Blood Orange to headline and curate main stage at London’s Rally Festival 2026

Blood Orange has been confirmed to headline and curate main stage at the 2026 edition of London’s Rally Festival.

• READ MORE: Blood Orange – ‘Essex Honey’ review: stunning reflections on the meaning of home

Confirmed today (Thursday November 6), Blood Orange – the artistic project of musician, composer and producer Devonté Hynes – has been enlisted for a headline slot at next year’s edition of the festival in Southwark Park.

It comes following the artist sharing ‘Essex Honey’, his first full-length album under the alias in six years, and going on to play multiple nights at London’s Alexandra Palace.

The community-driven music and arts festival is set to return on Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday August 29, and will mark the fourth instalment. For 2026, organisers are looking to strengthen the festival’s roots in grassroots culture, and have said that Devonté Hynes will “play a pivotal role in shaping RALLY’s most ambitious edition yet”.

Blood Orange will be co-curating the main stage line-up alongside NTS Radio, GALA and Bird On The Wire. With their chosen artists, they are aiming to “build on a legacy of championing visionary artists across alternative, electronic, and experimental music”.

A full line-up of artists joining Blood Orange on the bill is expected to be shared in 2024. Past line-ups for Rally Festival have included CASISDEAD, Nourished By Time, Moin, Erika de Casier, bar italia, Floating Points, Ben UFO, and Mount Kimbie.

Organisers have shared that Hynes was chosen as his “artistic outlook — rooted in independence, experimentation and creative ownership — echoes RALLY’s own mission to platform bold, boundary-pushing voices and nurture artistic integrity”.

In a four-star review of ‘Essex Honey’, NME shared that the record contained “stunning reflections on the meaning of home”.

“Running throughout ‘Essex Honey’ are reflections on British identity and the complexities of being a Black British man from an Essex suburb,” it read, before calling the LP “the most organised sketchbook, one which perfectly encapsulates this particular moment in time”.

The album contains collaborations with Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Brendan Yates, Mustafa and more.

Hynes also contributed to Lorde’s latest album, ‘Virgin’, and has recently been opening for the pop star on the US leg of her ‘Ultrasound’ world tour. The artist will then support Lorde at her concert in Manchester on November 15, following his own gig in the city the previous day (14). He’ll then go on to host a residency at Brooklyn Steel in New York City.

Visit here for any remaining UK tickets, and here for international tickets.

In other Blood Orange news, the artist recently covered The Smiths’ classic track ‘How Soon Is Now?’ in Los Angeles, and joined forces with AIAIAI to design some new limited edition headphones.

The post Blood Orange to headline and curate main stage at London’s Rally Festival 2026 appeared first on NME.