24th June with the living legend that is Sir Elton John opening the series, with concerts running across three consecutive weekends and a free midweek programme called Open House available to the public on the festival site. The show will form part of the iconic musician’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which saw him begin in Allentown, Pennsylvania on 8 September 2018 and will take in over 300 concerts worldwide, finishing in 2023.

Saturday 25th June sees The Rolling Stones return to Hyde Park as they celebrate 60 years of being together for the first of two nights across the series that will, no doubt, go down in history — as have the Mick Jagger-fronted rock legends’ previous shows at Hyde Park. This time, however, founding member and drummer Charlie Watts will no longer be with us, having passed away last summer. The wonderful Steve Jordan taking over on sticks will, no doubt, ensure a raucous night is had by all.

The War On Drugs, Phoebe Bridgers and Vista Kicks are just some of the other incredible acts playing across the various BST stages on 25th June with the likes of Sam Fender, Courtney Barnett and The Flints joining The Stones at their second show on Sunday 3rd July.

Legendary American rockers and Hotel California-hitmakers The Eagles take over The Great Oak Stage on Sunday 26th June as they celebrate a massive 50 years together with none other than the duo of former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and Alison Krauss joining them. Country superstars Little Big Town make the trip to this side of the pond too along with Country star Cam.

Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd of July are reserved for English superstar Adele, who will bring her 2021 record 30 to life on The Great Oak Stage along with a selection of hits from across her catalogue and, no doubt, a sprinkling of colourfoul language as she is notorious for bringing to her live shows.

Friday 8th and Saturday 9th of July belong to the Seattle-hailing rock icons Pearl Jam with 4 of 5 founding members along with former Soundgarden sticksman Matt Cameron, who has been with the group since 1999 all in attendance. Known for their blistering but soulful Pacific Northwestern flavour of raw rock entitled “grunge” when that was trendy, Pearl Jam continue to wow the masses with their vibrant energy, staying power and the dulcet tones of frontman Eddie Vedder.

Across the two dates, Pearl Jam are joined by Pixies, Stereophonics, White Reaper and Imelda May to name but a few of the other incredible acts playing across the site’s stages.

The 10-day event is brought to an end with British New Wave legends Duran Duran closing proceedings on The Great Oak Stage on Sunday 10th July, the Birmingham-hailing quartet featuring legend Simon Le Bon on vocals and the other Roger Taylor on drums who will, no doubt, bring the hits to Hyde Park following a triumphant contribution to the wonderful concert held on the steps of Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. None other than the legendary Nile Rodgers & Chic join Duran Duran as well as many more acts still to be announced.

BST is always a fantastic day out at London’s most iconic green spaces which is supported, in part, by The Royal Parks. The Royal Parks is the charity that exists to make sure London’s eight historic royal parks will always be there to enrich the lives of local residents and visitors to London.

This recently created charity does this by:

Sensitively and sustainably protecting and conserving the heritage landscapes of the parks
Adding value to every visit by providing information and opportunities to find out more about the historic significance of the parks and the wildlife that lives in them today
Supporting and encouraging the development of biodiversity in the parks
Encouraging visitors to support their physical and mental health by using the parks for relaxation and exercise

It costs £40m a year to manage the parks. The charity raises around 75 percent of this money itself, with the remaining 25 per cent coming from the Government.

Full listing to date:

Fri 24th Jun: Elton John
Sat 25th Jun: The Rolling Stones + The War On Drugs, Phoebe Bridgers, Vista Kicks, JJ Rosa, Kelly McGrath
Sun 26th Jun: Eagles+ Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Little Big Town, Cam, Morgan Wade, The Wandering Hearts, Patrick Droney
Fri 1st Jul: Adele
Sat 2nd Jul: Adele
Sun 3rd Jul: The Rolling Stones + Sam Fender, Courtney Barnett, Christone Kingfish Ingram, The Dinner Party, The Flints
Fri 8th Jul: Pearl Jam + Pixies, Cat Power, White Reaper, The Murder Capital, The Glorious Sons, Simon Townshend, La Luz, Sick Joy, Dream Nails
Sat 9th Jul: Pearl Jam+ Stereophonics, Imelda May, The Last Internationale, La Luz, JJ Wilde, The Wild Things
Sun 10th Jul: Duran Duran, Nile Rodgers & Chic

Photos by Kalpesh Patel and Simon Reed

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