Our favourite time of the year is about to kick off, as Highest Point launches us head-first into festival season.
The massive open-air music event begins tomorrow and promises another bumper weekend of music, food and activities, as well as a whole day dedicated to families.
Set in one of the most picturesque locations of any northern festival, Highest Point will lure in around 35,000 music-lovers over the next few days.
It paves the way for the summer of live music across the north west, including Parklife, Bluedot, and Kendal Calling, plus the Sounds of the City series at Castlefield Bowl.
Highest Point Festival was first set up in 2018 as a tribute to the late Chris Glaba, who started A Wing alongside Richard Dyer and Jamie Scahill but tragically lost his short battle with cancer in 2016.
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Now, it says its ultimate goal is to ‘create a legacy music festival, to join all of the other amazing events that happen in the city, that the people of Lancaster can be proud of’.
So if you’re digging out your best festival fit and getting ready for a weekend of dancing in the fields, here’s what you need to know about Highest Point Festival 2023.
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When and where is Highest Point Festival 2023?
Highest Point Festival. Credit: Robin Zahler
This year’s festival will run between Thursday 11 and Sunday 14 May, back at the beautiful setting of Williamson Park in Lancaster.
The entrance to the park is located on Wyresdale Road, LA1 3EA.
If you’re using public transport, get the train to Lancaster and then either walk the 30 minutes to the park or take a 10-minute taxi.
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Road closures are in operation so if you’re driving, follow the signs to the customer car park at North West Auctions, Wyresdale Road, LA1 3JQ.
Who’s on the line-up for Highest Point Festival 2023?
Headliners at Highest Point 2023 will include Bastille, Anne-Marie, Sub Focus, Freya Ridings, Friendly Fires, Craig Charles, and Wigan’s very own chart-toppers The Lottery Winners.
There’ll also be a special launch night on Thursday, headlined by Hacienda Classical.
The music is split across six stages – the main stage, the Chris Glaba Memorial Stage, The Sundial, The Woods, The Dell Inn and Bushrocker HiFi at the Waterfall.
Keep reading for the full line-up, including who’s playing which day.
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Highest Point Festival 2023 tickets
Highest Point Festival. Credit: Robin Zahler
Tickets for Highest Point 2023 are priced as the following:
Adults: £145 for weekend tickets, £39.50 Thursday, £69.50 each for Friday and Saturday.
Teen tickets: £80 for weekend, £20 for Thursday, £35 each for Friday and Saturday, .
Festival food will take the shape of a regional street food offering.
The full line up of street food stalls features Supper by Sanah, Cubbins, Kitchen Tap, Pizzarana, Eat Like a Greek, Veggie Republic, Furness Fish, Senor Paella, Yardies, Halloumination, Spoon Crepes, La Petite Crepe, and Mac and Wings.
What is the Big Family Day Out?
Taking place on Sunday 14 May, this low-cost, all-inclusive day out is geared towards families to want to soak in the atmosphere at a lower ticket price.
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The theme this year will be Kings and Queens of Pop, inspired by the Coronation and Eurovision.
Visitors are encouraged to dress as their favourite pop icon from years gone by, with prizes awarded to the best-dressed.
There’ll also be music on the main stage, craft zones, vintage markets, carnival parades, dinosaurs, Paw Patrol, birds, bees, and loads more.
Binx 23:00-0:00 Sub Focus 22:00-23:00 Charlie Tee 21:00-22:00 AMA 20:00-21:00 Emily Makis 19:00-20:00 Nathan X 18:00-19:00 Lasko and T.Lee 16:30-18:00 Monika & NafroB 15:00-16:30
Dell Inn
Jamie McCool 20:15-21:00 Pub quiz with The Lovely Eggs 19:30-20:00 Lowes 18:45-19:15 Melanie Williams House Party 17:45-18:30 In Conversation with Gordon Raphael 16:45-17:30 In Conversation with DJ Paulette 16:00-16:30 Lois 15:00-15:30
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The Woods
Craig Charles 19:30-21:00 DJ Paulette 18:00-19:30 Audiowhores 17:00-18:00 Sam Redmore 16:00-17:00 David Dunne 13:00-16:00
The Waterfall
North Fire Soundsystem 19:00-20:00 Daddy1Love 18:00-19:00 Chris Holt 17:00-18:00 John Hayward 16:00-17:00 Jojo & Jnr Jahvis 15:00-16:00 Miss Chop 14:00-15:00 The Buddhakkan Headset 13:00-14:00
Danny Howard 22:30-00:00 Ki Creighton 21:00-22:30 Arielle Free 19:30-21:00 Pirate Copy 18:15-19:30 Murphy’s Law 17:00-18:15 Matrefakt 15:45-17:00 Beth 14:30-15:45 Nico Balducci 13:15-14:30 Eldon 12:00-13:15
Sundial
Binx 23:00-00:00 Sigma 22:00-23:00 Goddard & MC XL 21:00-22:00 Turno & MC Dreps 20:00-21:00 A Little Sound 19:00-20:00 Binx 18:00-19:00 DJ Clumsy 17:00-18:00 Rek:law 16:00-17:00 Charlie Tee 15:00-16:00 Coded 14:00-15:00 Grimsey 13:00-14:00
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Dell Inn
Vicky Radio 1 (pub quiz) 20:30-21:00 Sk Shlomo 19:30-20:15 Mike Garry 18:45-19:15 Andy Ellis / Thomo Turgoose 17:45-18:30 Cuban Brothers in convo 16:45-17:30 Lowes 16:00-16:30 Rich & Jamie In convo 15:00-15:30 Chris DJing 14:00-14:30
The Woods
Guilty Pleasures 16:00-21:00 Bucky 15:00-16:00 Les Croasdaile 14:00-15:00 Mark Hogg 13:00-14:00 Ginny K 12:00-13:00
The Waterfall
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Jinx in Dub & Cheshire Cat 17:30-19:00 Catch a Fire & MC Dandy Dizzle 16:30-17:30 Matty Banton 15:00-16:30 Prof P 14:00-15:00 Impressa Soundsystem 13:00-14:00 Ranking Miss P 12:00-13:00
Featured image: Robin Zahler
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Rochdale AFC go viral with song choice during promotion party celebrations
Danny Jones
Rochdale AFC are going viral on their return to the Football League, not just because of the remarkable end to their already spectacular season, but over their song choice during the promotion party in the dressing room.
