ALL POINTS EAST: TWENTY ONE PILOTS
Twenty One Pilots headline an impressive line-up including Ren, PVRIS and more
All Points East, Victoria Park, London, UK - 30/08/2026
words by Dylan Wyeth
Twenty One Pilots, Image by @BETHANMILLERCO
All Points East, established in 2018, is a music festival that takes place in Victoria Park, London and spans over ten days with major headliners on the weekends. This year, Twenty One Pilots, a alternative rock musical duo from Columbus, Ohio, closed the festival marking their only show in the UK this year. They were supported by a carefully curated line up through the day spread across six stages with many of the acts having connections to the headlining band, making the festival feel more like a Twenty One Pilots event than a regular music festival. Unique additions to the festival included the Bandito Camp: an immersive experience referencing the storyline present in their last four albums, and the FPE Experience: a travelling exhibition of memorabilia spanning the band’s career.
Ahead of the main event, dark pop-punk PVRIS played the East Stage with hits such as ‘Snakes’ which featured on the Arcane League of Legends soundtrack and fan favourite ‘Hallucinations’ as well as songs from their 2023 album Evergreen. Their visuals were an atmospheric black and white tinted mixture of close-ups from the stage and nature imagery with a blurred, shifting focus allowing a seamless blend into the trees lining the festival grounds from afar.
On the West Stage, Australian alt rock band Gang Of Youths opened with a strong set featuring trumpet riffs and violin solos creating a layered, unique yet upbeat sound that had the crowd dancing. 2026 marks their return to music after a hiatus that lasted several years. They were welcomed back warmly by the crowd at All Points East and fell back into step naturally, warmly addressing the crowd with an undeniable stage presence.
Within the blue tent of the North Arena, rock duo Nova Twins created their own atmosphere of its own entity separate to the festival with their punk sound. With a short setlist of only eight songs they dominated the stage. The standout was ’N.O.V.A’, a song written specifically for the crowd to chant their name taken from their album Parasites & Butterflies. Nova Twins were in their element masterfully framed by butterfly imagery and seamless visuals.
Ren, Images by: Left, Middle: @khaliphotography Right: @PERRY_GIBSON
The penultimate act on the East Stage was Welsh artist Ren with a unique sound masterfully mixing rap and folk storytelling in a genre transcending discography. He presented a set staged with raw storytelling supported by an animated and cinematic story, made for this performance by Nikita Kibirev. Ren’s spoken word narratives draw from personal experiences of chronic illness and mental health that weave with fictional stories. This was showcased in the unreleased track ‘Arthur’s Tale’ with striking animation and immersive storytelling that had the crowd in awe, following the narrative intently. In a semi-autobiographical line, Ren references playing the guitar and dreaming of playing to a crowd of 10,000 people outstretching his arms to the crowd, which prompted echoing cheers. During his final song ‘Chalk Outlines’, the song’s collaborator Chinchilla joined Ren on stage to perform the acoustic piece. As if reading the crowd’s mind, when the visuals rolled to a close with text reading ‘The End’, the recurring character from the animations addressed Ren, saying: “Come on now, that’s no way to end the show. What? A soppy emotional fade out, after all that? Pathetic, you know what this needs? A guitar dual to the death.” What proceeded was a back and forth between the animated boy and Ren, call and response style showcasing the artist’s impressive skills.
After Ren’s performance, the East stage began to get prepared for the headlining act prompting last minute food and toilet trips as the crowd began to build. While waiting, a beach ball was bopped around the crowd with tensions heightening. With the looming threat of rain in the from of grey clouds gathering above combined with the knowledge that this performance had a longer run-time than their previous shows, the possibilities were endless. The fast approaching start time was announced by a line taken from ‘Midnight Indigo’ broadcast across the festival grounds, Tyler Joseph’s voice rung out: “What’s your ETA?”, the crowd ecstatically responded “Two minutes!”
Twenty One Pilots, Images by: @BETHANMILLERCO
The stage fell dark, smoke began to fill the space illuminated by red lights synced with the introductory build up of ‘Overcompensate’, a heavy atmospheric instrumental accompanied by a quick recap of the narrative built up over the last decade in the form of sepia toned music video clips shown on the screens. On the lyric “Welcome back to Trench”, Josh Dun, drummer, appeared on the screen. Then, just in time for the first verse, Tyler made his signature entrance leaping over his piano backlit by bright lights and fireworks.
As ‘Overcompensate’ ended, Tyler stepped off the stage and climbed onto a platform being held up by fans at the front of the crowd. He began to swing his microphone over the crowd in wide circles around him hastily joined by the Josh on the drums diving into the first verse of ‘The Contract’, the second single released from Breach. This marks the first of many instances of crowd interaction, immersing the audience in the polished production. Next, also from Breach, was ‘Centre Mass’, then they eased into the upbeat pop sound of ‘Shy Away’ from their album Scaled and Icy. That energy contradicts their other discography while retaining lyrical concepts of isolation and struggles with mental health. But in terms of their ongoing storyline this is perhaps to represent propaganda and false appearances especially explored in their previous concerts. Contrastingly, the song that followed was ‘Heathens’, a hit single originally written for Suicide Squad, that became so popular it remains on the setlist a decade after its release.
