DedFest, Crockstead Fields, East Sussex, 16th August 2025

If you put together a bit of a checklist of how best to spend a summer Saturday then chucked all your ideas in a hat (or a field in this case), you could well find that DedFest had you covered. Going with the obvious – a scenic spot in the Sussex countryside and a chance to catch up with friends, families and dogs included, seems a decent way to start. Add in a huge collection of already popular and emerging artists on the Brighton music scene, an onsite distillery, some great food and breezy sunshine and you just ramped things up to a different level. OK so you couldn’t have guaranteed the weather, but it felt like nothing else was left to chance; for an event with 22 acts running on alternate stages for 11 hours, the timings were spot on, the sound quality was better than a lot of venues, and everything you needed was right there within a few minutes walk – even camping if you so wished.

Brought to you by DedBest Distillery, this year joined by promoter Hidden Herd, it was awesome to see an extension of the Brighton grassroots music community spill over into something that could (and hopefully will) become a regular feature on the boutique festival calendar – a space that felt very safe, relaxed and inclusive, an opportunity for the artists to shine and support each other – I genuinely didn’t hear anyone with a bad word to say.

Appreciate that so far, very little has been said about the music – well, there was an abundance of it from different genres and it seemed like everyone had their own personal favourites, the joy of a festival like this being that you can lock in the familiar and make new discoveries on the same day. Stand outs for me were the crazy energy of congratulations, the persuasive hooks and beats brought by Mulimba, a formidable performance of  goth-tinted shoegaze from Winter Gardens, and a frankly sublime set from Ideal Living whose musical journey feels like it has stoically fought its way to become the visceral thing of beauty that we witnessed at the weekend.

Amongst the bigger players on the festival circuit, DedFest felt a bit special – I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

congratulations

Keg

left: Trip Westerns, right: Mulimba

enjoying the sunshine…

Moon Idle

left: Nature TV, top right: The Rapports, bottom right: Sansom

DogFest

Telecom

Atticomatic

left: Gaffa Tape Sandy, right: Projector

Winter Gardens

Ideal Living

‘it’s a sign’

Shout out to all the artists who played, full line-up for the day comprised: Gaffa Tape Sandy, Nature TV, Keg, Atticomatic, Projector, The Roebucks, congratulations, The Stanford Family Band, Comforts, Telecom, Trip Westerns, Moon Idle, Mulimba, Lucy Darke, Ideal Living, Lean With The Breeze, Winter Gardens, Fukushima Dolphin, Room Service, The Rapports, ChitChat and Sansom

Words and photos © Siobhan 16beasleystphotography.com | Instagram: 16beasleyst

Published 20th August 2025