Lancaster Music Festival

One of the North’s standout urban festivals, Lancaster Music Festival hosts hundreds of performances in 60 venues around the historic city of Lancaster. Popping up everywhere from shops to churches, canal boats to public squares, this festival brings together vibrant and eclectic sounds, ensuring there is something for every taste.

Thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign and support from the Arts Council and Lancaster BID, more people than ever have opportunities to participate in what has become one of the country’s largest city and grassroots music festivals from 12-15 October.

The 13th instalment Lancaster Music Festival follows on from last year’s success, when the festival’s 525(!) performances brought £2.3 million to the local economy. Performances popped up in all kinds of places, and spanned the genre spectrum, including some classical highlights. Violinist Laure Chan, for example, performed at various venues, busk stops and secret gigs last year, after which she said: “I love that the festival takes music to the public, especially classical music which sometimes can be a bit stuffy. London could learn a lot from Lancaster.”

New attractions for 2023 include performances on unusual instruments in Market Square and an attempt by concert pianist, Siqian Li, to play every acoustic piano in the city centre. There’ll be more than 60 festival venues across Lancaster, from shops to churches and a canal boat to pubs and three public squares, all hosting acts playing a wide range of music genres. Highlights include the trans-European Blue Giant Orkestar, Eljuri (one of the top Latina electric guitar players in the world) and alternative pop band Hi Sienna.

There’s also a lot programmed for children and young people. Pupils at Willow Lane Primary School will join those at Dallas Road Primary School in benefitting from festival workshops with musicians ranging from Lancaster rockers, Massive Wagons to Chinese pipa player, Cheng Yu. Lancaster-based band LOWES will mentor four young acts at Lancaster Music Festival Academy, and there’ll even be a chance for the public to conduct the city’s Haffner Orchestra.

In an effort to increase female representation at the event – which rose to 53% on the 12 festival stages last year – More Music will also run Girls Can workshops in primary schools, complementing an all-female stage at The Storey. Acts playing on that stage include Manchester’s own Loose Articles, who specialist in discordant, hypnotic repetition, tales of boozy nights out, and radical politics.

Around 97% of festival events are free or pay as you feel. For details about the line-up, head to Lancaster Music Festival’s website via the ‘Visit Now’ button above.