She-Punk Anthems

The festival will take place across London from July-November 2026, with the flagship exhibition, opening 23 October, among the first major shows staged at the new permanent home of the Museum of Youth Culture in Camden.

Inside The Archives Of Punk’s Women brings together rare archival material from significant music, fashion and cultural archives and collections, including the Poly Styrene Archive, the Zandra Rhodes Foundation and The Rock & she-punk anthems

Roll Public Library (RRPL). Alongside contemporary artworks, it presents previously unseen and rarely exhibited material drawn from the personal archives and collections of artists, musicians, designers and activists who helped shape punk, charting the movement’s origins, evolution and lasting cultural influence.

The festival’s centrepiece is a standout gig at Electric Brixton on Friday 16 October 2026 that will see the formation of God Save The Queens, a unique supergroup bringing together pioneering musicians from across generations to celebrate 50 years of she punk. Presented by Up Yours! Collective and SJM Concerts, the 75-minute performance will reimagine the Poly Styrene playlist alongside iconic she-punk anthems. The headline performance will feature an historic X-Ray Spex reunion, with original members Lora Logic and Paul Dean returning to the stage alongside Celeste Bell, daughter of Poly Styrene, performing her mother’s songs and honouring her extraordinary legacy.

Joining Lora Logic (X-Ray Spex), Essential Logic, Paul Dean (X-Ray Spex) and Gina Birch and The Unreasonables, the God Save The Queens supergroup features Hollie Cook (The Slits) and Akiko Matsuura (Comanechi/ PRE), Big Joanie, Rhoda Dakar (The Bodysnatchers/ The Specials), grunge-punk trio Hot Wax, writer, musician and “Professor of Punk” Vivien Goldman, experimental musician, composer and performance artist Bishi and journalist, musician and early champion of X-Ray Spex John Robb, who opened for the band at the Roundhouse and was a close friend of Poly Styrene.

Lora Logic, X-Ray Spex/ Essential Logic, said: “Contributing previously unseen artwork to the exhibition while also stepping onto the stage to play these iconic songs again feels like completing a full circle and is incredibly special. For me, the creative expression of the movement was always multi-dimensional; it was visual art, clothes and noise all at once.”