City Splash 2026 (25.05.26)

29 May

When the Music Finds You: My Top 3 City Splash Moments — Runkus, Juls & the Legendary Beres Hammond.

City Splash 2026 was one of the best ones I've been to. My friends and I walked 35 mins to Herne Hill in the blazing heat, but it was worth it. We were surrounded by beautiful people, great energy and just the kind of vibes that remind you why summers in London are great. The lineup was strong from top to bottom, but a few moments in particular stayed with me. Here are my top three.

Runkus: A Supernova on the Foundation Stage.

Runkus is a reggae artist from Jamaica whose music blends elements of hip hop and rap. He did two sets and I attended the second at the Foundational Stage, where he DJ'd and sang, taking us on a dancehall and reggae journey debuting his Supernova album for the first time in the UK, since being released this May. Two of the songs that I love the most from his album that he sung were, Sure As the Sun and A Believer.

Was amazing to see Runkus on stage, his energy is always beautiful. He took us on sonic journey of reggae and dancehall’s history when he DJ’ing. A standout moment from his set was when he stopped midway through a song and told the audience that when he chants it’s because he gets emotional because of how much the meaning’s within the songs mean to him. This is something I definitely felt during the set and after the event, as on my journey home I couldn’t stop listening to A Believer. The song is striking with words that hold such power, but one line in particular which hasn’t left my head since his set was: “the saddest days of my life is when comparison come by the day, and steal my joy by the night…music saved mi life, I just wanna make you a believer”.

Juls at the Reload Stage.

My friends and I made our way over to the Reload Stage around 4pm, for a breather, and to watch Juls’ set, which turned out to be one of our favourite performances of the night. Juls is a British Ghanaian DJ, record producer and musician who is widely celebrated for helping to pioneer the modern Afrobeats scene. He represented the colours of his motherland Ghana and Jamaica highlighting the common ground and history between the two. A performance that provoked real feeling and joy.

Juls also had an amazing live band with him and like Runkus, took the crowd on a sonic journey, this time showcasing afrobeats, calypso, konpa and reggae, which was a seamless homage to the breadth and richness of Black music. Two songs that stood out were Flavour's Nwa Baby and his own Blessed, featuring Miraa May which is one of my favourite songs from him.

What made his performance so special was how the crowd connected to the music, everyone was vibing, dancing with their friends, just enjoying life in the heat of the moment. A warming moment that my friends and I witnessed were a group of male friends embracing each other with hugs and smiles, chearing Juls on.

The band themselves were pure enjoyment: from the backing singers to the drums, Juls himself on percussion, an amazing saxophonist and the sounds of electric guitar. An all round brilliant set.

Uncle Beres Takes the Stage and the Whole Night With Him.

Beres Hammond was one of the artists my dad first introduced me to when I was young, and the reason I fell in love with lovers rock.

I’ve wanted to see Beres perform for years, but I didn’t think I’d get the chance to see him. So, Monday was a dream come true! There were three songs in his set that touched my heart the most: They Gonna Talk, No Disturb Sign, and the closing song, Rockaway.

They Gonna Talk is arguably one of the greatest lovers rock songs of all time. A song that removes the fear and worry that often comes with love, fear of what others say, fear of perception. Hearing the sound of the drum on such an iconic beat was surreal. One of my favourite lines from the song is:

“Some things were meant to be, so why not let it be? And stop worrying about it? As long as we know what's in our hearts, and we know each other's thoughts, no reason for concern”.

Beres reminded me of how beautiful love is and that experiencing it is a privilege and not something to feel shame about.

No Disturb Sign brought a different kind of emotion.

“I hope we never get tired, and I never have to go to work. No one knocking on the door, disrespecting the no disturb sign”.

Although it is evidently a song about making love, the emotions Beres conveyed when performing it live overwhelmed me. It made me reflect on how blessed I am to be witnessing one of my favourite artists performing live, at the age of 70! We so often celebrate legends once they're gone, so there was something deeply meaningful about celebrating Uncle Beres now, in the present, living and breathing.

Before he even sang a word of Rockaway, the beat alone had me teary. It’s truly such a special song with such meaning. In the song, Beres pays homage to Motown, R&B, Blues and Soul ledgends, which includes artists I deeply love: Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations. There is real power in the way he lists these names, a roll call of important figures in music, a few still living, most now gone, who paved the way and created the sounds that shaped popular music as we know it. The Motown influence is unmistakable, particularly through The Temptations and Smokey, and the soul and R&B lineage runs deep through the likes of Stevie Wonder and Sam Cooke, the very sounds that publications like Wordplay promotes.

When Beres sings, “Remember the songs that used to make you rock away, those were the days when love used to reign", it feels like more than a lyric, it's a tribute to an entire era.

That sense of nostalgia was also seen when Beres got emotional at the start and end of the set, speaking about how happy he was to be performing in London again after so many years, and that this is all an artist could ever ask for, performing to a crowd of over 30,0000 people.

The words Beres kept returning to, and which I want to leave you with, were: “we are family.”

Words: Kanika Phillip

Pictures: Luke Dyson + Kate Vice