The festival evolved out of a series of club nights, held in the Elephant and Castle area of South London and hosted and organised by Sam Kilcoyne, the teenage son of Barry 7 from Add N to (X) and current member of the band S.C.U.M, after he was refused admission to a Buzzcocks gig for being only 14.

These became popular with preteens and teenagers and even received press coverage in broadsheet national newspapers like The Guardian and the BBC's arts programmes, which reported it as a "youthquake".

Mystery Jets were also scheduled to open the festival with a set on the Main Stage, but pulled out just a few days before due to their lead singer Blaine Harrison being in hospital.

[5] The Myspace bus featured an acoustic set by Bombay Bicycle Club,[2] as well as an interview with Dizzee Rascal for website need2know.

During his BBC Introducing... show for Radio 1, Huw Stephens announced some of the acts playing the festival, including headliners, The Pigeon Detectives.

[8] Huw Stephens announced that Yasmin, Frankie & The Heartstrings, The Midnight Beast, Yaaks, Spark, Roll Deep, Giggs, Janelle Monáe, Devlin, Fugative The Chapman Family, Maverick Sabre, Brother, Cocknbullkid, Florrie, Crystal Fighters, with Bombay Bicycle Club headlining.

The New Roundhouse Rising stage was opened by Younghearts, an up-and-coming London based indie band with a forthcoming single "Isolation", which was due to be released soon.