In 2017, The Maccabees said an emotional, euphoric goodbye with three sold-out nights at Alexandra Palace.
After a final performance of their breakout hit ‘Pelican’, they stood together on stage for the final time, waving back at a sea of adoring fans, all pouring their own goodbyes into the moment. It was an ending that has stayed with all who witnessed it, equal parts joyful and sad. At their creative, critical and commercial peak, they were leaving behind everything they had known in their adult lives. The end of crafting four increasingly accomplished and acclaimed albums, with each passing record reflecting the experiences of the fans who had grown up alongside them. The end of The Maccabees.
It was a farewell so resolutely final that each member threw themselves with full commitment into countless new endeavours: music, art, books, film scores, production, broadcasting and so much more. No matter how many times the question was asked in the years after, each member felt the same thing. It was the end. But not all goodbyes are necessarily forever. And so today comes the news that The Maccabees have reunited to headline All Points East in Victoria Park, London on 24 August 2025 – it also coincides with the 10-Year Anniversary of their final record together; the critically acclaimed, Number 1 album Marks To Prove It.
Not only will The Maccabees be Sunday night headliners – the bank holiday weekend being the perfect time for such a celebratory occasion – but they are also collaborating with All Points East to deliver an essential bill of artists that they love, both old and new. More exciting details on the line-up will follow soon.
The first small turning point on the road to All Points East can be charted back to guitarist and founding member Hugo White’s wedding in February 2020. He wanted to put together a covers band as part of the celebrations. Guest spots were divided out between an illustrious list of close friends and musical peers including Adele, Florence + The Machine and Jamie T. It was mooted that The Maccabees could maybe play ‘Pelican’ at the party to make it really special, but Hugo wasn’t entirely sure if singer Orlando Weeks would accept the invitation. They hadn’t all been together, on or off stage, since that last moment at Alexandra Palace.
For Orlando, it was about participating in a landmark life moment for his friend; as he puts it “I didn’t go because it was The Maccabees playing together again, but because it was a beautiful gesture to be invited and to contribute to the spirit of the day. What I wanted, band aside, was to find a way to be in each other’s lives in some way.’’
Though they didn’t bound off stage making plans for a comeback, it was the first opportunity for them to tentatively inhabit the same space and made clear what was important to all of them – the luck of being able to share something that is so rare and unusual to find in most other places of life. There were no talks or plans for a reunion that day or for years after, but it was the catalyst for them to each rekindle their relationships gradually: five bandmates learning how to share a labyrinthian collective history outside the umbrella of The Maccabees. As the isolation of lockdown set in immediately after the wedding, the desire to reconnect – with their communal kinship – only grew.
Having played almost every venue of every size in London as the band developed, the opportunity to headline the leading festival in the Capital in such good company, in the City they all grew up in, was eventually too good an opportunity to pass up.
Having immediately sold 30,000 tickets for their final Alexandra Palace shows shortly after its announcement, demand for tickets is expected to be huge. Fans who sign up to the mailing list at www.themaccabees.co.uk will gain access to a pre-sale which opens at 10am on Wednesday 30 October. Remaining tickets will then go on general sale HERE from 10am on Thursday 31 October.
Felix White adds, on the pertinence of the show itself, “In the intervening years we’ve been to All Points East a lot, separately. It’s become a bit of a landmark festival for us, always checking who’s on the line-up. I’d go and have a great time throughout the day, but there was always this pinch of regret watching headliners that we could’ve done it ourselves one day too. I thought that moment had passed, and it was something I was prepared to come to terms with that I was always going to miss. I think we’re all kind of shocked and excited that we get to do it together again.”
Hugo White was inspired, in part, by watching The Strokes at last year’s All Points East: “I could see that they were enjoying it, realising how great what they had created together was. Being a band, you are usually in a mindset of, ‘We can do better’ and you’re always chasing something else. This is an opportunity to realise that whatever we had in that moment was pretty special and get to enjoy it again. It’s a chance to appreciate everything, and especially how it impacts other people and created a community.”
There was a time where the band – completed by Rupert Jarvis and Sam Doyle – admit that they couldn’t have imagined this scenario, such was the closure and magnitude of their finale. But with the end of a 15-year working relationship as a band it was only natural that contact was fleeting in the years that followed the split.
And now The Maccabees are back: for friendship, for celebration, for community. Will there be more chapters in their future? Maybe, maybe not. For now, they’re happy to keep their minds open and see where these shows take them next.
For 2024, All Points East welcomed another round of huge headliners Kaytranada, Loyle Carner, Mitski, LCD Soundsystem, APE presents Field Day and The Postal Service & Death Cab For Cutie and carefully curated guest lineups for each day. Between the weekends, In The Neighbourhood returned for four days of activities and free entry in Victoria Park.
