The best: Music festivals across the North in 2023

Headlined by Bastille, Anne Marie and Hacienda Classical, Lancaster’s Highest Point kicks off the 2023 northern festival season with a four-day early summertime party in the park in the shadow of the imposing Grade I-listed Ashton Memorial Dome. Keep checking the Highest Point Festival Facebook for hundreds of imminent act reveals.

Transforming the May Bank Holiday weekend into a British millennial nostalgia trip starring The Kooks, The Wombats, Ocean Colour Scene, Sugababes, Scouting For Girls and more, Warrington’s Neighbourhood Weekender relives the halcyon days of noughties indie and pop music in the unsung DMZ between Manchester and Merseyside.

Taking place on the same weekend and in honour of a parallel subculture from the exact same era, West Yorkshire’s unapologetic pop punk jamboree stars The Offspring and Enter Shikari as headliners, with Bowling For Soup, Billy Talent, Less Than Jake and Yellowcard also performing on a weekend where the checkered Vans slip-ons are visible beneath even the deepest puddles.

Back and somehow bigger than ever with a recently announced lineup featuring The Prodigy, Wu-Tang Clan and Skrillex alongside a slate of local legends including Aitch and The 1975, the north’s most popular festival takes over Heaton Park with another mud-caked instalment of cider-swilling bedlam across nine stages to commence summer in earnest.

Headlined by Death Grips and Denzel Curry, the alternative hardcore and punk festival upsizes to Depot Mayfield for a fresh headbanging frenzy with a selection of international acts including Earl Sweatshirt, skating, art exhibitions and more.

Now a cornerstone of the Manchester live music calendar, Sounds of the City returns for 2023 with a series of headline shows in Castlefield including Porcupine Tree, Blossoms, Bastille and Hacienda Classical, with each performing across nine hazy summer evenings in the city centre.

Uniting another impressively diverse group of astonishingly accomplished musicians across five pleasant nights on Lytham Green, Lancashire’s biggest festival returns with a lineup fit for Glasto including Y2K trailblazer Jamiroquai, smash hit specialist George Ezra and 80s titans like Sting, Lionel Richie and Kim Wilde alongside ageless rockers Def Leppard and Motley Crue.

Described by The Times as a ‘sense-blitzing spectacular’, Britain’s best science-infused music festival brings another year of live experiments, expert panels, seminars from world-leading intellectuals and a cosmic coterie of legendary artists performing across four days including Grace Jones, Django Django, Black Country New Road and Annie Mac.

Over the Pennines, Sheffield’s beloved throwback party gathers more indie luminaries at Hillsborough Park and brings in a selection of 90s giants for reinforcements, with Richard Ashcroft and Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott (formerly of The Beautiful South) performing alongside Blossoms, The Courteeners, Reverend and The Makers, Kate Nash, Kaiser Chiefs and more.

From UK festival lynchpin Nile Rodgers to a reinvigorated Serge-fronted Kasabian, Britain’s most scenic shindig provides the broadest imaginable spectrum of live music as well as a dizzying array of experiences including The Picture House, Oktoberfest, Kids Calling and more spread across the lush woodlands of the Lake District.

Taking place across several iconic Northern Quarter venues including Night and Day, Matt & Phred’s, SOUP and Band on the Wall, as well as The Stoller Hall, Halle St. Peter’s and New Century Hall, Manchester Folk Festival unites a wide range of talented musicians to celebrate the breadth and diversity of contemporary folk music. The star-studded line-up includes Bonfire Radicals, Granny’s Attic, Blackbeard’s Tea Party and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Full festival tickets start from £90, but individual gig tickets are now available.