Launched by Gilles Peterson in 2019 and taking its name from Brownswood Recordings’ influential 2018 We Out Here compilation, the festival was born out of London’s resurgent jazz scene, but has always cast its net much wider. Jazz, soul, hip-hop and live music sit alongside house, disco, techno, drum & bass and pretty much everything in between, with legendary artists sharing bills with emerging musicians and some of the world’s best DJs and selectors.

Over the years that has meant everyone from Pharoah Sanders, Ebo Taylor and Yussef Dayes to Sampha, André 3000, Masters At Work, Theo Parrish and Nia Archives, and this year’s seventh edition continued in much the same vein. More than 400 live acts and DJs appeared across 15 stages, with Thundercat, Stereolab, Joy Crookes, Gary Bartz and Arthur Verocai among the live highlights.

Crucially, the programming remains adventurous. We Out Here is still one of the few festivals where I could happily turn up without knowing half the line-up and be fairly confident I’ll discover something great.

One of the most interesting additions this year was The Beat Hotel. The original arrived at Glastonbury back in 2011, becoming a much-loved late-night institution before the team took the concept beyond Worthy Farm, including launching a standalone Beat Hotel festival in Marrakech.

Its arrival at We Out Here therefore made a lot of sense. Positioned next to The Bowl, the undercover rave space brought a proper club atmosphere and a strand of house and electronic music that had only really been partially catered for at the festival previously. Judging by the crowds throughout the weekend, it was an instant hit.

I arrived on Friday this year, so missed Thursday’s festivities, and immediately had the usual problem of trying to find where my mates had camped. Phone reception is almost non-existent, so pre-planning is essential.

Once I’d eventually found everyone, I got straight into it.

Adam F live was an early highlight, revisiting music that was hugely influential on my own musical tastes, before heading to the Main Stage for Thundercat. An extraordinary musician who seems to occupy his own little musical universe, his mixture of jazz, funk, soul and general weirdness was one of my favourite live performances of the weekend.

I also caught Nadia Ksaiba and later Alex Kassian at The Beat Hotel, before Palms Trax delivered at Rhythm Corner and K-Lone & Facta took things in a different direction over at The Bowl.

I was particularly excited to catch some of the 160 Unity takeover at Carhartt, including DJ Spinn, to hear some proper footwork from one of the OGs, before eventually heading to Once in a Blue Moon for my own contribution to proceedings.

I was playing the 3–4am slot in the Once in a Blue Moon tent, a brilliant little after-hours corner of the festival. I’ve DJed at We Out Here before, but playing at a festival I love is always a pleasure, especially when you’re given the final hour and still have a dancefloor with you at 4am.

Saturday unsurprisingly started a little more slowly.

Steam Down playing live jazz in the sunshine was exactly what was required. I’ve always liked the way We Out Here changes personality throughout the day. You don’t need pounding dance music from lunchtime onwards; there’s time to sit around, catch some live music, see friends and slowly work your way back towards the dancefloor.

From there I caught Jamie Woon, followed by Jazzanova Live, before one of my most anticipated performances of the weekend: Arthur Verocai with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra.

Verocai is now 81, and watching him perform his beautiful mixture of Brazilian jazz, soul, psychedelia and orchestration was pretty special. This is exactly the sort of booking I want from We Out Here. There aren’t many festivals where an octogenarian Brazilian composer can be one of the genuine highlights of your Saturday.

As darkness fell, things took a rather different turn with Ceephax Acid Crew live in Lemon Lounge. Ceephax was brilliant. Raw, squelchy, slightly bonkers acid and exactly the sort of thing I wanted to hear by that point in the day. Unfortunately, it was far too rammed – as the Lemon Lounge so often is.

I tried, but there comes a point where you’re not really dancing anymore, you’re just moving because the person next to you has moved. So despite Ceephax being one of the best things I heard all weekend, I escaped in search of some actual space.

Make A Dance and Paula Tape both delivered at The Beat Hotel later in the evening, before JKriv provided another highlight at the Roller Rink, digging through disco and house.

DJ Nori didn’t quite hit the same spot for me. He’s obviously a hugely respected DJ, but the part of his set I heard felt a little basic, with some fairly obvious disco selections. Maybe We Out Here has spoilt me over the years, but when you’re surrounded by so many incredible diggers and selectors, I want to hear records I don’t already know.

Sunday arrived with the inevitable combination of tired legs and a determination not to waste the final day. Any vague thoughts about taking it easy disappeared fairly quickly when Dr Banana started absolutely rinsing Rhythm Corner in the afternoon.

Later, things slowed down a little with Stereolab on the Main Stage, followed by legendary saxophonist Gary Bartz – a pretty special way to spend the final evening of a festival.

That’s one of the joys of We Out Here. Within a few hours you can go from dancing to garage and bass music at Rhythm Corner to watching Stereolab and then a jazz legend, without it feeling like you’ve somehow wandered into a completely different festival.

Then came one of the worst-kept secrets of the weekend: Four Tet was the Very Special Guest at Rhythm Corner. It was a great set and one of those moments that reminds you of the pulling power We Out Here now has. Four Tet can headline festivals around the world, yet here he was playing a not-so-secret guest set with none of the usual fanfare. Just great music and a very happy crowd.

My one failure of the weekend was the secret forest parties. I missed all of them. I heard about them. People told me how good they were. I heard various rumours about where and when they were happening. Yet somehow I managed to be in the wrong place every single time. Next year.

My festival eventually came to an end with Joe Lye and Katie Barber closing Brawnswood, which was a perfect way to finish. By Sunday night I didn’t need another huge moment or packed dancefloor – just good music, friends and a final dance before admitting it was probably time to go home.

Having been coming to We Out Here since the beginning, it’s been interesting watching it evolve. The audience is broader and perhaps a little more mainstream than those early editions, when at times it felt like everyone around you was either a DJ, musician, record collector or serious music obsessive.

But that’s hardly surprising. Good festivals grow in reputation and attract new audiences, and We Out Here has now sold out for six consecutive years. I’d much rather see a new generation discovering Arthur Verocai, Gary Bartz or some obscure record they’ve never heard before than insist the festival remains the preserve of a small group of music nerds.

What matters is that the programming doesn’t become more predictable as the audience broadens – and judging by this year’s edition, there’s little danger of that.

Seven editions in, We Out Here still feels like a festival curated by people who genuinely love music rather than people trying to second-guess what will sell tickets. It remains adventurous, occasionally unpredictable and full of the sort of discoveries that make you abandon whatever carefully planned schedule you arrived with. That’s exactly how I like my festivals.

After missing last year, it was bloody good to be back!!!

We Out Here returns from 19–22 August 2027. I’ll certainly be there.

Words by Woody Anderson

Photography Garry Jones, Ellie Koepke, Jake Davis, Sienna Lorraine Gray, Amy Fern, Chloe Hashemi