Full line up revealed for Undercover Festival 2025

Undercover Festival – two packed days of alternative music including punk, ska, post punk, alt folk…

Taking place this year at The Showground, Battlesbridge Antiques Centre, Battlesbridge in Essex the full line up has this week been confirmed for the bands performing at the 26-27 September 2025 event including eight local Essex bands.

“Undercover Festival – the best in grassroots and legendary alternative music plus the friendliest crowd around … as we say at Undercover ‘See Ya Down The Front’.” – Event organiser, Mick

Described as a proudly independent celebration of DIY and alternative culture, the nomadic Undercover Festival has run over 12 years across Kent, London, Surrey and Sussex. Undercover is a small / medium independent and friendly alternative music festival that boasts a huge line up, organisers expect tickets to sell out before too long.

Scotland’s legendry Skids will be joined by Essex’s finest sons Eddie & The Hot Rods, plus ska-punk favourites Popes of Chillitown and original indie chart toppers Spizzenergi have been announced alongside a packed line up of bands.

After sifting through a lot of local bands Undercover are pleased to announce that as well as local Essex finest sons Eddie & The Hot Rods they are pleased to add the following local bands / artists to the line-up:

The Assasination Bureau

Destroy The Idols

Dharma Hounds

Fraser Morgan

Hinge

Monumental

Rat Hole

The Stereotypes

“I have been blown away by the amount of quality bands there are  in and around South Essex, it is a real shame that we were unable to fit in any  more quality  local bands”.

“We believe the usual run-of-the-mill festivals tend to book bands that in the main are broadly similar, we try for a lineup and experience that is something different and appeals to a crowd definitely not catered for elsewhere.

“Being a small independent grassroots festival is tough because media attention is always on the big boys, but we believe we have struck a chord with people who like their music  full of the passion and energy that only acts like ours generate.” – Event organiser, Mick

Tickets (£79) include camping, showers, parking and novel attractions found at no other UK festival, such as a museum, record shops and vintage sellers. An on-site guest house and campervan access are also available. Merchandise stalls, a reasonably-priced festival bar and food will also be on-site.

A limited number of tickets are available online from Gigantic or in-person at Undercover gigs (Guildford), Intense Records (Chelmsford), Fives Record Shop (Leigh On Sea), Sounds of the Suburbs Records (Ruislip) and Dirt (Norwich).

Previous instalments have hosted bands including The Damned, The Blockheads, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, The Dualers, Dreadzone, GBH, King Kurt, Random Hand, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Riskee & The Ridicule, Sham 69, The Selector, Tom Robinson Band, The Skints, Subhumans, Ruts DC, UK Subs. Sonic Boom Six, Penetration, Jilted John, The Vapors, Chelsea, Doctor & The Medics, Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band, 999, even a DJ set from Chris Packham.

While Undercover Festival is hitting the road after a run at Guildford’s The Suburbs at the Holroyd, the venue remains home to Undercover’s regular gigs, with at least 20 booked in for 2025. The Showground at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre, Battlesbridge, SS11 7RF is easily accessible by road, rail and bus.