Beyond the Music has been teased as a global music conference and festival hybrid like no other - and it will feature a wide range of artists when it arrives in the city later this year.
Backed by Manchester music legends New Order, the event is the brainchild of Oli Wilson, son of Haçienda founder-manager Tony Wilson, and promises to be a ‘change-maker’ as it debates the future of the music industry.
The festival will showcase the best new and undiscovered performers from across the globe alongside unique live events featuring artists, entrepreneurs, creatives and music industry professionals.
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Taking place across the city from October 11-14, the three-day event will see the likes of SXSW, NQ Legacy, Nice Swan Records, School Night and more host curated takeovers at venues including Night & Day Café, Band On The Wall, Gullivers and The Castle Hotel.
Beyond the Music’s 'Discovered' line-up features artists including Cooper T, Luke Royalty, Natalie Shay, Moreish Idols, Walt Disco, L'Objectif, Shamir, July Jones, Tokky Horror and Freddy Gillmore.
Loose Articles, who supported New Order during their SXSW show in Austin, Texas earlier this year to unveil the festival, will also take to the stage and will also curate an all-female line-up as part of a ‘Kick Like A Girl’ showcase at Night & Day Café.
Speaking about the opportunity to showcase diverse talent at Beyond The Music, Loose Articles say: “As a band we aim to showcase female identifying and non-binary talent as much as possible.
“Recent news articles have stated that women are seen as too much of a “risk" for headline festival slots, with statistics showing if you count the total number of performers on stage during headline slots, only one in 10 (11%) are women and even less (2% are non-binary people).
“We need to change the attitudes towards female identifying and non-binary musicians and this starts with support from conferences such as Beyond The Music who have given us a platform to do this.
“We aim to showcase as many talented musicians as we can to highlight this issue in the hope that this will start to effect change in the way festivals are booked.”
The programme also offers the opportunity for new artists and bands to submit their music to a panel of music industry experts, led by A&R executive Caroline Elleray of Second Songs Publishing, for the chance to perform at one of the festival’s anchor music venues. Submissions are open now.
Early bird tickets for the first edition of Beyond The Music are available here for a limited time at £29 per day and £49 for the weekend. The festival has also launched a Pay It Forward system in order to maximise accessibility for those who are hoping to advance their career within the music industry, but may not be able to afford the full ticket price.
