NEWS
BBC Radio 1 has announced the first line-up and location for its 2025 edition of Big Weekend – find all the details below.
This year’s edition of the station’s annual festival is due to take place at Sefton Park in Liverpool from Friday May 23 to Sunday May 25.Throughout the weekend, around 100 acts – from the biggest artists in the world to exciting new and emerging names – will perform across four stages: Radio 1 Main Stage, Radio 1 New Music Stage, Radio 1 Dance and BBC Introducing.
Sam Fender has been confirmed as the first headliner, with the singer-songwriter set to release his third album ‘People Watching’ on February 21.
He is joined on the Big Weekend bill by Blossoms, Lola Young, Wet Leg and BRITs Rising Star 2025 winner Myles Smith. The latter artist was also shortlisted for BBC Radio 1’s Sound Of 2025 recently.
Young, meanwhile, landed her first-ever UK Number One single last week with her viral hit ‘Messy’.
Fender said: “Excited to announce we’re coming to Liverpool for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in May. Thanks for inviting us – see you there!”
Blossoms explained: “We’re delighted that Radio 1 have invited us to play at this year’s Big Weekend.
“Even more so because it’s taking place in Liverpool, a city close to our hearts, where we’ve worked and recorded every single one of our albums since our debut in 2016. It’s going to be a really special weekend and we can’t wait to perform.”
Young added: “I can’t wait to play Radio 1’s Big Weekend. It’s going to get Messy! Me + the Liverpool crowd = One Big Weekend… see what I did there!!”
Radio 1 DJ Greg James said: “FINALLY…Radio 1 HAS COME BACK…to Liv…er…pooool!
“The last time I was there I was doing a big game of Hide and Seek and was hidden in the Liver building for a week so it’ll be nice to see some daylight and enjoy it properly this time.
“We can’t wait to bring the biggest artists in the world to this brilliant city in May. Everyone’s going to LOVE the line-up!”
Aled Haydn Jones, Head of Radio 1, commented: “We’re thrilled to bring Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2025 to Liverpool. Liverpool’s vibrant music scene and rich history make it the perfect setting for this iconic event.
“With incredible artists already announced and more to be announced in the coming months, it’s set to be an unmissable weekend.”
Councillor Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, explained: “Radio 1’s Big Weekend has found the perfect home this year in Liverpool. Our music, our audiences and our history of delivering world-class major events add up to what is certain to be an incredible three days this May.”
Further information about Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2025, including headliners and full line-up and ticketing details will be announced on Radio 1 in the coming months.
BBC Radio 1 will broadcast live from the festival site across the weekend, with performances and tracks available live and on-demand via Radio 1’s iPlayer channel and BBC Sounds.
Liverpool’s Sefton Park previously hosted Blossoms’ historic COVID pilot show in 2021. Additionally, the city staged the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023.
Last year’s Big Weekend took place in Luton, with performances from the likes of Coldplay, Vampire Weekend and RAYE.
Sam Fender recently shared a new single, ‘Arm’s Length’, and will play some huge UK stadium concerts this summer.
Suki Waterhouse has spoken candidly about how she found herself crying constantly after the birth of her daughter.
The singer and actress reflected on her experience as a mother more than two years after she and her partner, actor Robert Pattinson, welcomed their baby girl in March 2024.
During an interview with The Standard published on Thursday, Suki explained that motherhood has completely shifted her outlook on life.
"I think it's made me marvel at our humanness. It's so funny, even just your kid getting a fever, watching a little body recover from that, it's brought me down to what it is to be alive and I really love that," she said. "It feels very survivalist and medieval in a way, especially birth, birth is medieval."
The Daisy Jones & The Six actress, 34, shared that she was caught off guard by just how exposed and emotional she felt after giving birth to her daughter.
"I'm almost two and a half years in now, but when she was first born, I remember thinking that I can't believe everybody does this and I can't believe how vulnerable I feel," she told the publication. "I was crying all the time."
Suki continued, "It makes me cry now thinking about it. It was just... shocking."
The Notting Hill singer also admitted that she has never considered herself someone who cries easily, making those emotions all the more surprising.
"It's so f**king weird! I'm not a cryer! I'm so not an emotional person, I'm such a Capricorn. But being a mum just fed me up in such a sweet way," she stated. "It just absolutely broke open my heart, and I'm just madly in love and, despite my crying right now, I enjoy it so much and I'm so taken by my daughter and so in love with doing it with my partner and I just feel the preciousness of it very much."
Suki and Twilight actor Robert, 40, have been in a relationship since 2018 and announced they were expecting their first child together toward the end of 2023.
The pair have largely kept their romance away from the spotlight and have yet to publicly share the name of their daughter.
