Beautiful Days Festival returned to Escot Park from 15th to 17th August 2025, its undulating lawns and hidden glades transformed by six stages, artisan food stalls, theatre tents and roaming performers. This family-run festival, founded by the Levellers in 2003, once again sold out its 17,500 capacity and eschews corporate sponsorship in favour of a fiercely independent spirit.
A sea of bubbles greeted the Levellers Collective as they opened the Big Top, reminding everyone why this acoustic ritual has become the festival’s unofficial heartbeat. Their stripped-back harmonies and crowd-singalong of “One Way” set a communal tone, warming the tent for the weekend ahead.
Penguin Café followed with their genre-blurring chamber folk, weaving nylon-string guitars, brushed percussion and wistful violin lines into sunlit daydreams. Their playful “The Sound of Someone You Love Who’s Gone Away” had dancers and daydreamers alike drifting between nostalgia and optimism.
On the same stage, Peter Doherty delivered a patchwork of solo work, Libertines classics and Babyshambles rarities. Fresh from releasing his fifth solo album Felt Better Alive—a confident, playful collection—Doherty turned every verse into theatre, prowling the stage with Mick Jones swagger while Mike Joyce’s drumming spurts of Smiths-styled tom-fills punctuated each chorus.
Terrorvision lit up the Main Stage with crowd-pleasers from their back catalogue, each an invitation to pogo or belt out “Alice What’s the Matter” and their cheeky “Tequila”. The swaggering guitars and Danny’s snarling vocals reminded everyone why they’re still festival favourites.
The Mary Wallopers followed with riotous Irish jigs and political satire, likened by many to “the Dubliners on acid”. Their uproarious banter between songs and a climactic stomp of “The Battle of the Boyne” had dancers across the field mimicking Riverdance footwork.
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls closed Friday’s Main Stage. Tonight was their 3066th show and sporting their trademark white shirts, Turner et al ripped through a folk-punk greatest hits set, from Joe Strummer-esque rally cries to Bruce Springsteen-style storytelling. His tenth studio album Undefeated debuted at number three on the Official Album Chart in May 2024, and live it’s clear why he’s sold over a million records worldwide and earned three gold albums.
We began under a brilliant sun with a stroll past the children’s field and record stalls. A pristine Herbie Hancock LP from the pop-up shop paired perfectly with a fragrant chicken and chorizo paella.
Panic Shack’s joyful set of post-punk, alternative tracks had the arena bouncing; they even posed for backstage portraits, which was way beyond our expectations.
Kid Kapichi brought their snarling alt-rock grooves to the Main Stage. Frontman Joseph Stevens talked European tours in France and The Netherlands to me ahead of their set before thrusting the mic to the crowd for a call-and-response in “Loaded Dice”.
Sleeper delivered polished ’90s hooks under an open sky, their cover of “Atomic” shimmering like late-afternoon light on water, Statuesque, sounded, well, Statuesque but it was ‘Inbetweener’ that really stole the show!
Kula Shaker invoked Britpop nostalgia with swirling sitar infused psych-tinged jams, teasing a crowd-singalong on “Govinda”. Jay Darlington and Crispin Hunt’s Knebworth anecdotes only amplified the magic before their set.
Shed Seven earned an ovation for “Going for Gold” and “Chasing Rainbows”. Rick Witter’s backstage pizza rating of 8/10 mirrored the set’s 9/10 reliability—timeless guitar anthems that feel as fresh in 2025 as they did in 1996.
The Saturday night climax belonged to the Sex Pistols, reborn with Frank Carter powering the mic. With original members Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock blasting “Pretty Vacant,” “God Save the Queen” and the full Never Mind the Bollocks set, Carter injected modern ferocity into 1976’s anti-establishment anthems. This was punk redux at its most visceral—an elder statesman’s procession with a young front-man’s blood-pressure-raising zeal.
Sunday’s Main Stage kicked off with Grandma’s House, a punk-flavoured fresh breeze, followed by Heavy Lungs, whose frontman Danny Nedelko’s early-morning hangover tales only fueled the moshpit fervour.
We timed Young Knives perfectly for a family cameo: frontman all three signed a 40th-birthday card, Henry left a video message of sage advice to my sister in law who turns 40 very soon!—proof that festival goodwill extends beyond the crowd barrier.
Mad Dog McRea unleashed Celtic-storm chaos, banjos plucked like twin heralds over angry drums. Each tune felt built for communal stomping.
The Bluetones followed with a graceful journey through Britpop gems, their “Slight Return” earning hushed reverence from sun-bleached ears.
As dusk fell, Spiritualized cast a dreamy spell over Escot Park. Jason Pierce’s cosmic guitars and sweeping orchestration carried us through hallucinatory soundscapes, each song a widening cosmos of reverb and soul.
To close the Main Stage, The Levellers returned for a full-circle moment, reprising opener classics like “One Way” and “World Freak Show” amidst a confetti of fireworks. The night sky ignited in tandem with the band’s triumphant riffs—an emotionally charged coda to another unforgettable year.
Huge gratitude to the Levs, Laura and Dave’s DMF crew, security teams, stagehands, caterers (special shout-out to Otter Brewery ales) and every festival-goer who made Beautiful Days 2025 a triumph. Not a drop of rain fell all weekend—a Devon miracle—and already the countdown to 2026 has begun. Tickets go on sale soon and, as always, you’ll want to be there.
Words - Steve Muscutt
Pictures - Julian Baird
