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
Audio
Wigan band The Lathums announce five gigs at five intimate Manchester venues
Daisy Jackson
The Lathums have announced five intimate shows at some of the most iconic grassroots venues in Manchester.
The huge Wigan band will be taking it back to their roots and performing at some of the venues that ‘helped them get started’, from super-intimate bars to legendary small venues.
The Lathums have announced the five-night tour in Manchester in celebration of the fifth anniversary of their chart-topping debut album, How Beautiful Life Can Be.
They’ll be playing to small crowds at Night & Day, Deaf Institute, Gorilla, New Century, and the O2 Ritz next spring.
At each of the five gigs they’ll perform their debut album in full along with other fan favourites from their impress back catalogue.
How Beautiful Life Can Be went straight to number one on the UK official charts on its release in 2021, with top songs like ‘Oh My Love’, ‘How Beautiful Life Can Be’, and ‘I’ll Get By’.
Meet Larishka – the DJ making her mark on Manchester’s Garage scene
Emily Johnson
It’s time to meet Larishka – Audio North’s Artist of the Month for October.
For Larishka, music has always been around her in some form. Growing up surrounded by classical and rock music, she never expected her route into electronic music to begin with a Parklife set from Carl Cox, before eventually becoming a DJ, promoter, and co-owner of Manchester’s Ghosts of Garage.
Today, she runs events, DJs across House, Garage and Bass, and is helping build a community around one of Manchester’s most exciting electronic music brands.
From promoter to DJ
Larishka actually started out as a promoter while doing an apprenticeship at a music booking agency. She always knew she wanted to work on the events side rather than bookings, but felt like she wasn’t going to make many connections within the industry while living in Oldham.
Her plan was to go to university to study music, with the hope of learning to produce while also moving into Manchester and making connections within the city’s music scene.
Quite quickly into her studies, she joined Ghosts of Garage. After about a year, she had something of a lightbulb moment.
Meet Larishka, the DJ making her mark on Manchester’s Garage scene / Credit: Supplied
“I was studying music, I run my own nights, and I was always on the aux at house parties, so why have I not learned to DJ yet?” she explained.
That realisation came while she was sitting on MATTIK’s living room sofa, where she asked if he would teach her. Before long, she was calling him every day asking if they could go to the studio and practise mixing.
“I owe it to him really, he was a brilliant teacher.”
“I get it” – the Parklife moment that changed everything
Larishka’s introduction to electronic music wasn’t exactly the traditional one.
“I grew up on classical and rock music – my dad was a sound engineer in the 70s so that was his thing really, and my mum played the piano every single day so that’s what I was constantly around.”
She first heard house music when she was around 15 or 16, after a friend sent her a track they had found on SoundCloud.
“I listened to it out of my phone and didn’t really get it, it was too repetitive.”
A few years later, everything changed. After hearing Parklife from her window every year growing up, Larishka eventually went to the festival for the first time and watched Carl Cox close The Valley. He played ‘Finder’ by Ninetoes, and it was the first time she had experienced electronic music on a huge sound system.
“I remember being in absolute awe and turning to my friend and saying ‘I get it’ and from then, I was just absolutely hooked.”
It became a genuine turning point.
“I had my A Level exams that following week and when I was revising all I was listening to was house music and I remember my Dad coming in and saying ‘Is this you forever now?’ and I said ‘Yeah I think it is'”.
Larishka is Audio North’s Artist of the Month for October / Credit: Supplied
Why Manchester means so much
“I mean it’s home, and always has been.”
Having become part of the city’s music scene, she says she feels incredibly lucky to have found a community around her.
“There’s a certain camaraderie that exists here that I don’t know that you’d find anywhere else.”
For her, that sense of community is what makes Manchester’s music scene so special.
“Seeing people you know everywhere you go, you kinda feel like you’re never alone and that you’re actually part of something.”
That spirit extends beyond electronic music, too.
“And it’s not just in electronic music either, that spirit exists across all genres – Manchester music history is so rooted across such a broad spectrum of genres, and to see that still prevailing today is something we should all be proud of.”
Building Ghosts of Garage
It’s impossible to talk about Larishka’s journey without talking about Ghosts of Garage.
She’s a co-owner of the brand, having joined in 2021, and works across its marketing, bookings and creative direction alongside Rich Reason. For her, one of the biggest things that makes a Ghosts of Garage night stand out is its commitment to the music.
“The music and lineups truly never miss, which is a credit to Rich. The guy knows how to program a lineup.”
The team makes a conscious effort to champion new talent, often including at least one Manchester or UK debut on a lineup.
“A big part of each event is making them unique while keeping the brand consistent – each event has to have its own USP or else the nights get boring and people think they can just skip this one and go to the next and it’ll be the same.”
For Larishka, music has always been around her in some form / Credit: Supplied
Community is a huge part of the brand.
“We’re also big advocates of community and want to create the gap between audience and DJ as little as possible, so try to get the crowd involved as much as possible through things like our WhatsApp community.”
The aim is to make people feel like buying a ticket means becoming part of something bigger.
“We want people to feel like if you buy a ticket for our event, then you’ve unlocked a key to be part of something.”
Larishka’s advice for getting into Manchester’s music scene
For anyone hoping to break into Manchester’s music scene, Larishka’s advice is simple – go out.
“I’m way more likely to book you if we’ve met and we’ve had a good chat because it means I can put a face to a name and I know what you’re like.”
For her, being part of the community is about more than simply sending messages and asking for opportunities.
“Being an active member of the community means you’re already part of the night, so booking you to DJ just makes you even more part of it than you already are, rather than someone I’ve never met before who’s in my DMs.”
Ultimately, it comes back to the same thing that has shaped so much of Larishka’s own journey – showing up, meeting people, and becoming part of something.
Daisy Jackson -
10th May 2023 
