Sabrina Carpenter at BST Hyde Park, 05th July 2025

Photo credit Jordan Hughes and Alfredo Flores

Arguably this weekend is the most metal weekend in recent history. Back To The Beginning has brought the giants of metal to Birmingham as well as Slayer playing a huge Finsbury park show and Stoomfest showing off the heavier side of the underground at The Garage. Over in Hyde Park this weekend, however, I’m here to watch the complete other side of the musical continuum, a pop music day festival concluding with a set that I’ve heard described as “a proper big stage pop show” courtesy of Sabrina Carpenter.

Part of the BST Hyde Park series, these shows showcase some of the biggest artists around while creating more of a festival like atmosphere than the usual big arena shows would. There are three stages, The Great Oak playing host to the biggest names, The Rainbow and the smaller Birdcage stage which hosts the more up and coming artists. It’s the smaller Birdcage stage that I start my afternoon, with an artist totally new to me, DellaXOZ, a project based around guitarist and vocalist Daniella. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to hear music like this today; musically they remind me of Midwest emo, with a definite tinge of American Football. A good mixture of hooks and tapped guitar parts. Recent single Unhinged stands out – there’s a great feel to the song, it’s emotional, it’s technical and, if she keeps putting out music this good, DellaXOZ is definitely someone to keep an eye on!

Over on the Great Oak stage, which is getting ever busier, beabadoobee already has a big audience. This is my second time catching baebadoobee and, in the meantime, she’s put out a new record, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, which features heavily in today’s setlist. Considering she’s on very early evening it’s a good length set and it goes down great, with some lovely indie-pop delivered by a band who are clearly having a lot of fun on stage. She’s followed by Clairo who’s music is the perfect soundtrack to the currently stunning weather as the daytime starts to fade away. Her backing band are incredible, one musician quickly shuffles between guitar, piano, saxophone and flute, and the vocals are luscious.

As we get nearer to 9pm, Hyde Park has filled considerably, all the grass areas now crowded and ready. There is no shortage of people dressed in cowboy hats and boots (which I thought was a specific thing for the recent Beyonce tour but clearly, dressed head to toe in black, I might not be an expert on current fashion) and filming TikToks in their new merch. The site felt big earlier in the day but it’s at this point you can look out in all directions and really take in how massive a crowd have gathered – and it’s sold out for two nights too, which is sort of mind blowing.

The staging for Sabrina Carpenter has gotten considerably more elaborate in the changeover, it’s now set up with multiple levels and moving parts, more like a West End stage show than a touring production. The whole show is set up as a TV show, complete with 1950s-esque adverts and a retro dance-off (which if nothing else keeps the audience’s interest during a costume change) – it’s quite novel and keeps the show flowing quite well. The show opens with the Jack Antonoff produced Busy Woman which, given that it was a bonus track on the deluxe version, would normally be a bold move. It’s very apparent though that the average person here tonight aren’t casual fans, the lyrics being screamed back across the park. After a short TV advert for a spray that does away with lazy man children, we’re treated to the second outing of new single Manchild, from the forthcoming record Man’s Best Friend. It’s a country inspired pop tune, it’s quite fun and, despite it being a recent release, it’s a big singalong track.

The later part of the set is the real standout section, starting with Bed Chem (complete with a parental discretion warning) which sees Sabrina singing while laying in bed with two of the dancers, into Juno (which arguably justified the advisory warning…) and Please Please Please. The end of the TV show part of the set is Don’t Smile, performed on a moving crane with Sabrina operating a camera filming the audience, which is visually quite cool – while this is happening credits roll on the screen and, honestly, this element was a nice touch – often the band are mentioned but this thanks everyone involved in the production, a lot of the time the people that make it happen behind the scenes are largely nameless. The set ends with arguably her biggest hit, Espresso, with it’s amusing line of “I’m working late, ‘cause I’m a singer” backed with fireworks fired from the stage – this escalates during the final chorus with a barrage of flashing lights across the city skyline.

Look, I don’t go to many big pop productions like this. Even when I’ve seen what I’d consider to be big pop acts it’s not been a visual spectacle; this was a fun, bespoke, show – visually it’s interesting but she’s also backed by a very good live band (who are visible within the staging but not a focal point). A lot of it is very tongue-in-cheek and it doesn’t take itself too seriously and I think that’s why everyone in the audience seems to be having so much fun – what more could you ask for at a show like this?

BST Hyde park continues this week with Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts (11 July), Stevie Wonder (12 July) and Jeff Lynne’s ELO (13 July) taking over Hyde Park. Tickets are on sale now: www.bst-hydepark.com