Twenty One Pilots headline All Points East
Words: Ceirios Bebb
★★★★☆
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Every year, All Points East delivers an August packed with top-tier line-ups. This year has seen some incredible artists such as Zara Larsson, Lorde, Tyler the Creator and many more. To bring this year's festival to a close were the GRAMMY award-winning duo, Twenty One Pilots. With an insanely dedicated fanbase and a two-hour set, Sunday night promised to be an unforgettable finale.
Photo: Bethan Miller
Thousands of fans flooded the park right as the gates opened, many of whom dressed on theme with the red & black or green & yellow combos, accessories inspired by the band's visuals and hundreds of necks and hands painted black paying homage to frontman Tyler Joseph.
With a big crowd already gathered, securing their spots for the headliners, we saw Leap opening up the main stage. Wrapping up a Summer of touring festivals over Europe, they brought us half an hour of energetic rock and the first mosh pit of the day. With songs such as ‘Exit Signs’ and ‘Energies’ that brought the crowd to life, they gave us a taste of what to expect on their upcoming world tour, which isn’t to be missed.
There was plenty to keep you entertained throughout the day, with six stages. There was someone to watch at all times. Kid Kapichi drew everyone over to the North stage for some exciting British punk rock, which had everyone's hands up in the air. Mouth Culture took to the X Stage, keeping the energy buzzing into the evening, followed by non-stop powerful rock duos including Nova Twins and Witch Post.
As the sun set on Victoria Park, Wunderhorse closed the West stage playing a captivating mix from their latest release ‘The Rope’ to numbers from their first album, including ‘Teal’ and ‘Butterflies’. These had fans, old and new, singing along. Closing their set with ‘Rain’, it was finally time for the headliners. Hundreds flocked across the park, returning to the East Stage, which stood proud at the far end of the park; Twenty One Pilots’ logo front and centre, as dusk fell upon us.
Drummer Josh Dunn was first to enter the stage, cloaked in smoke and red light to the huge sound of applause and cheers. After a tension-building drum opening, frontman Tyler Joseph leapt to the stage. Pulling parkour-like moves to even louder hyped screams and cheering from the audience, before opening with ‘Overcompensate’. From start to finish, the performance was visually striking, with Joseph crowd surfing right from the get-go and plenty of glittering pyrotechnics. The duo were joined on stage by guitarist Emi Grace for the live debut of ‘Robot Voices’. The band mixed up their set with covers of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’, The Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’, and The White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’. Even if you came on Sunday without doing your homework and learning the lyrics, there were moments where everyone could join in and sing along.
Twenty One Pilots delivered a diverse set with a wide variety of songs from their 17-year career. With multi-coloured fireworks, a car lit in flames on the band’s famous B-stage, singing together with thousands of fans, old and new.