Music

Ed Nicholas  Wednesday, August 13th, 2025   4:03pm  

Y Not? festival 2025 came and went with another successful year. Located in the heart of Derbyshire, attendees got to experience a stellar lineup, spanned across a number of stages and tents. Headliners ranged from the high energy of Courteeners, all the way to the massive anthems from Madness and The Prodigy, which got a huge reaction from the crowd.

Friday

Friday opened as the first full day of the festival with a whole host of massive names and artists performing. Tens of thousands of music lovers made their way into the arena to see sets from Hard Life, The Hunna, Brooke Combe, rock legends Primal Scream and a huge variety of other names. Everyone seemed to be excited for the weekend and these sets brought out the energy and excitement that everyone was clearly feeling.

The Giant Squid tent, a stage located fairly near to the main entrance, hosted a whole array of artists, including Cardiff based rock group Himalayas, whose lively set had everyone up and moving. It was a really aesthetically interesting stage which led to an immersive and fun theme.

Towards the late afternoon, it was time for the main stage to see a set from the newly renamed group, Hard Life. Their genre and style contrasted quite strongly to the rest of the acts on the day, with there being a lean towards more indie and rock groups. This didn’t stop them drawing in a great crowd who enjoyed every minute of their set.

Primal Scream were due to come on next and the arena filled out as far as you could see. The legendary group took to the stage and belted out all of their anthems to a very happy crowd. It was a very well designed set with the addition of a saxophone part. The player had his own solos and the part was more like that of a guitar, with it being one of the focal parts in the band. Everyone enjoyed it to the final song, with their hits like ‘Rocks’.

With Primal Scream’s set drawing to an end, it was now time to prepare for the main stage headliners, The Prodigy. It’s high energy came right from the start, with them opening with their heavy and famous hit, ‘Voodoo People’. It followed with further fan favourites such as ‘Omen’, ‘Poison’, ‘Out Of Space’ and even a tribute for former member and frontman, Keith Flint, during ‘Firestarter’.

It was an incredible show and was unlike any other set, not just that day, but throughout the whole festival. The impeccable attention to visuals made it really stand out and had everyone talking about it over the coming days. It looked amazing, regardless of the crowd’s distance from the stage, with the screens not just in use, but also a vast amount of lasers and other lighting fixtures too.

Saturday

With the first day finished it was time for Saturday to come around. It was the day with the most modern demographic of music, with the headliners being Courteeners. Also performing were the very popular group, The Last Dinner Party and returning pop sensation Sigrid.

Bringing her hits such as ‘Strangers’, and ‘Don’t Feel Like Crying’, Sigrid came all the way from Norway to bring an hour long set to the Big Gin stage and a great crowd. Her new single ‘Jellyfish’ had everybody doing its signature dance and also saw some teasers for more music coming up too.

Also debuting some new music, were Brit Award winning group, The Last Dinner Party. The female rock group brought all their hits and an amazing performance to Derbyshire that evening with a beautiful sunset to be seen in the background. Each set had been subject to stunning scenery but the timing of their set perfectly matched the sun going down as it drew to a close.

Headlining that evening were rock group Courteeners, with all of their hits like ‘Not Nineteen Forever’. The band came out to a very hyper and enthusiastic crowd, with everybody jumping from start to finish. Many were up on shoulders and even the occasional smoke flare was in somebody's hand adding further atmosphere to the show. It was an impressive show and provided a very energetic performance for the festival.

That evening, The Quarry featured famous DJ, Wilkinson, for a late night set. It was a perfect way to round off the day for anyone who didn’t want to go back to their tent to keep having fun. There were also CO2 cannons installed to make the set more dramatic for all in attendance.

Sunday

With the beginning of the final day having arrived, the crowds came out again in full force. Due to perform were the Oasis tribute band, Noasis. With the reunion tour going on at the same weekend, organisers had recognised the demand and upgraded them from one of the smaller stages to a slot on the Big Gin main stage. The crowd filled out which so early on in the day, led to an incredible final day of the festival. Following them came The Pigeon Detectives and The K’s, who were celebrating their new album, ‘Pretty On The Internet’ which had just made the number 1 album spot in the UK.

