As a fan of doing a review and after enjoying this post by Ham Vocke, I thought I’d take a look back at my 2025 as it was a good one.
Live Music
I’ll start with one of the highlights of the year which was live music. I saw 50+ artists this year which is a record for me.
Glastonbury
Well over 50% of that number was made up of sets at Glastonbury. This was my first time at Glastonbury which far exceeded any expectations I had. Highlights were Pulp, Wunderhorse, Scissor Sisters, Maribou State, and Turnstile.
We also tried to explore as much of the site as we could. There are a million and one other things to do outside of the music, from healing fields to monuments to an entire pier filled with actors, musicians, and this guy..
You can read my Glastonbury Wrapped here for a run down of my favourite sets.
Day Festivals
Aside from Glastonbury, I also went to a fair few smaller day festivals, starting with Get Together in Sheffield.
Get Together is my favourite style of festival, where you get a wrist band and just walk between venues/pubs catching whatever music is playing in there.
The next was Fontaines DC (8/10), Kneecap (7/10), and Amyl and the Sniffers (7/10) at Finsbury Park. I’ve seen Fontaines DC four times. The first was in Sheffield after they released their first album Dogrel. We went to The Rutland beforehand and ran into them having a pre-gig pint, so it was surreal 6 years later to see them headlining Finsbury Park.
Kneecap I missed at Glastonbury and were great, as were Amyl and the Sniffers.
The day after Black Keys (see further down) we went to see Stevie Wonder + Ezra Collective at Hyde Park. Despite being one of the most corporate and soul-less festivals the music was amazing. Ezra Collective (8/10) was another one I missed at Glastonbury and were a highlight of the year. Followed up by Stevie Wonder (9/10) was unbelievable, bucklist item checked off for sure.
Then I fell asleep on the tube and did a full lap of the Jubilee line (1/10)..
The last and most dusty was All Points East. Bombay Bicycle Club (8/10) and Maccabees (8/10) (+Jamie T) were amazing. The Murder Capital (6/10) is a band I’ve wanted to see for agers, mostly for their first album, but it got lost a bit in the wind.
Gigs
I also got to lots of gigs this year. Kawala (6/10) and Royel Otis (7/10) are not bands I was massively familiar with but were both good. Royel Otis especially were surprising good live.
I wasn’t prepared for how good Geordie Greep (9/10) was. A few years ago I went to see Black Midi who were great live. High tempo tunes with loads of saxophone and drums thrown in. Geordie has continued that into his solo career but with more samba/latin influence.
I’ve wanted to see Ocean Alley (8/10) since 2018 when Chiarosuro came out, but despite having tickets in 2022 I never made it. Good to finally see them this year.
Pigeon Detectives (7/10) are the Pigeon Detectives. You know what you’re getting and they were great as usual.
The highlight was Black Keys (9/10). They might be my favourite band of all time, and the setting at Ally Pally looking out over London is hard to beat.
To top it all off I’m lucky enough to have a local that hosts weekly Irish Trad, an open mic night, Sunday Sessions, a Swing Band, +other ad-hoc music, so I get my fill each week.
Bonus: Arctic Monkeys brass tribute band (7/10). Don’t think that needs too much explaining..
Trips
I went on a handful of trips away this year. The shortest was to Liverpool for the title parade. Despite the sad events that unfolded and the mission it took to get to and from Sheffield, it was pretty special to get to go and see the team with the trophy. Something I’ll never forget.
Norfolk
I spent a week in Norfolk in June. This is only the second time I’ve visited and I really enjoyed it again. Norwich is a cool city. They say in Norwich there is a church for every month of the year, and a pub for every day of the year. Highly recommend.
Belgium + Germany
The only trip I took abroad this year was a long weekend in Belgium and Germany. It was my Dad’s 60th and he’s always wanted to go to a Bundesliga game, so me and my brother took him to see Bayer Leverkusen v FC Heidenheim; taking some time to stop in Brussels, Ghent, and Cologne on the way.
It was an unreal trip, and easy to make as it’s only a couple of hours on the Eurostar from London. Ghent is a great city to visit. The stereotype of an old medieval European town it also boasts an insane amount of pubs which themselves boast an insane amount of Belgian beer.
I’ve not visited Germany before and Cologne didn’t disappoint. Leaving the busy main station it was an obvious departure from the quiet streets of Ghent, but the first view of the Cologne Cathedral made me forget about everyone around us.
The city itself was really enjoyable, but the highlight of the trip was up the road in Leverkusen. After an historic title win in 2024 Leverkusen have struggled with the exodus of high profile players and their head coach, however stepping into the BayArena you wouldn’t know that.
Despite playing a minnow in FC Heidenheim the stadium was bouncing. The Nordkurve was my first in person experience of German Ultras who deafening. It is something completely unique which we don’t really have in England.
Cornwall
Not getting my fix of camping at Glastonbury, I went on two other camping trips this year.
The first was a quick overnighter in the South Downs. The second was a week long hike round the South West Coast Path in Cornwall.
A few hours train from London we arrived in St Austell to make a quick stop at the Eden Project before heading further south to St Ives.
After getting down to St Ives we spent 5 days hiking and camping round to Penzance. The hike is pretty challenging at points but the views more than make up for it.
On our way round we made stops to swim. Despite being baltic, the water is crystal clear and exactly what we needed after lugging our gear up and down the headlands all day.
Reading
I’ve never been a big reader, but I’ve been trying to read more over the past few years. I’ve mostly stuck with non-fiction as this is what I thought interested me the most, but in February I read a copy of 1984 I found on the street in Bristol and that completely changed my perspective.
My reading has increased 6x since last year and the majority has been fiction, a change you can see on my reading list.
I spent the year experimenting with different genres and authors to try and find what I enjoy the most. Right now I’m really into crime and historical fiction, but I think it’ll take a while to figure out what works for me.
Highlights this year have been You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, The North Water by Ian McGuire, and the Cartel Trilogy by Don Winslow.
In 2026 I plan to continue reading and trying out new books. I am currently half way through Hyperion and am surprised by how good it is, maybe 2026 will the year of sci-fi..
Spanish
I consumed 310 hours of Spanish language content in 2025 through videos, podcasts, and TV shows. Although my progress has slowed over the past couple of months, the difference between the start of the year is night and day. My latest milestone was 300 hours back in October.
I plan to push my progress even further this year and reach a total of 800 hours by 2027.
If you want to read more you can check my progress here.
Looking to 2026
2025 has been a great year. I’ve made lots of positive growth personally and professionally; moved out of shared accommodation after 7+ years; gone on unforgettable trips round the UK and Northern Europe; been to countless festivals and gigs; and much much more.
Looking forward to 2026 it will be a very different year. We are moving out of London and up to Sheffield to be closer to family and slow down a bit. Saving is a priority for 2026, so we will need to get a bit more creative with live music and trips. Big festivals will be replaced with pub gigs and trips abroad will give way to camping in the Peak District.
I will still be working on myself throughout 2026, and if you want to check out my goals and progress on those goals you can do so here.
Whatever you’re doing in 2026 all the best and good luck!