Photo Credit: Bence Szemerey
London’s South Bermondsey Festival is returning for its fifth edition this September, bringing another genre-spanning programme of underground electronic music, live performance and experimental sounds to the capital’s Bermondsey Triangle.
Taking place on September 26, 2026, the one-day festival will once again spread across Avalon Cafe, Ormside Projects and M.O.T., three grassroots venues along Surrey Canal Road that have become closely associated with South East London’s independent club culture. The 2026 edition will also introduce a new daytime open-air stage, expanding the festival’s format while retaining its community-led character.
The newly announced lineup reflects the festival’s deliberately broad approach to underground music. DJ bookings include Debit, Beneath, DJ Plead, DJ Lycox, re:ni, Grace Sands, Authentically Plastic and Gary The Tall, while the live programme features Shackleton, Rezzett, Raisa K, Gavsborg and A.R. Kane. There will also be back-to-back sets from John T. Gast and k means, as well as Katie Shannon and Bianca Scout.
That approach has been central to the festival since its early editions. The 2023 edition, for example, brought together Ormside Projects, Venue MOT, Avalon Cafe and Bridgehouse Gardens for a programme described as community-focused, combining DJs and live acts with art installations and workshops. The lineup included artists such as DJ Lycox, El-B, Nkisi, Scratcha DVA and Tash LC.
By 2024, the festival had established the three-venue Bermondsey Triangle format. That year’s edition featured artists including Aba Shanti-I, Cooly G, DJ Plead, Gavsborg, Ploy, Two Shell and Vindicatrix, with programming spread between Avalon Cafe, Ormside Projects and Venue MOT. Resident Advisor described the event as an independent community festival designed to foreground the cultural identity emerging from Bermondsey’s creative communities.
The festival continued that model in 2025, when its lineup expanded to include Kode9, Josey Rebelle, Dennis Bovell, DJ Marcelle, V.I.V.E.K., Still House Plants, mad miran and Michael J. Blood, among many others. Time Out subsequently highlighted South Bermondsey Festival as part of London’s growing scene of smaller, community-led festivals, contrasting its underground and DIY approach with the city’s larger-scale events.
