Former Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall – now known as JADE – has been announced as a headliner for this year’s Mighty Hoopla festival.
JADE’s announcement completes an all-female line-up at this year’s edition of the LGBTQ+ focussed festival, following news of Kesha and Ciara being announced as headliners last October.
JADE will appear at the London pop music event this summer, where she will perform on the main stage on May 31.
Representatives for the musician told The Independent they had been “inundated” by requests for the solo artist to headline, “so the team are delighted to make those wishes come true!”
In a post confirming the news on Instagram, JADE wrote: “Well it’s official – I’m playing @mightyhoopla. I thought instead of being in the crowd every year in a wig/shit disguise, why not be up there putting on a show instead lol.
“So excited to play at one of my favourite festivals and have fun performing with the community that makes me feel so loved…can’t wait to see you.”
A string of other names have already been announced for this year’s line-up, including Kate Nash, Pixie Lott, Loreen, Vengaboys, Mutya, Jamelia, Jojo, Erika Jayne, G Flip, Daniel Bedingfield and more.
The event will take place on May 31 and June 1 at Brockwell Park in London. Weekend and day tickets for Mighty Hoopla are available to purchase now here.
Speaking about this year’s festival, founder Glyn Fussell previously said (via Line Of Best Fit): “It was always going to be hard to beat this year’s festival but I think the 2025 lineup is the mightiest of Mighty Hooplas. We have all poured nothing short of liquid joy into next year, it’s a labour of love and it’s all because this community deserves to come together and celebrate en mass. Now release the confetti!”
Likewise, co-founder Jamie Tagg added that it felt “like the stars have finally aligned” and allowed them to book acts they had wanted for years. “With more stages, more production and more live artists than ever before, we hope to create another incredible weekend for our audience.”
This year’s edition will see the return of the Queertopia stage, which is dedicated to “showcasing the best and up-and-coming names within the queer space”, and is set to have Jude York, INJI, Hannah Diamond, Majur, charlieeeeee, barbs, Yshee Black and Princess Julia appear.
In a four-star review of the festival’s 2023 instalment, NME wrote: “The feel of the place hits somewhere between a daylight version of Glastonbury’s NYC Downlow, the world’s messiest hen party and the unofficial annual summit for every queer person living within the M25 (and indeed beyond).
“Founded by the team behind the much-loved club night Sink The Pink, Mighty Hoopla isn’t an LGBTQ+ festival per se, but celebrating queer culture forms a huge part of its ethos. While women and queer artists remain woefully underrepresented on the majority of festival bills, that’s not the case here: instead, the line-up is packed with throwback noughties fare, newer dance-adjacent pop music and a number of pop culture deep cuts. In other words, it’s a winning formula.”
