Polygon Live LDN: First-time festival redefines live music experience

For three early-summer days in May 2025, Polygon Live LDN brought its fully immersive spatial audio sound system to Crystal Palace Park. After many years at Wonderfruit festival in Thailand, and events in Amsterdam, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, this was Polygon’s UK debut — and it did not disappoint. 

The festival featured over 20 performances from a vast and diverse line-up that shifted in tone and energy every day. Friday’s line-up was varied and eclectic, featuring artists like Tinariwen, Nitin Sawhney and Arooj Aftab, whose devoted followings came out in their numbers. Saturday was dedicated to some of the most avant-garde electronic musicians of our time, including Max Cooper, Jon Hopkins and Halina Rice. And Sunday delivered a high-energy celebration of dance music from the likes of Kiasmos, nimino and YĪN YĪN. Almost every artist performed in full 360-degree spatial audio.

“Polygon Live LDN was months in the planning and to see it come to life felt surreal at times,” says Polygon CEO Nico Elliott. “We were blown away by the exceptional talent of the artists who joined us, by the expertise of our technical teams, and by the warm reception from our attendees, many of whom were experiencing live spatial audio for the very first time.”

Weval heats up the dance floor on Saturday’s penultimate set

Immersive tech at every turn

Polygon once again relied on the pioneering tech of industry-leading sound company L-Acoustics for its spatial audio rig. Polygon not only uses L-Acoustics speakers exclusively at its events, but also relies on L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive suite of tools to spatialise its artists’ music and provide a truly immersive 360º sound environment.

Read more here: What powers Polygon? The tech behind the experience 

Many of the artists spent time in L-Acoustics’ London studio ahead of the event, so that they could carefully programme and design their sets with Polygon’s engineers ahead of their performance. Take a listen to Jon Hopkins talking about his studio experience here, and how his performance of RITUAL on the Polygon system was exactly how he always intended it to be played.

By the time the artists performed on stage, the experience was otherworldly.

“It was an amazing opportunity to present my live set in a truly immersive way and at a larger scale than ever before,” says electronic artist Halina Rice, whose knowledge of and passion for spatial audio runs deep. “I could feel that people felt totally enveloped in the experience – there was a real sense of being able to let go and enjoy being in the moment.”

Halina Rice delivers a powerful performance

Max Cooper, who walks the line between music and technical innovation in everything he does, agreed: “My performance at Polygon Live LDN was a special one for me. I put a lot of work into trying to build something unique for the system. I tried to balance a club experience with full punch, with the spatial experience for full immersion. It’s one of the best live systems I’ve heard and it’s safe to say it went off.”

In addition to the spatial audio, Polygon deployed a synchronised lighting system that matched the energy and movement of the music. Soundshirts by CuteCircuit were available for hire from the merch shop, giving audiences the opportunity to experience the movement of the music physically through haptic attenuators on their bodies. Wear a haptic shirt beneath a spatial audio and synchronised lighting rig, and you’re truly one with the music. 

The festival beyond

Polygon Live LDN also featured a wonderful selection of food and beverage vendors, serving up hearty burgers, tacos, curries, chicken wings and vegetarian delights, as well as a wide selection of beers and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The Potent: Mushroom Tea bar also offered organic functional mushrooms combined with fine teas to help attendees detox, relax or energise. And a VIP area with its own private bar and chill spaces, as well as a separate spatial audio-rigged viewing platform, delighted those who preferred to step back from the larger crowd.

The audience response was heartening, with one attendee simply shaking his head with the words:

“Polygon has ruined my life. Ruined my life. I’ll never be able to listen to music any other way ever again.”

“We would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks to our many partners, without whom, Polygon Live LDN would not have been possible,” adds Elliott. “Enormous thanks to our two promotional partners, Full Fat 360 and OpenLab; our technical partner, L-Acoustics; our official media partner, Metro; our events partner, TOKEN2049; and our beverage partners, Jubel and Prime Time. We’re so grateful for the enormous time and energy you put into this project.”

What’s next? Polygon is showing no signs of slowing down. Another show is already on the cards. Polygon will be launching a brand-new stage, the Infinity Stage, at Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee in June. This time, Polygon will be placing three interconnected domes in a triangle formation, with artists performing in the centre. The stage will be the first of its kind, and an opportunity for Polygon to push itself even further. Other projects are also in the works for the rest of 2025, as is Polygon’s return to London next year.

Tickets for Polygon Live LDN 2026 are already on sale. See you there!

Polygon would also like to extend a final word of thanks to all of its community partners, whose contributions were nothing short of invaluable:  &Soul, ACTLD, Bandsintown, Blackstar Agency, Crystal Palace Park Trust, CuteCircuit, The Department, East Croydon Cool, Full Fat, FutureSound, La Fomo, Meshh, NIGHTKEY, THE OTHER SIDE, Peppermint Bars & Events, pointblank Music School, Pollen Music Group, Quintessentially, Resident Advisor, Skiddle, Small Green Shoots, Songkick, Ten Lifestyle Group, Tickets for Good, University of Gloucestershire, Universe and World Experience Organization.