Ahead of Jorja Smith and Tems’ co-headline set at All Points East this month, festivalgoers share the love stories born between muddy fields, late-night singalongs and chance encounters.

Alright, punters – the date is finally here: the epitome of East London summer, the peak of festival season, the official day for ex-Hackney date spotting. The fun has been simmering since early May, as rising temperatures nudged us into London’s parks for beers and a boogie. But it all feels like a slow build to this moment: August bank holiday weekend, aka All Points East. The unofficial annual convention of the cool crowd, where Broadway Market strollers take an extra turn on their weekend loop and drift towards Victoria Park for a reliably stacked line-up.

Festivals can often feel like a pool of overstimulating goodness. But as the sun gives way to stage lights and dusk settles, those vast crowds shrink into something oddly intimate. A real-life painting that’s stayed with me since the 2024 edition: Tems on the West Stage, set against an orange, pink and yellow-streaked sky, an unspoken whisper of romance hanging thick in the air. Then comes the gentle brush of shoulders as you fall into step with someone moving to the same melody; the quiet solidarity of strangers belting out lyrics in unison, no competition necessary; the locking of teary eyes with fellow festival empaths. Needless to say, emotions run high. Still, romance often lives more in the possibility than the outcome, turning small, intentional moments into flickers of serendipity.

With chart-topping soulstresses Jorja Smith and Tems announced as joint headliners for Friday’s slot, ticket buyers were quick to christen the link-up Lovers Day. From slow grooves to bluesy ballads, alluring Afrobeats to funky house bumps, there’s a song to sing and a story to tell across both artists’ discographies. With support from the likes of emotional junglist Nia Archives, smooth operator Odeal and Nigeria’s “starrgirl” Ayra Starr, they’ll take over Victoria Park’s East Stage and beyond, casting a love spell across the crowd.

In honour of their return to East London’s hedonistic stomping ground, we spoke to people who found love on festival grounds. Whether they met the love of their life, or simply one of them, these are the stories that prove that sometimes the best thing you leave a festival with isn’t the merch, the memories, or even a new favourite artist, but the people who were always meant to find their way into your everyday life.

“I didn’t even get her name, we just yapped and laughed for ages”

It was Glasto 2022, and one of my girlfriends dragged us to go link up with a friend and her friends. It was one of those plans you go along with when you’re a few days in – you’re both a zombie and a higher being, you can’t remember a life beyond worthy farm, you haven’t said the word ‘no’ in days. So, fine. Let’s go and spend the afternoon with these randomers and catch HAIM after. Well, I could NOT stop yapping with one of my friend’s friend’s friends – we just hit it off IMMEDIATELY. It was spooky… I remember she turned to me when a guy was offering round a bag of sweets and said, “I’m fucking starving but I do not know this guy, do you think I can help myself to more than one or is that social suicide?” It was kind of sad because we all lost each other at HAIM’s set a few hours later and I made my peace with not seeing the girl ever again. We didn’t trade Instagrams, I didn’t even get her name, we just yapped and laughed for ages. But, cut forward a few months and I’m at my friend’s house party – it was a day party and everyone was in bikini tops and shirtless. 

I love it when London hits that point in August where we act a bit LA. I’m walking down the stairs and I just hear a “WHAT THE FUCK! STOP! I KNOW YOU!” and it is HER!!!! My Glasto bestie. It turns out – despite growing up in Belgium and currently living in Tanzania – we had one singular mutual friend in the British uni circuit. It was the most unreal reunion ever. I love that my most romantic destiny is with a girlfriend who is still one of my favourite people years on and still makes me laugh so, so much.

– Bea, 28

Farewell Indie Girl, Hello Club Kid

It seems like everyone is finding healing on the dance floor right now but back in 2017 at Boardmasters festival, I fell in love with dance music. Fatima Yamaha, Patrick Topping and Hannah Wants were some of my first introductions to the Dance music world and what shortly became a major, domineering commitment of my life. The before and after of my sound as a musician is the before and after of that weekend. And seven years later, I signed to acclaimed dance music label Greco-Roman. That festival changed my life. I entered as an indie girl and left as a club kid.

