The biggest psychedelic festival in the UK returned to Manchester yesterday, Saturday September 3. This year, it was bigger than ever. The festival took over venues all along the Oxford Road corridor and hosted a hub at Circle Square.
The hub, supposedly hosting ‘food from all around the world’ offered two stalls, one selling Indian food and the other: burgers, meanwhile a bar stall boasted cans of craft beers or water. Other stalls sold vintage clothes, offered screen printing workshops and sold festival merch, including bucket hats and tie dye tea towels.
The opening act of the day, at the O2 Ritz was a great success. Gruff Rhys thoroughly impressed the crowd with skilled instrumentals, absolutely packing out the Whitworth Street West venue.
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At YES, patrons were queuing up the stairs to squeeze into the Pink Room to watch Penelope Isles. Sneaking in just as the band started, the room was packed and chatty with no space to dance, queue at the bar or move.
The basement was just the same, packed to bursting but with no one controlling entry for Automotion’s deep set.
Despite a smaller crowd, Mini Trees had their audience dancing at Deaf Institute with ethereal voices played against drum machines and indie guitars.
Later in the day, Black Midi took the stage at Albert Hall, really bringing home bloke-core’s new hold on fashion. Twenty minutes into the set, no music has been played, the guitarist drops his guitar and they all pace about on stage to backing music, before walking off.
40 minutes late, the band started, a microphone swapped out. The crowd immediately got involved and the bouncing, moshing, dancing took over the hall.
Loud guitars, excellent vocals and an amazing audience response for Black Midi. The lead singer and guitarist Geordie Greep has a voice reminiscent of the 1950s, although his singing was often drowned out by the instruments surrounding.
A very different atmosphere descended for the finale at Albert Hall: Kurt Vile and the Violators incite swaying, whistling and cheering. To finish this psych festival, there’s a sense of 1970s psychedelic music in the air.
The band played a mixture of bigger hits and more obscure tracks, but the audience remained engaged. The show was loud, with the power of the instruments overtaking vocals at points.
Later in the set, the alternative American singer took to the stage alone with an acoustic guitar. The audience swelled and sang along.
Guitar solos, instrumentals and the top hits, Wakin On Pretty Day and Pretty Pimpin got the crowd cheering and swaying once again.
Kurt and the band leave to grab a bottle of water and return with Like Exploding Stones, complete with Kurt Vile having a long instrumental moment on keyboard.
The day offered a truly unique mix of music and the open doors along the Oxford Road corridor ensured any music fan would find a place to stand, sit or dance along to a range of genres, all with a psychedelic twist.
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