Concert Review: Lewis Capaldi – BST Hyde Park, Hyde Park, London, UK

Chris Griffiths
14 hours ago
3 min read

Lewis Capaldi had the honour of closing BST Hyde Park 2026, with not just one but two incredible headline sets on the final two nights of the festival. Playing back-to-back nights on the Great Oak Stage, Capaldi stood in the footprints of many greats before him. The Rolling Stones, The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Elton John, and Lewis were very much deserving of this same accolade.

This was also a final step of a comeback nobody was entirely sure would happen. Two years off the road, a Glastonbury return that turned into a national moment, and now this: 125,000 people across two evenings, all of them singing the same songs back at him.

The two nights had been nearly identical. Supported by deserving acts such as Conan Gray, The Vaccines and Alessi Rose, the crowd were beyond ready when Lewis came to the stage with the anthemic American Pie playing him out. The British heatwave was in full effect, the usually green grasslands of the park dusty and scorched yellow. British Summer Time was here.

Grabbing a guitar, Lewis opened with Hollywood, the crowd jumping and singing back to him from the start. Grace and Heavenly Kind of State of Mind followed to complete the opening run, which then led into Wish You the Best and Love the Hell Out of You.

Things then took a slow turn as we heard the newer tracks such as Almost and Forever before Bruises dragged the whole crowd back to 2017. Fans were thrown back to this original release, and the person Lewis was back then and reflected through the music on the man he has become. A shy and traditional young man from a small town in Scotland who has journeyed to the tops of charts and the front of bigger stages. He remains his same authentic self, no doubt his secondary selling point after the main product of his music. Hilarious, sometimes brash, deeply introspective, sometimes far too self-critical… this is the artist and human being we have grown to love.

Pointless and Something in the Heavens brought some more of the emotional baggage, and from Before You Go onward the set didn't let up. On the Saturday night, special guest Sam Fender made his way on to the stage to a rapturous fan reaction. Together, they performed a cover of Sam and Olivia Dean’s Rein Me In. On the Sunday night he was instead joined by Luke Pritchard of The Kooks (one of his favourite bands early on). This time they performed The Kook’s own Naïve. Both of these performances gifting a special memory to the audience in front of them.

As his special guests left the stage each night Fade, The Day That I Die, Hold Me While You Wait, and the ever popular Forget Me were belted out by Lewis and the crowd as one unit. We often talk about crowd and artist connections, but this was something deeper than most and as he left the stage, he was clearly touched by the emotion and cheer in the crowd.

The night wasn’t complete without and encore and returning to the stage had a little different ending. The Saturday night started with a wonderful cover of CCR’s Have You Ever Seen the Rain, then on both nights the song Survive followed by with Someone You Loved, a song so touching and powerful it belongs to the audience as much as it belongs to Lewis himself.

Between banter about the football, a dig at his own nerves, and a genuine thank-you to the 60,000-plus in front of him each time, Lewis Capaldi didn't perform like someone who'd been away. He performed like someone who'd recovered and grown and finally had a stage big enough to let it go.