JFEST 2024 @ peckham Arches

With festivals like All Points East and Wireless now such major events every summer in London, with hundreds of thousands of attendees and mainstream headliners, it’s refreshing to find a festival with a more grassroots and DIY feel. The second JFEST is an exemplum of a smaller scale festival, an eclectic and inclusive day in celebration London’s current thriving DJ scene.

It still attracts a large crowd, as any event held at Peckham Arches is prone to do, and helped by the free entry, but the down-to-earth buzz is palpable.

The numbers are initially thin in the early afternoon, but by 6pm the crowd is thronging, and the red stripe is flowing. We’re treated to funky house remixes from French DJs Yawgy and Kim0, as well as a marketplace (feautring clothing from independent designer pop-ups such as Wear Garson and Adults. DJ takeovers from courtesy of LDN favourites MoodyHiFi (fresh off their successful Paris Street Party) bringing us their usual eclectic mix of funk & house producers.

It feels very inclusive, without the snobbery of some of the events happening out East, it’s all about the music and the vibes. It’s nice to see that in town where everything is becoming more unaffordable, more exclusionary, a free-entry event with good music and culture, set up by local creatives, is all the more valuable. I hope we have JFEST return for another year…