– India, 29

Love Me Back To Life

I’ve been extremely sick with Long Covid. I wasn’t able to walk, talk, or get out of my bed for like, four months. It was months of my friends having to come over and help me shower and cook. On top of that, my long-term life partner broke up with me, and then three weeks later, my lover – open relationship – also broke up with me, and I had a mental breakdown. Horrific, worst time of my life, but I can laugh now because I’m on the other side of it. So, going to WHOLE festival in Germany with U-Haul Dyke Rescue was a turning point.

My friend Lucy asked if I’d like to come and take some photographs – that it could be a healing experience after everything. I just needed to return to life. Around that time, I reconnected with a girly that I met at Adonis last summer, her name’s Ailbhe. I met her in the smokers and we got on, but nothing happened. While I was returning from the gates of hell she was one of the people who reached out to an insta story about wanting to get back into life, and was like, “Shall we go for a swim!”. So pre-festival, we swam, and I sensed vibes… Kind of an accidental date? We were randomly at the same party the night after, SMUT, snogged by the front right speaker and then it was like, “Well, I’ll see you at WHOLE”.

It was cute, it was (kind of?) casual, and she reminded me we were in the midst of hot girl summer. On the first day of WHOLE, after we finish our U-Haul bits, she finds me at the Crane stage where I’m with all of my mates, comes up to me, we immediately snog, everyone cheers. She stays with us the whole night.

Now, WHOLE is a very queer, sex-positive festival, so when she dropped into convo the FLINTA Cruising Forest, it was kind of on the cards that maybe more than a snog would be the vibe. Instead, we went to the Beach Stage, which is literally a stage floating on the water, and we were having such a sexy time, dancing, grinding, we didn’t even need the forest. Two days later, we had more snogs and went to see Bambi at the Trina Stage — hands down the set of the weekend. It was this really fucking beautiful, euphoric set, and Ailbhe cried when it ended because she was so moved by it and the moment. Post-WHOLE, we had a check-in, and obviously, I’m in a situation where so much shit has happened this year, and I’m kind of coming back to myself and doing a lot of deep inner work, trying to just re-stabilise my life, and she simultaneously is NOT a person who is off the wall, reactive, intense, love bomb-y. She’s cautious!

But we met up back in London, on the Thursday, a few days on from the festival, I shucked her oysters and made this crab pasta, and I was like, ‘Look, I’m going to be so real with you. I feel so unselfconscious, and I say this to you without any expectation of reaction or response or whatever… But I do think that you may be my soulmate,’ which is obviously such a fucking intense thing to say to someone. She cried, and was like, “Yeah, I’m feeling something like that too.” It’s an exciting time, and it’s so weird because, in spite of all of that intense feeling of connection, which felt earth-shattering at WHOLE, I feel so serene about the whole thing. It feels very kismet. Divine. Serendipitous. Like powers a lot bigger than me were acting in that moment…

– Clodagh, 31

Truth or Dare: Festival Edition

I had a guy lick my foot as a dare once at a festival but it was definitely not love…

– Juliette, 25

Most Likely To Listen To “Naive” by The Kooks

It was my first time ever going to a festival, I was 16 years old. Reading Festival. There’s a silent disco, and every night, I would see this guy when the song “Naive” by The Kooks came on. Every night, he would come into my vision out of nowhere. And we would connect. We never even got each other’s number. We were just always seeing each other when that song came on. I really remember feeling like it was some kind of weird ethereal connection between the song and him and the moment, that sense that a music festival gives you, like you’re in your own city, your own world and the bubble is like a society – it was as if I was seeing him again and again in a club within a city. Seeing him coincidentally and getting with him, every song, every time that song happened when I was 16 just always makes me laugh. He is to me, the “Naive” man.

– Maya, 25

A Festival of Firsts 

At [Glastonbury] last year, I somehow, ended up by myself. I went and sat down to take a breather, and I saw this guy walk over. He has chips in his hands, and he sits down a little bit far away from me, but close enough that I can see him, and he’s got this amazing smile and lovely eyes. He smiled at me as he sat down. In my head, I was like… ‘should I go up to him? Should I not?’ And my phone was dying, so I was like ‘Great. This is how I’m going to get in’. I go up to him, and ask, “Hi, do you have an iPhone charger? My phone’s dying, and I need to get back to my tent and I don’t know how to get there”, that kind of thing. He says, “I don’t. I have a flip phone,” and he pulls out said flip phone. I was so enamoured by the fact that he had one, and we were talking about why he doesn’t have a normal phone, and then we just started chatting about life and everything about him, about me. 

