It’s festival season, and none comes with greater anticipation for Londoners (well… except that little one on a farm somewhere outside of London…) than the camp extravaganza that is the Mighty Hoopla. For two days only, Brockwell Park goes positively rainbow: with crop tops, glitter jackets and hats with the word c**t blazoned across them. It’s an environment that demands people be unashamedly who they want to be, with no judgement; only love and acceptance. And the music is also quite good.

The weekend’s hotly anticipated line-up didn’t disappoint, with Nelly Furtado and En Vogue closing the first night with aplomb, and Jessie Ware the second. But it was the relatively niche acts which really stole the show, capturing the kind of frenzied energy, hedonism and sometimes silliness the crowd desperately wanted.

Sets from Pussy Liquor in the blazing Sunday sun deserve applause, offering up seriously sexy burlesque, and some of the Drag Kings of Pecs were in attendance to offer a healthy dose of cynical social commentary.

No two acts brought much more fun than Bailey J Mills who, dressed in little more than a Mohican and crop top, flung her own tits into the crowd as a prize; and Barry from Eastenders, who sang karaoke with the real Jedward. Their song choice? One of their own. Sounds mad? It was. But we loved it. Serious fun and abandon… the kind we absolutely need right now.

Mighty Hoopla will return to Brockwell Park, 31 May – 1 Jun 2025.