Following this came Shed Seven who still gained a reaction after 30 years of music. The set was full of their hits and the crowd were loving it. Franz Ferdinand had the next and final set before the headliners for that day. For a very current and popular band, their show gained a huge reaction, with them playing both their newer and older hits such as ‘Hooked’ and ‘Take Me Out’.

It was now time for the final headliner of Y Not? 2025; Madness. This band was a complete hit and everybody loved their set. Between the vocals, saxophone and rest of the band, it was the perfect way to bring the festival to a close and gained massive applause from the crowd. With the amazing performance came their hits such as ‘Our House’, ‘Baggy Trousers’ and ‘House Of Fun’, really showing the crowd why they had their name.

Everybody clearly loved the festival and each and every act gained a great reaction from those in the crowd. The headliners brought a massive selection of their hits and there was something for everybody on each day. From the rock hits from Courteeners, to the heavy anthems of The Prodigy, each day brought something new and exciting to enjoy.

Ed Nicholas  Wednesday, August 13th, 2025   4:03pm  

Y Not? Festival 2025 is located in Derbyshire and each year, tens of thousands of fans make their way to it for a weekend of music and fun. 2025 saw headline sets from The Prodigy, Courteeners and Madness which each gained massive applause from the crowd.

Out of each of the headline sets, there was one which had everyone talking and stood out from the others by a long way. Having The Prodigy on the bill was an incredible booking and didn’t compare to any other performance the whole weekend. Their heavy and explosive performance set them apart from everybody else and there wasn’t another artist whose style was remotely the same. It set them apart and had everybody talking about them in the days after. It wasn’t just their music which got attention as the visuals were also incredible. It had lots of light displays and lasers which added a lot of immersiveness and atmosphere to the experience. At no point was there any similarity throughout the whole set and when choruses and parts repeated, the visuals made it still exciting.

Following The Prodigy were the other headliners. Courteeners brought a whole host of rock and indie anthems to the festival and were met with an amazing reaction from the crowd. Their set was a popular one and had lots of people jumping for them. The weekend was then closed by the Sunday headliner; Madness. It rounded the weekend off well and had everybody moving. They were a very popular choice for the family groups as it meant everyone could enjoy the show, regardless of where they were stood.

The festival offered something for everybody and while it had quite a hard lean towards rock and indie music, lots of other genres were covered and were there for those who wanted some variety. As well as that, it had a real mix of older and more current artists. The Big Gin main stage saw more recent artists such as Hard Life, The Last Dinner Party and Sigrid but also some older groups like Primal Scream and Shed Seven. It was a nice even distribution of bookings and therefore drew in younger, older and family audiences.

Whilst each act was different from the next, there were some bookings which stood out more than the others. The first of these were Himalayas. They drew a huge crowd to the Giant Squid tent and gave a really interesting performance. As well as that, their rock style was a little different to others and were a great way for those walking into the main arena to start the weekend.

Another great booking was The Last Dinner Party. This was a return for them, only this time they were the penultimate act of the day on the main stage with a much larger crowd. It had been a huge development for them since they were last there and the breakout stars were a very popular hit for all those who were there. It was a very fun set and it had a great balance of talking portions to performing, with a number of unreleased songs being played and shown off to the crowd.

Sigrid was another great booking from the festival. It has been a couple of years since she has done a live run in the UK but this festival season has seen her at a number of them. As a more recent and modern artist, she still brought a whole host of hits and presence to the stage. It was a great booking from the organisers and was a major hit in the younger demographic.

One final booking I am keen to highlight is Primal Scream. This legendary group took to the main stage on Friday with a set full of anthems and a very loud crowd. It was a great booking and they kept their set fresh with the introduction of other instruments, such as making a saxophone one of the focal points of the set and using it as more of a guitar part.

I was impressed on a few other counts aside from the music. As far as merch goes, I would argue it had the most reasonably priced out of all the festivals I have come across, with a t-shirt costing around £25. As well as that, there was a lot of attention to what there would be demand for. There were a number of tents left open at the end of the night to accommodate those who didn’t want to leave yet. Each had something different, from club music, to dance music. and acoustic sets. Organisers also noted that Oasis tribute band Noasis would be popular, and upgraded them to the biggest stage in the days leading up to the festival. It was a very well put together festival and promises to be one to look out for. It was equally exciting, well organised and  atmospheric, all with stunning scenery to match it.