Another hit single and fan favourite followed, ’Next Semester’ which started with a breath-taking crowd chant singing the opening line “Can’t change what you’ve done / Start fresh next semester” before diving into the song. Also from recent album Breach, ‘One Way’, followed with the outro blending seamlessly into the first cover of the night: Milky Chance’s ‘Stolen Dance’ featuring Josh’s first vocals of the evening. This was a fun interlude between the heavier, lore-heavy songs and got everyone moving.
Tyler then took a moment to shoutout every act that had played that day, including artists that held personal connections to them like Half Alive who opened for them across London shows in 2022 during The Takeover Tour and recently released an EP titled Billions with Tyler’s record label ARRO. Additionally, NOAHFINNCE and Artio both featured on Rocksound’s album titled Blurryface Reborn created to celebrate the ten year anniversary of Blurryface’s release and featured a cover of each song by a different artist. Last to be introduced was Emi Grace who played the E3 stage earlier that day and has an upcoming album with ARRO. Her shoutout was specially saved until last as she was invited on stage to help perform the live debut of ‘Robot Voices’, the first deviation from their previous festival performances, and an exciting moment for all those in the crowd. The upbeat indie-pop sound is a perfect blend of the explored sound in Scaled and Icy and their developed sound through Clancy and Breach, resulting in a crowd favourite and hopefully a cemented spot on future setlists. ‘Robot Voices’ effortlessly blended into a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’, instantly connecting with the audience who lit their phone torches, swaying to the soft piano tune.
Despite being a festival, they managed to implement a B-stage as they typically do for their concerts as it’s a big part of their set and allows them to involve the crowd further from the stage. This stage was set with a drum kit and a car, this car is reference to the one that appears in the ‘Heavydirtysoul’ music video and has appeared in various contexts since. Josh made his way to the B-stage first, high-fiving fans as he walked, then as Tyler hopped off the stage, ‘Routines in the Night’ began. This song is infamous amongst fans as it is during this song that Tyler interacts with the crowd accepting gifts of novelty glasses and props, a fun interactive element that have become standout memories for fans. Barely holding himself together, Tyler pulled a gag during this sequence in which he hid in the portaloo, used by festival crew through the day, with the microphone poking out the door, he peeked out singing the line “Just keep me company”.
Once on the B-stage, the beat of ‘Routines in the Night’ transitioned into the familiar beat of ‘Message Man’, yet another deviation from their typical festival setlist, and a welcome song by fans who ecstatically joined in the chant prompted by Tyler. This song promises a return to the lore built in Trench, Clancy, and Breach after leaving London hanging at the end of their last show in the city. With a shirt that glowed in the dark reading ‘ALWAYS’, Tyler stepped off of the roof of the car and towards a bucket of black paint. He dipped his hands into the paint then raised them above his head, palms to the sky, in deep concentration with a distant expression on his face as he entered the rap at the end of the song that bled seamlessly into ‘Pet Cheetah’. As the drums picked up, the black paint was smeared across Tyler’s shirt with the drums getting faster and faster, the car engulfed in flames, Tyler’s bass guitar subtly eased into the baseline of ‘Polarize’, marking the first time the track had been performed live in four years and the second performance of it in the UK. The energy elicited from the crowd was indescribable and non-stop through the song, singing every single word ending the song with an enthusiastic swaying of arms orchestrated by Tyler.
Hit single ‘Chlorine’ soundtracked Tyler’s journey back to the main stage, on his way he met with a selected group of fans dressed as fictional character Ned who features in various music videos but most notably ‘Chlorine’. In videos surfacing online following the show, he approached them and told them they all looked amazing before diving into the second verse of the song.
Once Tyler had reached the stage and the song drew to a close, the infamous Torchbearer theme began to play and Josh appeared projected on the stage screens in his signature khaki green trousers, hoodie and beanie with yellow tape crossed across his chest and wrapped around his left leg - a throwback to their Trench era. He stood in the darkness only illuminated by the fire from the B-stage car and the torch in his hand. He then picked up a flag reading “LONDON”, this flag had been presented in the FPE experience earlier that day signed by visiting fans, he carried both the torch and flag back to the main stage and the torch remained lit in the middle of the stage for the remainder of the show.
A curtain dropped and the towers of Dema were revealed - this is the fictional place in which the story Trench revolves around nine tall towers in the centre of the city, this narrative continues into their next two albums and is thoroughly explored in their live shows. To set the scene, ‘Jumpsuit’ is played with the towers in the background - a song that is about escaping Dema and everything it represents now soundtracks the return to it. This live rendition featured the first verse from Breach’s ‘City Walls’, taking the crowd off guard, played with only piano accompaniment in a moment of quiet reflection potentially reflecting the cyclical nature of the narrative allowing the different storylines and narrative structures to melt together. The music video depicts Tyler’s character escaping Dema only to be dragged back, the ‘City Walls’ verse occurs in the moment that Tyler contemplates giving in, but he decides to run and to fight.
