Words: Ly Xia | Photos: Bethan Miller
Venue: Hyde Park (London, UK) | Date: 5th July 2025
A week after her performance at Glastonbury, beabadoobee returns to the stage at BST Hyde Park. In front of a row of cherry blossom trees, with a pink guitar to match, and a photo of baby-Bea on the kick drum, Bea and her band open her set with California, a song reflecting her struggles dealing with the demanding lifestyle of touring, her angelic vocals contrasting the heavier rock sounds of the instruments.
The otherwise female-skewed audience at BST Hyde Park turned mixed as beabadoobee performs a varied set of songs from across her last three albums. Overlooking an audience sprinkled with girls covered in lipstick kiss stamps in anticipation for the headliner, Bea shouts out: “I wore this t-shirt for Sabrina, I love Sabrina!”, referencing her off-shoulder t-shirt which spelled out SEX in bright pink letters.
Despite the temperamental British weather - it started raining halfway through the set, as Bea began singing the opening lines to Ever Seen - the audience’s mood was not dampened. The audience sang and danced along to some of Bea’s biggest hits, like the perfect pair, and Real Man.
Just short of an hour, towards the end of her set, Bea shouts out her friend and bassist Eliana Sewell about whom she wrote She Plays Bass, getting the audience to chant along to the dreamy, yet wistful indie rock love song. Beabadobee’s performance certainly set the tone for a day of great music, her performance on the Great Oak stage followed by Clairo.
After a day of star-sprinkled openers, and some delays due to technical difficulties Sabrina Carpenter fittingly opened her set with Busy Woman. Her biggest songs, Espresso and Please, Please, Please, had the crowd shouting along confidently. Sabrina Carpenter’s 17-song long set was interlaced with her signature tongue-in-cheek humour, and raunchy dance performances, including an re-enactment of the Challengers scene during Bed Chem, as a Pride special - given that her performance was set on the last day of Pride month. Carpenter delights not only with stunning vocals and entertaining performances. During her more heartfelt and striped back performance of Don’t Cry, I was reminded that despite her rising icon status, she still knows exactly how to emotionally connect with her audience. And the tens of thousands of fans screaming her lyrics along are proof of that.
-
Day 2 of Sabrina Carpenter's all female line up Hyde Park shows saw The Two Lips followed by Miso Extra bring the sunshine after a 10 minute monsoon like downpour that left everyone drenched and running for cover anywhere they could find. As well as rising popstar Chloe Qisha, bring her hits from her EP Modern Romance.
Photos: Anna Hazarika