We stayed there for four hours talking about our lives, and it got very deep, very quickly. His fears, my fears, things that we like about each other, things that we don’t like – not about each other, but ourselves. It felt like this cosmic thing because the last concert that I’d been to before I went and sat down at the festival was The 1975, and the last song they played was “About You” and it was all cosmic and a bit magical. Everything up until that point has been leading me there. Then we exchanged numbers as the sun was coming up – it was like 6AM or something at this point. He wasn’t from London, but he was UK-based, and he was like “I’m going to come find you in London, Jas” and I was like “Okay, you do that.” The festival goes on and then randomly, the next day, I bump into him – which is insane to bump into someone at Glastonbury because it’s massive. We had a very brief chat, and he said, “It was really nice to meet you,” and all this stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing him when we get out of here. Bear in mind, nothing happened that night. No kiss, nothing. Whatever. 

Anyways, the festival ends, and we go home. He then has another festival straight away, so I don’t see him for another week, and then I go on holiday for two weeks, so we haven’t seen each other in about a month. Then we meet up a month later. We went to the Photographer’s Gallery, we went for some lunch and food – he was only meant to come for like three hours, we ended up spending maybe 12 hours together, and that was that. We carried on seeing each other and dated for a while, and it was lovely. He was one of the nicest men I’ve ever met in my life, but it didn’t work out – but it’s a really nice story. He was the first man I ever told that I loved them, so it felt pretty special.

– Jas, 25

Loyle At First Sight 

So, to set the scene right, a fresh 17-year-old – it’s 2017 – I’m at Reading Festival, I’ve just found out my results for my Maths retake GCSE – she’s got a C. She’s over the fucking moon. It’s Loyle Carner day, he’s not really big yet, and so me and my friends got there kind of early. We were fairly close, and I remember when that man walked out on stage – I think I’d only heard one of his songs – and genuinely like, I had feelings for him. I knew that that was it. This is my man. And since then, I have had a tendency to go for men who look exactly like Loyle Carner or are mixed race with freckles – and I blame him. Also, since then, I’ve seen him perform multiple times and still get that same feeling I did when I was 17, looking into his gorgeous eyes and his beautiful freckles. I also discovered one of my favourite songs at the same concert at the same set of his at that festival, so it’s all full circle really. It was meant to be.

– (Another) Jas, 26

Now or Never

I was travelling a couple summers ago, newly single, kind of obsessed with Hinge, and I matched with this boy when I was in Bali, Indonesia. He was from Melbourne, Australia, and immediately, very much my type. We just started texting, and it turns out that as I was going to a part of Bali – to Changu – he was leaving as well, so it just didn’t work out. We took each other’s Instagram’s and were like, “okay, see you whenever, probably never” because at this point, I didn’t know I was going to Australia. It just never really materialised, [but] he’d swipe up to my stories every blue moon.

I didn’t really know anything about him, and then I booked my trip to Australia. I was going to a festival that was happening over New Year’s, and maybe a month before or so, he posted an IG story saying, “I’m going to be working at the festival, can’t wait, year four of doing this” or something. So obviously, I replied. “Oh my god, no way! I’m going to be there too” and he was like, “No way! This is our time to finally meet after having matched four or six months ago.” 

So we start texting a bit more before the festival, but still have never really properly spoken. The festival is over two days, and on the first night, we were texting, he was really trying to meet up with me, but I was just having too much fun with my friends. I didn’t really care that much about him. Like, whatever. Then during the day, the following day, the night before we met: the 31st of December – this is why it’s such a fun story – he ended up trying to come find me at my campsite. We just couldn’t. It literally was not working.

There was no 4G, all this stuff, and then at 10 PM or 11 PM, right before it was going to be New Year’s, he calls me out of the blue, and says, “Okay, if we want to make this work, it’s now or never. Otherwise, we’re not going to see each other. You’re going to go back to Europe, blah blah blah. We need to make this work if we’re serious about this.” And I was like, “You know what? Fine, let’s do it.”