‘Nico and the Niners’ immediately followed ‘Jumpsuit’, another lore-heavy song from Trench with references to the previous song littered throughout. Nico is a character prevalent in the storyline, one of nine bishops that in particular pursues Tyler’s character. Nico is very much presented as the villain of the story with Tyler’s beginning to appear as the hero before becoming more of a victim or grey area of the narrative. The fast rap towards the end of ‘Nico and the Niners’ became embellished with a distorted voice singing “Heavy / Soul / Heavy / Soul” increasing in speed through each iteration before plunging into ‘Heavydirtysoul’ once again seemingly reflecting the cyclical narrative of the overall storyline explored.
Taking a breather from the lore, they returned to their latest album Breach with ‘Drum Show’, once again featuring vocals from Josh, the subject matter of the song. Softly, he sang the bridge of the song building up to Tyler’s masterful scream barely heard over the accompanying screams from the crowd. To perform the final chorus, Josh made his way over to a specially constructed tower with a drum kit waiting at the top. As he made his journey, Tyler humorously covered Radiohead’s ‘Creep’, the slow piano and gentle tone juxtaposing the high-fives Josh gave fans as he walked past. To compliment Josh’s new stage, to the beat of ‘RAWFEAR’, Tyler made his way to the crowd in front of the tower and once again stood atop the crowd singing the second verse of the song before making his way back to the main stage performing a call and response with the audience, improvising as he did so.
With both band members back on the main stage, the familiar beat of the previously unreleased hit song ‘Drag Path’ started, as a single version of this song was released after it rose in popularity online as people used the catchy chorus to soundtrack moments that left an imprint on their lives. The song was backed by clips from the stop motion animated music video and accompanied by a perfectly timed drizzle of rain; an outpouring of emotion from the sky apt to this moment that almost felt choreographed.
‘Doubt (demo version)’ was played next followed by ‘Ride’, for the final chorus of this song Tyler invited a member of the security team named Lucas onstage to perform the song with them. Given headphones and a microphone with the crowd chanting his name, Lucas sang the final chorus with Tyler in one of the many standout moments of this performance. Speaking of standout moments, ‘Ride’ was followed by a cover of The White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’ introduced by a video of Jack White stating: ”Hi, I’m Jack White and I give Tyler and Josh permission to do this song”, this was performed with enthusiasm both on stage and in the crowd, bass heavy with a synth interlude.
This was followed by Breach’s ‘Tally’, then a rare appearance of ‘Downstairs’, a song written over a decade ago that only became fully realised on their latest album. In yet another moment of divine intervention, the perfect amount of rain began to fall during the hard-hitting chorus and quickly dispersed when the song ended. ‘Downstairs’ has only been played three times perviously, this marked it’s first performance this year and became yet another memorable moment that fans will talk about for years to come. The song that followed was ‘Guns For Hands’, that had everyone’s feet off the ground. Originally appearing on their second album, not commercially released Regional At Best, revisited later on Vessel, the song is true tune of survival with the lyrics referencing self-destructive coping mechanisms and the singer’s struggle with knowing his audience is familiar with similar experiences expressed through his lyrics. It’s a song that unifies the crowd and bridges the gap between the artists and audience. This eased into their most popular and well-known song ‘Stressed Out’ with the beat slowing into the instantly recognisable low bass. Josh once again sang with Tyler, the pair harmonising while the crowd instinctively quieted - a habit that became prevalent every time Josh sang, giving him space to sing while communicating appreciation for that moment.
As per tradition, the final song played was ‘Trees’. This song always starts with a repeated keyboard motif and a heartfelt speech from Tyler. At All Points East, this speech was as follows: “Would you give it up one more time for my friend, Josh Dun on the drums everybody! Sometimes I get overwhelmed, I don’t quite know what to say and you didn’t know it, but, uh, I had my eyes on you all day today. I was walking around incognito just taking it all in, and honestly, it felt like the most beautiful group of people I’ve ever seen, you guys. Thank you so much for coming. We’ll always be back, if you’ll have us. If you would have us, we’ll always be back. Until then…” his speech is cut off with the first notes of ‘Trees’ played on his keyboard. The song is embellished with moments made for everybody to jump and give it all they have one last time, then the song is ended with a drum being positioned on either side of the crowd. Josh is on the left, Tyler on the right and they perform the final verse atop the crowd, smoke and fire erupting from the stage as the crowd chants “Hey!” in time with the song and Josh’s and Tyler’s prompts. They close the night as always by saying: “We are Twenty One Pilots and so are you. We’ll see you next time, peace.” Followed by ‘Lavish’ from Clancy playing the crowd out from the speakers as heavy rain began to fall.