Lindisfarne Festival has always felt like a pilgrimage — a late‑summer escape to the edge of the world where the North Sea meets the sky and music spills across the fields of Beal Farm. But in 2026, that pilgrimage comes with a new urgency. With just 500 tickets left and the festival officially celebrating its fastest‑selling year ever, the countdown to the North East’s most distinctive independent festival has never felt more electric.

If you thought Burn It Down had already carved out its place as one of the UK’s most essential alternative festivals, Torquay is about to prove you wrong. This September, the seaside turns seismic as Burn It Down 2026 rolls in with a line-up so stacked it feels almost reckless.

GANS are two long‑time friends from the Black Country finally making music for themselves rather than anyone else. What began in late 2023 as a need to create, has already grown into something louder, stranger and more emotionally charged than either expected, a collision of post‑punk abrasion, electronic pulse and the lived grit of the Midlands. Across our conversation, they spoke with disarming honesty about friendship, place, vulnerability, and the soul in human-made art, revealing a project that refuses to stand still and thrives on instinct, humour and the thrill of pushing forward.

Julia Jacklin has always written like someone trying to make sense of the emotional weather inside her own chest — but her new single ‘The Hardest Thing’ feels like she’s finally stepped outside to watch the storm from above. Premiered by Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1, the track arrives as the third reveal from her upcoming album The Gem (out 25 September), and it’s accompanied by one of the most striking videos of her career: a single, sweeping helicopter shot drifting through the Melbourne skyline.

Beautiful Days once again proved why it remains one of the UK’s most singular festivals: a proudly political, resolutely grassroots celebration where crusties, punks, folkies and families collide in glorious harmony. Across the weekend, the site pulsed with radical energy — from Steve White & The Protest Family’s evidence‑based punk and Bar Stool Preachers’ barnstorming solidarity, to Lisa O’Neill’s haunting folk laments and Meryl Streek’s feral midday detonation. Big‑stage heavyweights like Gogol Bordello, Nova Twins and The Proclaimers kept the crowds roaring, while local heroes Sound of the Sirens and Samantics brought heart and humour. With killer food, zero screens, and a crowd more likely to be reading a book than filming a set, Beautiful Days felt defiantly analogue — a festival where community still matters and the revolution, blessedly, refuses to be televised.

Prince Buster – Blue Beat Hits (The Blue Beat Label, released August 7th 2026) is a lovingly remastered time capsule of ska’s formative years, Blue Beat Hits lands as both a celebration and a reminder, before 2 Tone, before Mod revivals, before British chart‑friendly ska, there was Prince Buster, the architect whose swagger, humour and rhythmic invention shaped an entire musical language.

She’s In Parties arrive at this year’s Big Feastival with momentum that most young bands can only dream of. Fresh from supporting White Lies, tearing through a slew of UK festivals, and earning a long‑list nod for Best Live Performer at the AIM Awards, the Essex/London outfit step onto the Feastival main stage with confidence, chaos, and a whole lot of charm.

The Association for Independent Music (AIM) has announced the final wave of nominees for the 2026 Independent Music Awards — and at the heart of this year’s celebration sits a moment of long‑overdue recognition. Drum & bass pioneers Fabio & Grooverider will receive the prestigious Innovator Award, honouring more than three decades of boundary‑pushing influence that helped shape UK club culture as we know it.

Levelling the Land is being reborn. For its 35th anniversary, the Levellers have gone back to the original tapes, unearthed lost demos, and rebuilt the album with the sonic weight it always deserved. What emerges is a definitive edition of one of Britain’s most important folk‑punk records, a release that feels less like nostalgia and more like cultural renewal.

Mallory Knox have never been a band that simply carried on. Every era of their career has been marked by intent, by a desire to push forward, to refine, to evolve. But their latest chapter feels different. It feels like a return, a restoration, and a reimagining all at once.

Manchester’s lo‑fi indie duo Succulents have always carried the charm of a band you feel you’ve known for years, the kind who could be rehearsing in the terrace house next door, windows steamed, guitars slightly out of tune, harmonies sweet enough to fog the glass. With their new single ‘Work It Out’, they take that familiar intimacy and fire it into a sub‑three‑minute burst of fuzzed‑up joy that cements them as one of the most quietly exciting DIY acts emerging this year.

Fletchr Fletchr’s second EP, On The Island We Call Home, lands on Friday 21st August via Polydor and feels like a band levelling up in real time. Across its five tracks, they fuse widescreen indie rock with a lyrical lens that turns modern anxieties into something strangely hopeful.

We caught up with Devon 5 piece, The Kabins, after their appearance at the famous Keg n' Pasty. We chatted about this being the first time that they had played Boardmasters, their musical influences, what's been happening in their very busy lives and their new track 'Cherry' that EVERYONE shoudl check out at least once in their lives!

We caught up half of FLETCHR FLETCHR, the band that opened up the main stage at Boardmasters 2026. We chatted about their roots, the road to the main stage after playing The View a couple of years back, their new single and their forthcoming UK tour in September (tickets on sale NOW).

We caught up with Abbie Piper who performs a beautiful mix of Soul, R&B and Electronic music and chatted about the last time I saw her which was 10 years ago in a bar in Totnes and how her music has evolved since then.

We caught up with Jamie Yost after his appearance on The View stage, we chatted about the very first time I saw Jamie play nearly 10 years ago, the beauty that the stage has to offer and what the future holds for Jamie.

We caught up with Emily and Tom from Cornish band COSM who perform a fab blend of indie rock, Psych and Shoegaze. We chatted about an 'almost' wardrobe malfunction, the stage crew getting more than just 'The View' and future gigs.

There’s a particular thrill when a band from the mid‑2000s indie boom decides to revisit the UK, not as a nostalgia act, but as a still‑vital, still‑fun, still‑chaotic live force. This August, We Are Scientists are doing exactly that, making an intimate stop at KU Stockton as part of their summer festival run and the ongoing celebrations around 20 years of With Love and Squalor.

A random riff in rush‑hour traffic stopped me in my tracks and led me straight to The Skinner Brothers — a masked, DIY powerhouse turning rejection into a movement. I came for the music, but I stayed for the family they’ve built around it.

Forty years into The Wonder Stuff’s existence, Miles Hunt remains gloriously unchanged. He still swears with the precision of a craftsman, still laughs like someone who’s seen too much to take anything too seriously, and still talks about music with the kind of unguarded affection that makes you remember why bands matter in the first place.

When we meet, he’s nursing a cold, a souvenir from a rare trip to London. “I live rurally and I don’t see many people” he says, half‑laughing, half‑complaining. “But I went to London and spent a fucking hour on the tube in rush hour. Exactly 72 hours later, I’ve got a cold.” It’s classic Miles: observational, irritated and amused, all at the same time.