In a decade and a half of covering British Summer Time Hyde Park, I’ve seen legends own the Great Oak Stage. I’ve watched Santana’s spiritual guitar journeys, stood spellbound as Steve Winwood revived a golden era, and witnessed Eric Clapton deliver a masterclass that bordered on the sacred. Those were unforgettable. But sometimes the stars align in a different way, not through legacy alone, but through a combination of raw talent, emotional honesty and sheer, roof-blowing energy that leaves 65,000 people walking out of a Royal Park feeling truly alive. That’s what happened yesterday when Maroon 5, OneRepublic and Jess Glynne turned a sun-drenched Friday 3 July into one of the finest triple bills BST has ever seen.
From the mid-afternoon onwards, something felt different. The crowd was packed in early, not just for the headliner but for the whole ride. Jess Glynne took to the Great Oak Stage with her name in glittering red lights and immediately made it clear this was no ordinary support slot. She blasted through I’ll Be There, *123*, Take Me Home and a euphoric Rather Be, her voice as soul-scorched and mighty as ever. But it was between songs that the day found its first gut punch. Pausing, visibly shaking, Glynne told the sea of faces that the past year had been the worst of her life following the loss of her mother. As she fought back tears, the park fell silent, then erupted in a wave of love that seemed to hold her up. She channelled that grief into Hold My Hand, and by the final chorus, there were thousands of us with hands in the air, singing through our own lumps in the throat. It was a moment of profound connection that set the emotional bar impossibly high and somehow, the night kept rising to meet it.
OneRepublic then grabbed that bar and ran with it at full sprint. Ryan Tedder bounded on stage and warned us they had 19 years of songs to rip through in an hour, and they did not lie. Stop and Stare, Secrets, Apologize, all delivered with a stadium-rock sheen that sounded enormous in the park. Tedder, a songwriter who has penned hits for everyone from Adele to Paul McCartney to Beyoncé, indulged in a medley of Halo, Bleeding Love and Rumour Has It, dashing into the audience as he went, high-fiving and beaming. The man is an inferno of enthusiasm, and his band matched him beat for beat. By the time they launched into Counting Stars, the entire field was a bouncing, luminous choir. “How great was Jess Glynne earlier? She’s insane,” Tedder shouted, and the roar of agreement said it all. Pure energy and joy, OneRepublic have never sounded more like headliners in their own right.
And then, right on cue, The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations rippled through the speakers and Maroon 5 arrived. Adam Levine, ever the charisma engine, looked out at the sold-out crowd and let out a “Holy sh*t, Hyde Park.” He reminisced about their first London show in 2005 at The Barfly, 40 people if they were lucky and dedicated the night to everyone who had carried them here. What followed was a hitfest of surgical precision: This Love, Animals, One More Night, Sunday Morning with James Valentine’s gorgeous guitar solo hanging in the twilight. The band was tight, funky, and clearly emotional.
The most piercing moment, however, came when Levine introduced Memories. He spoke softly of his childhood friend Geordie, a presence clearly still with him, and dedicated the song to his memory. As the gentle, bittersweet melody filled the park, you could feel the collective weight of everyone’s personal losses mingling with the music. The man next to me, a stranger, quietly wiped his eyes. That’s the power of a BST set that transcends performance and becomes something shared and human. Glynne had given us her heart, and now Levine was offering his, and we were all holding them together.
Of course, the party had to return, and return it did. She Will Be Loved became a full-park karaoke moment, Levine urging us to make the rest of London jealous. Girls Like You, Moves Like Jagger, and a stripped-back Payphone encore kept the euphoria boiling. Then Sugar closed things out with a confetti cannon and a humble, beaming Levine thanking Hyde Park for a dream come true.
Earlier in the day, Ella Eyre’s soulful powerhouse set, Only The Poets’ punchy indie-rock opener, and Bradley Simpson’s charming Rainbow Stage appearance all added texture to a faultlessly programmed bill. But the reason this gig will sit alongside the greats, alongside Santana, Winwood, Clapton, isn’t just the catalogue of hits. It’s that every artist on that main stage gave us something real. Jess Glynne turned personal tragedy into communal healing. OneRepublic turned a field into a dancing, life-affirming riot. And Maroon 5 tied it all together with a show that was equal parts stadium spectacle and intimate wake for the people we’ve loved and lost.
After fifteen years of writing about BST Hyde Park, I’ve learned that the greatest nights happen when the music stops being a performance and starts feeling like a conversation. Friday 3 July 2026 was a long, loud, tear-streaked, beautiful conversation. And we can all get to relive it in our memories.
Monica Costa founded London Mums in September 2006 after her son Diego’s birth together with a group of mothers who felt the need of meeting up regularly to share the challenges and joys of motherhood in metropolitan and multicultural London. London Mums is the FREE and independent peer support group for mums and mumpreneurs based in London https://www.londonmumsmagazine.com and you can connect on Twitter @londonmums
