Featured image and gallery: Gracie Hall
Alaska-based Medium Build, aka Nick Carpenter, opens up the evening with a soulful and rugged set. Carpenter, sporting a blue boiler suit, fills the former church with a growly tone and personal lyrics. ‘Crying Over U’, a song about missing someone deeply, is a standout moment.
Holly Humberstone starts the second leg of her UK tour in Manchester tonight. Having only been releasing music since 2020, Humberstone has seen a speedy rise to fame, appealing to fans of the likes of Maisie Peters and Taylor Swift. Despite the grandeur of the venue, she exudes a down-to-earth charm that makes her instantly relatable.
Backed by a talented band of Seth Tackaberry on bass, Jack Rennie on guitar and Carpark’s Lauren O’Donnell Anderson on drums, Holly delivers a setlist that showcases her impressive range as a songwriter and a performer. Opening with ‘Paint my Bedroom Black’, the title track of last year’s debut album, she flits from introspective ballads to anthemic indie-pop tracks, each song delivered with an authenticity and raw emotion that resonates.
Medium Build comes back on stage to duet with Holly during ‘Cocoon’, Humberstone’s whispery vocals blending seamlessly with Carpenter’s rougher cadence. ‘Flatlining’ is a highlight; it’s more beat driven then most of Holly’s output, more akin to the likes of Girl in Red or Olivia Rodrigo, telling a story of a relationship gone bad.
‘Falling Asleep at The Wheel’ and ‘London is Lonely’ are firm crowd pleasers as the entire hall sings like a church choir back to her. With an encore of ‘Friendly Fire’ and crowd activator ‘Scarlett’, the night closes as the audience screams the words she wrote right back at her.
Featured image and gallery: Hoang Phan Notebooks were carried from one workshop to another. Writers from different generations sat around tables, sharing manuscripts and listening to each other. Outdoors, small groups strolled along Oxford Road, pausing before buildings steeped in literary history. This was the scene during the Manchester Writing School Summer Festival 2026, held…
Featured image: Katja Ogrin With many sore heads and limbs this morning after the most hardcore day of the festival taking place yesterday, many are recovering from the moshing and pit brutality of the previous day’s antics. As the tradition of a morning movie in the Serpents Lair prevails, the crowd sprawls out onto the plush,…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026. Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early…
Featured image: Abbi Draper After a memorable Thursday opener, Bloodstock 2026 opens its gates once again onto the Hallowed Grounds of Catton Park, kicking off day two of its 25th-anniversary celebration of metal. As the sun rises on Catton Park, festivalgoers emerge from their tents to prepare for another day of mayhem. The morning brings…
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