Four Tet All Dayer 2026 review: The 5 best acts at Four Tet’s London Finsbury Park festival
Legendary British DJ and producer Four Tet recruited pals and peers for the fifth edition of his annual self-titled day festival.
In the pantheon of electronic music, few names are held in higher regard than legendary DJ and producer Four Tet.
At 48 years old, there are few feats in the world of club culture that the artist born Kieran Hebden has yet to achieve. His early records made him a critical darling and cult icon. A decade of elite remixes and sprawling, heady LPs in the 2010s made him a mainstay on any DJ’s USB drive. And in 2023, he attained true superstardom as a Coachella headliner alongside protégé Fred Again and dubstep provocateur Skrillex.
To his fans – this writer included – Four Tet has long represented the archetype of "The DJ’s DJ". He’s a truly prolific and proficient artist that has always found a way to merge the sound of the moment with the sound of his mind. In 2022, Hebden would extend his creative and curatorial energy to the first Four Tet All Dayer in London’s Finsbury Park, where it’s been held every year since.
For the fifth annual Four Tet All Dayer, Hebden had recruited pals and peers from across the scene, from certified legends like Ben UFO to underground faves like Aurora Halal and Barker, to play on two stylishly designed and immaculately lit stages. As a long-time Four Tet fan, this was all too tempting to miss – read on for the five best sets from the Four Tet All Dayer 2026.
5. Sofia Kourtesis – Eat Your Own Ears Stage
While Four Tet set the scene for his four hour set, Sofia Kourtesis’ party on the Eat Your Own Ears Stage was well underway. The Berlin-via-Peru DJ and producer sprinted through genres like they were going out of style, playing ghettotech, electro, and disco in breakneck blends.
Kourtesis’ set was more of a selection session than anything else, with some fairly random transitions between tracks, but the mood stayed high as she broke up stretches of obscure trance with the classics. Sometimes, after hours of heady two-step, you just need to hear “Music Sounds Better With You”.
4. Four Tet – Main Stage
Fourth place for Four Tet at this year’s All Dayer. Hebden’s extended headline set was a tour through his own catalogue and leftfield takes on today’s club soundscape, ranging from moments of depth to unbridled bass-heavy chaos. He’s got an uncanny ability to read a crowd; I watched arms fly up from the congregation on the drop of each new tune, as new groups constantly joined the fray, falling in from the pathways and hillsides around.
As ever, Four Tet remains one of the world’s most interesting selectors. He opened with a stretch of heady dubstep, tapping into the genre’s recent resurgence, before tilting into his usual mix of off-kilter tech house and garage. Having such a massive catalogue of original bangers makes Hebden an agile force on the decks, and throughout his set he shelled out edits and remixes of his own tunes – I heard a mashup of ‘Baby’ and ‘Baby Again..’ somewhere in there, fragments of ‘Only Human’ and ‘Anna Painting’, and even individual drum samples that gave away tracks as the artist’s handiwork.
I found myself enjoying Four Tet’s performance more as a listening experience than a dance. Where other DJs on the lineup had a way of calling me to the front-left, I was perfectly content to sprawl out on the dry grass and let Hebden’s tunes find my ears. Whether that’s worth buying a ticket for is up to you.
3. Barker – Main Stage
Techno without drums might sound like blasphemy to devout ravers, but Sam Barker has made a career out of weaving glittering melodies in the absence of the rumbling kicks and lingering dissonance that define the genre. Barker, as he’s mononymously known, played a truly propulsive set at this year’s Four Tet All Dayer, blending elements from various studio recordings with live improvisations from behind a table of synths and controllers.
I’ve been a fan of Barker for years, and hearing the Berlin-based artist build fragmented sequences into towering crescendos with the full power of the Main Stage sound system was truly immersive. I was surprised at how danceable the music turned out to be given the artist’s restraint with percussion – but rules are made to be broken, and Barker’s ambient tones eventually gave way to crowd-shaking bass and irresistible kick patterns.
2. Aurora Halal – Eat Your Own Ears Stage
New York underground staple Aurora Halal closed out the All Dayer’s second stage with 90 minutes of undeniably stylish club tunes. By the time Halal took to the decks, Four Tet was already a half-hour deep into his headline set, meaning those still massed at the Eat Your Own Ears section were committed to the party in motion. A smaller, looser, more hypnotised crowd willing to keep going till the end, so long as the music kept coming.
Handing over from Sofia Kourtesis, Halal understood the assignment and then some, playing a no-frills techno set that took influence from American main-stage EDM and the minimal, groove-focused sounds of continental Europe. The DJ, producer, and promoter mixed techno and tech house fluently, with an emphasis on rolling basslines and cathartic drops.
1. Ben UFO – Main Stage
One of the first unspoken rules you learn in the world of DJing is to not go too hard in the warm-up slot. To the great benefit of everyone at this year’s Four Tet All Dayer, Ben UFO didn’t get the memo.
Ben UFO is one of the UK’s few top-flight DJs to never have released a track of his own. In his fifteen year career he’s focused exclusively on selecting, playing, and mixing records. His set at this year’s All Dayer was a masterclass in the most fundamental of all DJ skills – choosing the right tune for the moment.
As the undercard on the main stage, Ben UFO was tasked with building the crowd’s energy without breaking the wave. What followed was an hours and change of seriously tasteful club music, as the Rinse FM resident and Hessle Audio co-founder mixed four-by-four garage, wobbling bassline, drill edits, techno rollers, and baile funk with mechanical precision.
Every track had a flavour of something new. Every track had phenomenal low-end. Every track just hit. See him when you can.
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