Charli XCX to bring brat summer to Belfast in 2025

Charli XCX commanded attention this year with the Brat summer movement

Belfast is set for another brat summer next year as Charli XCX has been confirmed as a headliner at Belsonic in 2025.

The annual outdoor music festival in Ormeau Park has become a staple of the festival scene.

Crowds of thousands descend on the venue for the three-week festival, which is normally held in June.

Charli XCX will be among other big names performing at the festival such as Justin Timberlake, Alanis Morissette, and local legends Snow Patrol, with more names still to be announced.

What is Brat?

Brat - and the 'brat summer' the album spawned - was one of the pop culture sensations of 2024.

Charli's sixth album, released in June, was a critical success worldwide and a recent remix album topped the UK charts in October.

The album's minimalistic album art - with the word Brat stylised in a low-resolution Arial font on a lime-green background - became the fodder of memes, with individuals and businesses jumping on the brat summer trend.

The idea of 'brat' was adopted by some fans as a rejection of the "clean girl" aesthetic, popularised on TikTok.

Posting on social media, Charli described brat as a girl who "is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things some times”.

“Who feels like herself but maybe also has a breakdown. But kind of like parties through it, is very honest, very blunt. A little bit volatile. Like, does dumb things. But it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”

The phrase even reached the heights of American politics after Charli used the phrase to endorse Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on X.

The Harris campaign then scattered references to the album across its social media accounts, renaming her profile Kamala HQ.

Brat was also chosen as Collins Dictionary word of the year.

Lexicographers have defined it as someone with a "confident, independent and hedonistic attitude".