Tyler, The Creator makes a provocative playground out of All Points East

After a week’s worth of billowing plume captures and black snot storytimes, black bandanas are, predictably, the hottest accessory in sight. What’s perhaps more unprecedented is the back-and-forth between light shower and flash flood that arrives with biblical enthusiasm across the bank holiday weekend.

All Points East coincides with end-of-summer celebrations; for many Londoners it also serves as a prelude to Notting Hill Carnival festivities. While it cannot necessarily be described as a grand return to the UK – succeeding three dates at The O2 for his 2025 CHROMAKOPIA world tour– Tyler, The Creator’s takeover still arrives at a significant point in his career. His controversial history, tainted by explicit edgelord tweets, rears its ugly headwhenever social media wishes to circle back. Yet, it has made his ascent into one of the world’s most bankable rap artists all the more unlikely.

Due to obscene lyrics in his early music that “encourage violence and intolerance of homosexuality”, Tyler was banned in 2015 from entering the UK for 3-5 years orders of the Home Secretary at the time, Theresa May. Tyler’s manager, on his Tumblr account, addressed the ban as “a broader issue of free speech”, using anti-terrorism legislation that cites Bastard and Goblin album lyrics, written at the age of 18, to forbid him entry. In the time since his ban, lifted in 2019, Tyler’s own public acknowledgement of his sexual fluidity makes matters more unsettling.

Now, rather than simply occupying a stage, the 35-year-old rapper combats this previous attack on his character through the curation of a lineup that brilliantly extends the qualities we know of him best. His colourful, multifarious persona, from the fashions and the punch of a jazz/hip-hop number to his appreciation for a wide range of musical sounds, makes space for all sorts of generational voices.

Ravyn Lenae and her airy, angelic rendition of Steve Lacy collab “Skin Tight”. The rhythm and rhyme of dance-pop diva Rochelle Jordan. LA rapper Samara Cyn’s slick slam poetry, the raw, tender strains of Dijon, and Mustard’s set of signature “ratchet music”. It’s why even a wildcard pick like Dove Ellis, one of the most talked about names in indie folk right now, works in such a setting as the tiny X Stage. On piano, the budding young Irish musician is given ample enough room to tug at the heartstrings of those who yearn for it.

Queer talent rubs shoulders with hardcore bands and rap’s major league – Clipse, Vince Staples, Baby Keem – whether its Maddy Street, the Franco-British non-binary Friday opener blending alt-rock and electro, or R&B sensation Syd, who was the only female member of Tyler’s Odd Future collective and openly identifies as gay. Swapping The Internet for Beard, her first solo album in four years, Syd’s lush arrangements attract a huge Saturday crowd of edgy teens and twentysomethings to the East Stage. Internet personality and DJ Zack Fox mixes high-energy bounce, namely Big Freedia and SOPHIE’s “Blaze That Ass”, with house classics during a clash with Turnstile. “Dance music is black music,” he asserts.

Hardcore giants Turnstile document the most visceral collision of micro-worlds, returning to Victoria Park, again in the pouring rain, after headlining last year’s Outbreak. It’s one of the few instances of a transcendent pit turnat the West Stage, on par with a fly-kicking Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats hyping the intense “I am the one, the only one” hook of viral meme song “Ultimate”. An aesthetic match made in heaven with Tyler’s predominantly white boy fanbase, the typical Turnstile audience of shirtless, tattooed moshers with tongues out and piercing aplenty gets lots of camera time. They could not look more different than Brendan Yates, his pretty bandmates, and Faye Webster, who joined them on stage for her version of “I CARE”.

Equally as impressive and as loud is Danny Brown, with his love affair for cutting-edge electronica, his latest record Stardust plays excellently. Past a large-scale inflatable Tyler and Golf Wang merch booths, inside the towering blue tent that is the North Stage, MOBO’s Best Male Act Jim Legxacy lives up to his award win and brings it home for the Brits. “I’ve never actually been to a festival before,” the UK Ug polymath says to the pack. “This is my first time going to a festival so you lot are etched in my memory now.”

Carrying the torch for female UK Ug representation are rising stars Ledbyher and Moriah Mensah, meanwhile the notorious fakemink makes a mark with an underwhelming showing. Blow the speaker he may, but ballerinagraphics, a bizarre “Time After Time” cover, and even the novelty of an “LV Sandals” robot dance are not enough to maintain a consistent level of enthusiasm among frozen, baby-faced spectators. It’s surprising considering he has quite the popular glitch catalogue, though corny outbursts over negative reactions to his recent Coachella and Rolling Loud sets have clearly done him no favours.

For better or worse, fakemink is just one of Tyler’s several polarising selections that steal the spotlight with spectacular form. Running over this allotted time, he sets the precedent for none other than the very decisive Sexyy Red who, due to her egregiously late appearance – at the exact time she is supposed to end, no less – is met with the biggest of boos before the loudest of cheers. Despite receiving plenty of backlash for her apparent MAGA alignment, she turns out to be one of the biggest draws, not least for her feature with Tyler on the song “Sticky”. Her greatest dirty rap hits encourage supporters here for a good time to “shake that ass, ho”, and you best believe it.

Then there’s Daniel Caesar, who some would argue has never recovered from his 2019 cancellation, for defending influencer YesJulz following cultural appropriation accusations. One cannot deny his register, his delivery of the weekend’s most polished vocals, moving through soul and a gorgeous gospel choir. His spotlight on “Best Part” is, without a doubt, best in show.

Rex Orange County, who would join Tyler on night two for a surprise performance of “Boredom”, had faced six sexual assault charges against him that were all eventually dropped in 2022. Subsequently A$AP Rocky, making perhaps the most memorable entrance of the entire festival for a “Who Dat Boy” duet, was famously acquitted in February 2025 of felony assault charges. Bringing with him a large Chanel-bagged swagger, suddenly, the nostalgia of a Flower Boy reunion reigns supreme. Backtracking on a promise of withholding guests, indeed the case for a disappointing first headline on Friday, Tyler avoids public shaming by concealing his secret weapons and helping scratch the itch of his hungry fans.

It’s something he leans in on with a recurring tour bit, in jest, toying with the crowd in an effort to satisfy his “boo kink”. His set is elaborate, climbing atop a graffiti-sprawled London tube station. Sparks fly to intro “Big Poe”,flames to alter ego IGOR’s “NEW MAGIC WAND”. Quiet, restrained moments in “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?” and closing Kali Uchis collab “See You Again” are, sadly, drowned out by conversation on night one. The circle around me natters away about nonsense; a girl in front has the nerve to play with the Snapchat dog filter mid show; a boy searches for his vape. It’s an insult to Tyler’s expressive showmanship, and begs the question, why bother coming? ‘COVID ruined concert etiquette’ is one conclusion.

Tyler hides his grievances with a wide grin and unmatched energy, which, thankfully, endures for a triumphant second go at charming the Hackney locals. This time, they're ecstatic, electric for guests and attentive to those softer spectacles. “Last night they were fucking dead, bro. So thank y’all right now for lifting my spirits up, I needed this shit,” he exclaims before performing “Darling, I”. For all its contradictions, Tyler, The Creator’s All Points East feels like a milestone event befitting a figure so entrenched in today’s cultural politics. Enormous, referential, occasionally obnoxious, and hard to pin down. In his words, “thank god that bitch Theresa May is gone outtahere, right?”