AVA LONDON Festival 2025 – pushing the boundaries of contemporary culture

Tell us a bit about the history of AVA in Belfast and how/why it first came to London, and then to the British Library.

AVA Belfast turned 10 last year and our London edition isn’t far behind with this March being the eighth. We started out small, now we’re quite big having gone from one venue in East London to an annual Printworks takeover to a multi-venue day and night festival – a music, culture and visual arts bonanza.

Printworks was great as it gave us the chance to blow people’s minds with a space that transformed from a seated conference by day, into a full-on rave at night. When it closed, we felt that being based in King’s Cross was ideal for us, as it is so well connected to both the rest of the UK, and Europe. It’s surrounded by world-class venues like KOKO and HERE, and then a friend showed us the space at the British Library and we knew we’d found our perfect home for the daytime events, too.

How does the London event differ from the Belfast original?

It’s quite different. AVA Belfast is a large, open air festival, high-energy, atmospheric and very community driven with a unique geographic identity anchored by community and a connection. AVA London is a totally different beast with a format that sprawls different cultural institutions focusing on music, creativity, visual arts and industry in daytime and cutting-edge live shows for fans by night. They both have a very distinctive identity these days.

What/who are you most looking forward to at the 2025 edition – and why? 

By day: Underworld talking about 30 years of ‘Born Slippy’ and their legend status, Jarvis Cocker’s mysterious lecture ‘Biophobia’, FKA twigs being FKA twigs and all of the amazing lectures, panels and masterclasses in our packed conference programme. We have over 30 sessions this year! By night: Ryoji Ikeda’s immense live show at HERE, Erika de Casier at EartH flanked by Mechatok and Kojaque.

How did you get into this role?

I’ve worked in the music industry in London for over 10 years. First as a journalist then moving over into media and event partnerships. A couple of years ago I was offered the job to lead AVA’s marketing department, curate our conferences and develop our brand partnerships. It was a dream come true and a really unique way to bring all my skills under one roof. We have an amazing team of passionate people who make things happen every day.

What kind of people do you think should come to AVA who might not have considered it before?

AVA is really for everyone, and we wear that on our sleeves. If you’re an emerging artist or producer, a professional working in music, nightlife, culture or art then we have something for you. Sessions range from art curation to nightlife policy, wellbeing, activism in film and music, talent development, immersive experiences to more hands on workshops for mixing audio or cracking the code of brand partnerships. There’s a lot of opportunity to meet people at this event and people come genuinely engaged and ready to get stuck in, which is refreshing compared to a lot of other conference style events.

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