Who's Doing What? All Points East 2026 Brand Activations
Alice Myler
All Points East is a London ‘day’ festival. We say ‘day’ festival, but actually, it extends over 10-days, comprising one festival weekend, three standalone headline shows in its APE Presents series, and several free or community days for local residents.
Held on one side of a local East London park - Victoria Park - some would say the festival’s footprint is ‘small’ in comparison to some of the beasts on the UK festival circuit. But boy is she mighty in pull, both in numbers and its booked artists.
But, we digress. All this to say, for something considered on the smaller scale, this year in particular we were shocked at the number of brand activations. And bloody good ones at that!
Naturally, we did a bit of an explore to try and find a few of our favourites.
All Points East Brand Partnerships
All Points East is managed by AEG Presents, and it’s safe to say its Brand and Partnerships team did their big one.
As reported in Campaign Live, AEG Global Partnerships signed fifteen new partners, including Flannels, Converse, Bumble, Meller and Diesel Fragrance. This is on top of the already longstanding partnerships with infamous brands such as American Express, Coca-Cola and Red Bull.
While not all had physical activations at All Points East, it seems like the majority did have some touchpoints for attendees, pre-, during or post festival.
All Points East Festival Activations
As with any other year, all of the festival activations were on point.
They were hyper-relevant to the audience, to the environment, and brought what we’re all seeking at a festival… the power of FUN!
There’s tonnes to talk about, but we’ve handpicked a few of our favourites. And, as a creative agency that’s pretty well-versed in experiential marketing and festival activations (if we say so ourselves), there’s a few things we look for:
…and some we just love because they’re pure vibes.
Casa Bacardi, Bacardi
Agency: Creation Group
For an activation that looked so established and as if it were a permanent - and prominent - part of All Points East, it’s hard to believe that it was Casa Bacardi’s first appearance on the fields.
Feeling like its own mini festival within a festival, Casa Bacardi kept the party alive with its own line-up of DJs and selectors across both weekends. Of course, a bar was at the heart of Casa Bacardi, quenching thirsts all festival long with Bacardi serves, including cocktails, plus a Personalise Your Bacardi & Coke experience.
The build looked like it could have been cherry-picked straight from the streets of Cuba, with pastel facades and iron balconies that, in this case, were quite literally made for dancing.
What was the pièce de résistance, I hear you ask? BACARDÍ-oke!
We’re big karaoke fans here at Bearded Kitten, so we felt a bit of FOMO when the videos emerged.
New to Bacardi’s 2026 programming, BACARDÍ-oke happened over weekend, making attendees the stars of the show. And boy did they turn up!
Hosted by Madame Joyce, the crowd got up solo (or with mates) for live performances of the biggest hits from all genres. We heard the performers belt out tunes by everyone from Burna Boy, TLC, Macklemore and Natasha Bedingfield. While they all smashed it, there was one person in particular who reeeallllyyy got the crowd hyped…
AJ Tracey came out for a surprise live performance, which saw the already packed Casa Bacardi fill up even further within seconds. He performed the viral Ladbroke Grove and a few other tracks. Safe to say it wasn’t expected!
All in all, bring back Casa Bacardi for 2027, we say.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BACARDI AGENCY: CREATION GROUP
The Garnier Glow Tour, Garnier
Agency: St Marks Studios
By the looks of TikTok and Instagram, Garnier was another big-hitter with the crowd.
The activation was focused around the brand's SPF range, so the build’s iconic yellow was very apt, with product education and product trial as a focal point. Garnier had 4 SPF products on show, with plenty of samples on hand, including some full-sized products. We all love a full-size freebie!
There was a ‘re-application station,’ allowing festival goers to quite literally nip in, have a spray, and stay sun-safe amidst London’s heatwave. Maybe not so heatwave-y on weekend two, but anyway…
Guests could head to the UV Bar, not to top up their drink, but for a skin analysis, review, and get some sun-safe tips from the pros at Garnier. There were hands-on demos, games, giveaways, and photo ops, but one of the biggest talking points was the staff! According to the crowd, they were approachable, sociable and brought a whole lot of upbeat energy for all in the vicinity. Could you ask for anything more? Your brand ambassadors really are the heartbeat of an activation.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GARNIER AGENCY: ST MARKS STUDIO
Aperidisco, Aperol
Agency: Amplify
Aperol returned with the fourth edition of its well-known, well-loved Aperidisco.
Awash with Aperol’s signature vibrant orange, the build was inspired by a merging of modern Italia and industrial festival architecture. They hit the nail on the head.
What’s one thing that can revive you from inhaling the remnants of a dry, dusty East London park? A crisp and refreshing Aperol Spritz, of course. And Aperidisco was more than happy to oblige. The activation was split into a lower-ground dancefloor, and a rooftop bar with views over the festival atop the double-storey build.
There was a free glitter bar open at specific points, and if any bar is speckled with 56 disco balls, you can be sure it’s going in our favourites pile.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CAMPARI GROUP AGENCY: AMPLIFY
House of Magnum, Magnum
Agency: Hot Pickle
Magnum’s House of Magnum was another activation that yes, drew the crowds on the day, but it surpassed the festival borders and was all over social media. Partly thanks to an influencer campaign to drive the partnership, including big-name influencer hosts across both weekends, plus collaborations with singer-songwriter Ayra Starr and UK artist Rose Gray.
The Spray Bar let festival-goers personalise their ice cream with designs inspired by music and festival fashion, with an exclusive design for each line-up. If you didn’t immediately associate the Hibiscus design with Zara Larsson, where the heck have you been hiding this never-ending midnight sun summer?
Magnum-shaped mirrors let the crowd do the obligatory fit check, while upstairs was an exclusive viewing area for VIPs and creators, with an illustrator capturing as many festival ‘fits’ as possible!
And that’s a wrap…
Admittedly, this has only scratched the surface of the All Points East brand activations we want to hype up. We just didn’t want the blog to be too long…
There were plenty more worthy of a shout-out, including Casa Migos, which has been on what feels like every festival site going this summer (with its height advantage that makes it pretty hard to miss), White Claw’s ‘Meet Me at White Claw’ set-up, with lost-and-found friends areas and its very own World’s Smallest House Party, and the ever-present American Express, continuing its longstanding AEG partnership with a huge footprint of festival games, complimentary gifts and some festi essentials.
We also spotted Madri bringing its container build back to life, with ice-cold Madri downstairs and a treasure-hunt-style experience upstairs… big tick from us for reusing the build!
All Points East is packing some seriously big brand experiences into it. Each going beyond a brand showcase, and giving people something to do, somewhere to hang out, make friends, or quite simply, to have a great time.
2027 festival activation planning starts NOW!
Which brings us to the bit where we tell you that if you’re thinking about your festival activation for next summer, now is the time to get the ball rolling. In our humble opinions, if you get planning which this summer is technically still ongoing, it might just feel like one continuous summer until your activation rolls around next year.
If you’re wondering whether we actually know our way around a festival site… here’s a little proof.
Backstage with Dove: A showgirl-inspired festival sanctuary at BST Hyde Park, bringing Dove’s Whole Body range to the masses through sampling, product discovery and plenty of touchpoints.
Lynx Fine Fragrance: We took Lynx sampling to the festival fields targeting Gen Z males, creating immersive fragrance experiences across All Points East, Tramlines and Boardmasters.
.jpg)
