Oasis, Kyiv Raves and Leicester Punks: Abbey Road Photo Awards Unveiled

Joshua Halling's photograph of fans at Oasis's 2025 tour stop in Buenos Aires has won the music moment of the year category at the Abbey Road music photography awards. The competition drew 24,500 images submitted from 42 countries.

Dara Petrova took the emerging photographer of the year prize for her images from a techno rave in Kyiv, Ukraine, in May 2025. Her work documents a scene that has taken on a new social function since the full-scale war. "Techno raves have quotas of free tickets for military personnel and veterans and have become a place for informal socialisation among the population," Petrova said. "It is a place where military personnel can socialise and civilians can relieve stress."

The Oasis reunion, one of the most photographed music events of 2025, appears twice among the selected images. Angus Jenner captured Liam Gallagher with his arm around his brother Noel as they walked on stage for the opening night of the reunion tour in Cardiff. Halling's winning Buenos Aires image shows the tour at its peak — a show Noel Gallagher singled out as the best of the entire run. "Those people from that country, in that stadium … they're heaven-sent people," Gallagher said.

Tom Pallant's photograph of Yungblud and his bassist, Silke Blansjaar, engulfed in fog during a performance in Luxembourg also earned recognition. Yungblud sent Pallant a video message congratulating him on the win: "You're the best there is at the minute."

The awards reach back decades as well as across continents. Wayne Large's 1979 photograph shows members of Leicester punk bands — including Crazyhead and Gaye Bykers on Acid — with Dolly and Harriet in Castle Gardens, a meeting place for punks at the time. AF Cortés documented a secret show by hardcore punk band Kartel on abandoned train tracks in Brooklyn in July 2025. Gabrielle Ravet captured My Chemical Romance fans preparing for the first show of the Long Live the Black Parade tour in Seattle.

Judge Raye, the pop singer, singled out Giulia Spadafora's photograph of the Glastonbury audience at the Stone Circle opening ceremony in June 2025. "Art is subjective, it's not logic, it's not one plus one equals two. It's about seeing something that moves you," Raye said. "This photograph moved me, it made me want to be the girl on the rock, her face slightly sullen is such a beautiful contrast to the rest of the scene."

Several winning and shortlisted images find their subjects away from the stage. Frances Carter photographed British singer-songwriter Billie Marten on horseback during her first trip to New Zealand. "We'd only just met about an hour before this photo was taken, but her calm presence was so easy to connect with," Carter said. Manuel Vazquez shot Warren Ellis of Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with his dogs, Larry and Piglet, at the Flask Tavern in north London.

Charlie Barclay Harris photographed Carlos O'Connell of Fontaines DC performing in Ireland at the close of the band's Romance tour, working from a vantage point rarely seen by audiences. "Catching Carlos's energy from a spot that is usually completely hidden from the public felt incredibly special," Harris said.

The selection also captures smaller stages and informal scenes: Ian Zandi's image of rock'n'roll band the Killing Floors at Echo Park Rising, a free neighbourhood festival in Los Angeles; Suzanne Phoenix's photograph of Australian punk band Private Function playing a party on Gold Street, Melbourne, in a house that was soon to be demolished — "Chris Penney screamed the neighbourhood down," Phoenix said; and Sophie Buckley's portrait of Izzy Baxter Phillips of UK indie band Black Honey, taken before a July 2025 gig. "As she practised the new set before showtime, I quietly took this photo, careful not to disturb her," Buckley said.

Together the images chart a year in which stadium reunions, war-zone raves and demolition-party gigs shared the same frame — a record of music photography's reach from Kyiv to Melbourne, judged at Abbey Road's own address.