Hey folks! Sometimes this job comes with perks. Like last week, for instance, I got to travel to the peak district and witness Y Not Festival in the glorious Derbyshire Dales. In capacity for Still Listening Magazine, it was a absolute blast. You can read our full write-up on the link below!

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Y NOT | PEAK DISTRICT FESTIVAL DELIVERS ONE OF THEIR BEST TO DATE

From an intimate house party in 2005 to a fully-fledged 33,000-capacity festival, Y Not Festival has always been one of the most pivotal independent music festivals on any calendar. As each year passes, the sprawling event set in the foothills of Derbyshire Dales seems to get bolder, bigger and better every year. This year was certainly no exception.

For most young explorers into the festival circuit, the festival offers the genres’ future with the likes of The Rosadocs, KEO and Friday headliners The Reytons performing. For those more adept millennials, the festival masterfully incorporates legendary acts into the line-up with Ash and Happy Mondays taking up spots, aswell as masterful tribute collective Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense Live taking centre stage in one of the smaller tents. For those late Gen Z’ers – those in the mid to late ’20s – the festival is a perfect nostalgia token reliving your former yesteryears.

Celebrating the meteoric rise of noughties’ indie bands, this years’ iteration saw a blockbuster of artists celebrating iconic album milestones. Saturday headliner Two Door Cinema Club took a trip down memory lane with performing their debut Tourist History in full and greatest hits, while The Streets took a trip down to the bus stop closing out the festival in style with a theatrical display of A Grand Don’t Come For Free in full. An ever-important record endorsed by tomorrow’s artists still influenced by it, Mike Skinner forever remains one of Britain’s most distinctive live performances. Is it hip-hop or is it spoken word poetry? The lack of briefing makes all the more intriguing.

Elsewhere, fellow indie stalwarts The Vaccines were having their own anniversary party, as they enjoyed playing select picks from What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? – a full 15 years since its release in 2011. Aside from making you feel old, some of these records were the catalysts to what started folks’ love of indie music – including me. Both Two Door Cinema Club and The Vaccines had a crucial part to play in me finding myself throughout youth with these records being some of the first I owned with my own money I had saved from that pot-washing job I had.

It’s one of the reasons why it makes festivals like these feel so special – reminiscing about the good old days of teenage angst enjoying it with fellow indie-dwellers among a friendly, community spirit.

It wasn’t set albums that wound the clocks back either. An artist not devoid of any big singalongs, Kaiser Chiefs perfected a marvellous showing on the main stage bringing the likes of classics Ruby and Modern Way to the fields – which no doubt soundtracked your younger years one way or another. Really putting legendary into legendary, glam rock maestros Scissor Sisters brought a bit of gender-defying colour to the Dales sharing their boundless hits since late 2003. Singer Jake Shears dedicated the preamble to Take Your Mama to all those moms and mums who played their first record in the car. A memory I share fondly with many I’m sure.

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