GREEN MAN FESTIVAL – Kneecap, Wet Leg, Underworld, TV On The Radio & Beth Gibbons to headline sold out 2025 edition, full lineup announced

March 3, 2025
UK Music Festivals, UK Music News
by Desh Kapur UK-Editor/Photographer

Green Man Festival
14th – 17th August 2025

Kneecap, Wet Leg, Underworld, TV On The Radio and Beth Gibbons announced to headline SOLD OUT 2025 edition

Wunderhorse, Perfume Genius, CMAT, MJ Lenderman, Nilüfer Yanya, English Teacher, John Grant, Cassandra Jenkins, John Glacier, Gwenno, Sex Week, mark william lewis, oreglo and many more also announced today

Wales’ largest music, science and arts festival, Green Man, today announces the first wave of acts to be playing its 2025 event, in the epic surroundings of the Black Mountains deep in the heart of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park from the 14th – 17th of August.

Headlining this year’s edition are rowdy Belfast rap trio Kneecap, acclaimed indie sensations Wet Leg, legendary electronic duo Underworld, Brooklyn alt-rock mainstays TV On The Radio and Beth Gibbons, lead singer of Portishead. The news follows a record sell out for Green Man, with all tickets for its 2025 edition sold in just 60 minutes. Without announcing its line-up and 11 months prior to the festival, Green Man is the first festival in the UK to completely sell out.

Alongside the ten music stages, guests are invited to explore the wonders of the world around us in Einstein’s Garden, relax and rejuvenate in Nature Nurture and grab a pint in Green Man’s very own Welsh beer and cider festival at the Courtyard. With a dedicated children’s area, comedy and literature talks as well as performing arts, the 2025 edition will bring all of these back to the Bannau Brycheiniog.

Festival goers who have purchased a Settler’s Pass, a special ticket which includes discounts on local heritage sites, galleries, castles and more, will arrive on Monday 11th August for a week in the Welsh mountains as part of their Green Man 2025 experience.

Making their Green Man debut – and following the packed screening of their BAFTA Award–winning film at Green Man 2024 – Kneecap are set to play their biggest UK festival headline to date. The trio, made up of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí, are known for their politically charged lyrics and will kick off the festivities on Thursday night at the Far Out Stage with a riotous set rapped in both English and Irish.

From opening the Far Out Stage in 2021 in one of their first ever festival slots, to topping the bill this year, Isle of Wight sensations Wet Leg will be bringing their wonky indie pop to the Mountain Stage for a joyous set. Wet Leg are one of the UK’s biggest success stories of recent years, winning three GRAMMYs, two BRIT Awards and topping the charts with their eponymous debut album in 2022.

Legendary electronic institution Underworld will be keeping the energy high into the night with their thumping techno. With a career spanning multiple decades, the duo consisting of Welsh native Rick Smith and Karl Hyde will be treating festival-goers with classic hits such as ‘Born Slippy (Nuxx)’ as well as fresh cuts from 2024 album Strawberry Hotel for what is sure to be an entrancing sonic feast.

Green Man 2025 will round out with two beloved co-headliners, including Brooklyn alt-rockers TV On The Radio. Audiences can expect to hear the endlessly creative musings, cutthroat riffs and splicing energy of hits like ‘Wolf Like Me’ and ‘Happy Idiot’ which immediately distinguished the band from their contemporaries in the early 2000s New York scene.

Also co-headlining on Sunday night will be Portishead frontwoman and powerhouse Beth Gibbons. She will be bringing her innovative and evocative alternative trip-hop to the Bannau Brycheiniog in a spellbinding closing set, with classic material like ‘Glory Box’ and ‘Roads’ as well as delights from her 2024 Mercury Prize nominated solo album Lives Outgrown.

Capping off a breakout year with the release of their second album Midas, Wunderhorse will be displaying some thunderous riffs and prowling swagger at this year’s edition, alongside South London electro-punk band Fat Dog, and Leeds post-punk quartet Yard Act in a real showcase of some of the finest talents in British guitar music right now. Elsewhere, CMAT will be dazzling crowds with her country-tinged pop and boundary pushing singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya is sure to be a highlight of the weekend.

Continuing to conjure Green Man’s atmospheric magic will be Perfume Genius who will be bringing his unflinching and poetic alt-pop to the Black Mountains, and folk favourite Cassandra Jenkins with tracks from her acclaimed 2024 album My Light, My Destroyer. After a standout set with Wednesday last year, MJ Lenderman will be welcomed back to the Bannau Brycheiniog with open arms alongside his band The Wind.

Continuing its commitment to platforming some of the best names in Welsh music, this year will see the likes of Los Campesinos!, Gwenno, Tristwch Y Fenywod, Pys Melin grace the Green Man stages, as well as the return of longterm festival favourites Melin Melyn.

Green Man has a history of spotlighting the most exciting emerging talent, and this year English Teacher are set to make a triumphant return to the festival following their 2024 Mercury Prize win, after gracing the Rising and Far Out stages early in their career. Breaking acts to keep an eye on this year include boygenius-approved jasmine.4.t, cult singer-songwriter mark william lewis; energetic dance duo IceMorph; 20-year-old abstract rapper-producer Black Fondu; genre-defying London quartet oreglo and much more. Stay tuned for plenty of more exciting names to be announced over the coming months.

Green Man 2025 – Lineup

(Headline*)

Thursday 14th August

Friday 15th August

Saturday 16th August

Sunday 17th August

Green Man 2025 runs from Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th August. Tickets are sold out.

More info www.greenman.net

About Green Man

Now entering its third decade, Green Man is the largest contemporary music festival in Wales, an award-winning seven day event that attracts 25,000 daily visitors from across the world to the breathtaking Bannau Brycheiniog. The Green Man experience spans music, comedy, literature, film, performance and installation art, wellness, science, as well as specific arenas for both children and teens. It was the first UK festival to sell out for the 2025 season, which it did in just 60 minutes without any line-up announced.

The festival is well known for nurturing and launching new talent; artists such as Fontaines DC, Michael Kiwanuka, Self Esteem, First Aid Kit and Kae Tempest have all had their first seminal performances at Green Man.

Green Man is one of the three remaining large independent festivals in the UK. It generates £28 million into the Welsh economy, and is the only large UK festival where a woman has controlling ownership. It was awarded a Gold Charter by Attitude is Everything, a charity that improves accessibility for people with disabilities across the events industry.

Green Man is the only large festival to refuse sponsorship, so programming freedom is retained by curators, and independent Welsh food & beverage producers can showcase and sell their produce to new customers. The Courtyard hosts Green Man’s unique Welsh Beer and Cider festival: a celebration of independent Welsh breweries, serving up 100s of beers & ales sourced from across Wales. Green Man piloted the first UK festival science engagement area and was the first festival to offer on-site training in skills and social engagement to former refugees and asylum seekers.

Over the last 15 years, the Powys company behind Green Man has diversified into food and beverage, hospitality, training, design and concept development, science engagement, wellness, as well as all aspects of event management.

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Desh Kapur UK-Editor/Photographer

My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago

GREEN MAN FESTIVAL – Kneecap, Wet Leg, Underworld, TV On The Radio & Beth Gibbons to headline sold out 2025 edition, full lineup announced

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