We promise you: even if you haven’t seen it already, you will absolutely love this clip.
For those who haven’t been following their journey over the 25/26 campaign, Rochdale AFC were promoted back to League Two and the EFL proper, after more than a century in the top four divisions came to an end back in 2023.
Thankfully for the Greater Manchester side, who have always served as an important grassroots side throughout the decades, their hiatus wasn’t too long, and scenes inside the Wembley dressing room have been circulating all over social media – especially thanks to the track selection.
— National League on DAZN (@DAZN_NationalLg) May 10, 2026
If Olivia Dean is the artist of the moment, then Rochdale simply have to be one of the teams of the year.
Lifting the National League playoff trophy in the aftermath of a tense 2-2 draw, where the Vallians came back from a two-goal deficit to bring the tie level – thanks to goals from substitute Tyler Smith and Emmanuel Dieseruvwe in the 78th and 96th minute, respectively – you could say they were men in need.
Managing to then survive extra time and make it to penalties, another pair of crucial saves in the shoot-out from starring keeper Oliver Whatmuff, and a decisive miss from Boreham Wood’s Cameron Cox sealed the dramatic win for The Dale.
Breathless stuff.
All that being said, you’d expect some of the usual football-adjacent big win bangers to be heard in the aftermath of a playoff win: ‘Freed From Desire’, chants of ‘We are going up’, ‘Sweet Caroline’ these days, and so on.
But not these lot: they decided to stick on ‘Man I Need’, singing their hearts out and jumping up and down in unison like they were in one of her two recent Manc crowds themselves.
In case you missed it, her Co-op live shows were unsurprisingly incredible, but we’ll admit that seeing a bunch of blokes scream and cheer as they throw drinks in the air and sip suds straight from the shiny cup has definitely added another dimension to our love for this song and the Olivia ‘Deannaissance’.
Not only has the soulful singer-songwriter written one of the best radio hits in recent memory, for our money, but she’s even getting now former non-league footballers choosing her as the soundtrack to their main character moments.
You just love to see it (watch the full highlights HERE).
With Jimmy McNulty’s side having only just narrowly missed out on automatic promotion and the National League crown in that crazy title-decider against fellow entertainers York City, it can’t be denied that they’ve been the other truly box office outfit this term; another late comeback proved it once again.
No side with over 100 points and 90 goals scored should be denied going up and a piece of silverware, which is why, although they’ve been a great advert from the fifth tier, so many are still calling for ‘3UP’. We want more moments like this, please…
Tame Impala at Co-op Live, Manchester – lasers, lights, and a bit of a hangover
Daisy Jackson
The coolest man in the southern hemisphere has finally made his way back up north, for his first Manchester gig in a decade.
That cool man in question is Tame Impala, the music project of what-the-hell-can’t-he-play multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker.
Sure, last year’s single release ‘Dracula’, and then its remix re-release with K-pop megastar Jennie, may have propelled Tame Impala up towards the top of the UK singles chart for the first time, but he’s got almost two decades-worth of music to dig through beyond that too.
It’s a hefty discography and it leads to a setlist that seems to almost peak about six times.
‘How could it possibly get better than this?’ we seem to ask as he plays The Moment, Elephant, Dracula, and Let It Happen pretty early on – but better it does indeed get.
It doesn’t seem to matter whether he’s up on the main space-ship-esque stage surrounded by lasers and lights, or sat on the floor of the B Stage playing around with a keyboard, Tame Impala has an irresistible, enchanting charisma. A lot more charisma that you’d expect from a man called Kevin.
Early on, he confesses that he’s quite severely hungover from last night’s show, where he had Dua Lipa (he wrote and produced her Radical Optimism album) as a surprise guest.
But you can see the hangover clear from his eyes in real time as 23,500 Mancs scream in his face. Which might not sound like a likely hangover cure, but who am I to argue with the evidence in front of me?
Although Kevin writes, produces, and records his music solo, he’s got half a dozen musicians up on the main stage with him, which looks like a convoluted space ship that fires confetti out of its thrusters (FOUR TIMES!).
With revolving lights, dancing lasers, and a metal grid base spewing out dry ice, it’s really one hell of a production.
It’s a light show designed to give us all a glimpse of his synesthesia (meaning he sees colours when he hears music (Billie Eilish has it too)) – essentially, if you couldn’t hear a thing and could only see the stage, you can still tell exactly what song is playing.
Still, when he saunters straight through the crowd to his smaller stage to mix tracks solo – no lasers, just a few lamps – flopping down onto a tangle of wires like a mad magpie building himself a nest, it’s a chance to remember this guy’s composing prowess.
A lot of the songs performed tonight are almost orchestral in their complexity, so that the whole show merges into one thundering, bewitching night of dancing and being blasted in the face by confetti.
It’s genius.
So can you not leave it another decade before you come back, Kevin?
Daisy Jackson -
10th May 2023 