At 10:30 PM, I finally messaged him saying “I’m here.” And for context, the Sugababes were playing, and it was “[How I Feel] About You Now” What is that? Wild Child vibes? So we met with that song playing in the background. I’m such a romantic, so of course, I remember the song, and literally within three minutes of speaking to each other, my friend who’s more of an acquaintance than anything, she didn’t know the whole lore about it, said, “Oh my god, surely this isn’t the first time you guys are meeting.” Because honestly, the second we met, sparks were flying. It was like two peas in a pod. Great, great vibes. Great energy. I was so happy, and we got on so well. He introduced me to all his friends, and then my friend ended up being with one of his friends because it was going to be midnight, so he managed to find a guy for her so that she wasn’t alone. And at midnight, there was a DJ called Fisher that was going to do the countdown, and so when that happened, we went to the crowd with 30ish minutes to spare. 

We were singing and dancing, and then this couple in front of us, asked, “Oh my God, can we take some videos and pictures of you guys? You are so cute. How long have you guys been dating?” The sparks were so there. At this point, we hadn’t kissed yet. And I remember, it was just getting better and better. I was about to kiss him, and he was like, “Hell no! Gotta wait ’till midnight, girl.” The countdown happened, and we kissed, and then the music started playing, and it was so perfect. We ended up spending all night together.

I was only in Melbourne for three more days and he said he’d take me out on a date. Two or three days later, on my last day in Melbourne, I took a train out to go to where he lives, and he picked me up in a car. We went for a drive and lunch, and it was just so cute. I felt like we had been dating for ages. It was that wholesome, sweet vibe. When I had to go back, he almost flew all the way to see me in Byron Bay. But then it didn’t work out. I was so sad, and then I was lowkey – not heartbroken – but I was just pining over him, thinking about him for months and months after, and we kept in touch.

Facetimed loads, and then in February or March, he texted me saying, “By the way, I’m coming to Europe for a Eurosummer, would love to see you.” Then he sent me his itinerary and was like, “I’m going here, here, here, here, here – come join me any time you want. Bring a friend. It would be great to see you again.” So obviously, I dragged my best friend with me, and we went to Berlin with him and his friend. We spent three days together, got a cute photo in the photo booth. I’ve honestly never quite felt this way about someone. We went to another festival together. We went to the Old Royal Naval, and he stayed at mine the entire time he was there, and that was that. Then he left, and it was really sad, but we still speak a lot, and he might be coming again at the end of summer, so very excited about that.

– Marina, 24

Besties For The Resties

The year was 2018. My friends and I had a three-day ticket to Wireless. We’d seen J Cole on the Friday, Future on the Saturday, but I keep getting lost. I keep losing my friends like every hour or so. I’m calling and calling, and eventually, I just gave up. At one point, I was walking around listening to Rick Ross by myself. So, I then bumped into my friend, Connor, from NCS, and I spent a little bit of time with him, lost him, and then I’m stuck in the crowd. I’m looking around – I’m looking at the floor at this point because I’m 5’3”, so I literally can’t see above anyone’s heads. This is why I keep getting lost. I see these baby pink [Air Max] 95s walk past me and look up and I’m like, “Hey.” And she’s like, “Oh my God, hey! I’m lost. Where is everyone?” So I’m like, “You’re friends with Connor, right?” We end up going to find them together and just sit down and grab some food and whatever. Anyways, hours go by, and we have the best time. We take so many videos together, wandering around looking for them. 

Eventually, we just end up enjoying the festival together, and we spent it all, together, including the following day. It’s coming to 10PM, and we really need to leave now. We still haven’t found anyone — mind you, I’ve been lost since probably 4PM with her. As we’re leaving, there’s a bunch of guys standing by the exit, and at one of the food stalls, I catch one of their eyes, and I can see them talking about us. While me and Chantelle are just standing there on the phone trying to find our friends again, they walk over and ask us for our Snapchats. Pretty respectful, asking us if we’re having a nice time and all that good stuff. Then they’re like, “Oh you guys are lost, do you want us to walk you out?” So these three boys walked me and Chantelle out, where we eventually find some of our friends…and then one of those boys, Akin, ended up being my boyfriend. We’ve been together for six years now – he’s one of the girls. 

– Annya, 25

Besties for the Resties PART TWO

We met at Wireless Festival in 2018 through mutual friends – by the second day, we’d ditched our original groups (oops!) to go around the stages together as we wanted to see all the same acts/were on the same vibe. That led to us booking tickets to Reading Festival on impulse a couple of weeks later, just the two of us and later then, Carnival weekend (which I had never been to before!). We spent almost that entire summer together and almost every other one since. We are very close friends to this day and can only thank Wireless for putting us on the same grounds that day! I’d say maybe Hardy Caprio in October 2018 as he was our favourite artist at the time and we made a big night out of it and we still bond over/sing his songs now even though he isn’t really popular much. We also adored seeing Wizkid together at Afronation earlier this month. He was amazing and the first time we’d been away together in a while so it was really special. Annya was involved in a pretty serious accident in August 2024 and is just regaining her mobility – that’s made this summer extra special. I could go on and on about our storytimes since that day as we’ve spent the last eight years pretty much inseparable. 

– Chantelle, 25

The Pixies From The Festival

Me and my partner Melody met three years ago at Glastonbury Festival. I had gone with a bunch of friends, and one of my closest female friends, Kelly, had been asked to attend the festival on behalf of the publication she worked for at the time on the condition that she do some content. So, on one of the mornings, she woke up and said, “Henry, do you want to earn a quick 80 quid and be my cameraman for the day whilst I interviewed some girlies at the festival?” And of course, obviously – I mean, fucking dream job, right? Walk around talking to girls at a festival all day. 

So, we get into it, picking out people who just have a fun, cool vibe or are wearing interesting outfits, and we’re at it for about three or four hours, and then Kelly turns to me and says, “We’ve got time to interview one more person. You can pick them out.” In the distance, I saw these two absolutely gorgeous blonde girls dressed like pixies, galloping in the distance. We ran over to them, and we got talking to them, and it turned out to be Melody and her sister. So Kelly asked if they were okay to be interviewed – Melody was kind of a mute at this point – and she was like, “I don’t want to do the interview, but my sister will.” So Melody’s sister does the interview, and it was really cute because she had made all of the outfits herself and gave a really, really good interview. 

Before and after, I was sort of speaking to Melody, and I just thought she was the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen, like intimidatingly beautiful, to be honest. And I was chatting to her, a little bit of small talk – she was from East London, I just moved to East London. She was from Liverpool, I’d studied in Liverpool for a few years. The chat was really surface level, and I just wasn’t getting the vibe that she was into me at all. She actually later revealed to me that that’s actually (somehow) her way of flirting – just giving an absolute deadpan stone wall zero reaction. So then we parted ways, thanked them, and that whole day I was kicking myself thinking, ‘Why didn’t I ask for a number?’ She was so gorgeous, and I just picked up a vibe straight away, but I just didn’t ask. That whole evening I was telling my friends that I’d met this girl, and I was really gutted, and they were like, ‘Ah, whatever.’

It turns out that as soon as I’d parted ways with Poppy (her sister) and Melody, Melody turned to her sister and was like, “I can’t believe he didn’t ask for my number.” It was a whole thing. There was a guy who Melody was sort of seeing at the time, so I think it all happened exactly how it was supposed to happen if you ask me. Weeks down the line, Melody and Poppy would play on each other’s Hinge, and Poppy was playing on Melody’s and I had popped up. One of the pictures on my profile was from that exact day at Glasto when I interviewed them, and Poppy was like, “Oh my God, it’s the guy that interviewed us at Glasto.” She’s like, “No way, swipe! Do the swipe!” And then we’re chatting, and I don’t actually realise it’s her until she says, “I think you’re that guy that interviewed my sister and me at Glasto,” and then it was like, “Oh my God.” I couldn’t believe it. Like the Hinge Gods had placed this girl who I’d spent a whole day fucking kicking myself for not getting her details of, and then she just came back to me. It was mad, and then we just completely hit it off. 

We went on a date, and it was one of those moments where you’re just so comfortable with each other, it feels like you’ve known each other for years, and it’s always been like that. Straight from the offset. Then it turned out that we’d actually been in the same room multiple times over the years, which is really mental. I’m not much of a person to believe tall tales and mysticism, but it really does feel like it was supposed to happen. It’s like the universe gave me so many chances, and we got there finally. Last year, we all got to go back to Glastonbury – myself, Melody, and her sister, and my friend Kelly, who all met in that spot all those years ago – not as strangers anymore, but as close friends and partners. And now I live with Melody and Poppy – the Pixies from the festival. 

– Henry, 29 

Getting Dusty

The only thing that ever gets all up on me at the festival is the dust.

– Dharam, 21

Words – Aswan Magumbe