The first headliners of next year’s Lytham Festival have been announced this morning, with Justin Timberlake and Alanis Morissette both heading up north.
The massive live music event will return to the Lytham St Anne’s seafront – just a stone’s throw from Blackpool – in July 2025.
The outdoor gig series has attracted massive names over the years, from Kylie to The Strokes to Shania Twain to Rod Stewart to Lionel Richie.
And next year looks set to be no different, with Lytham Festival today announcing the line-up for three nights of its five-night festival.
As well as Alanis Morissette and Justin Timberlake, there’ll be a joint headline performance from Simple Minds at Texas at the TK Maxx presents Lytham Festival 2025.
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Details of the two remaining headliners will be revealed soon, with the festival taking place between 2 and 6 July.
The iconic and influential Alanis Morisette will be headlining on Friday 4 July, performing her hits like Ironic, You Oughta Know, Hand in My Pocket and Thank U.
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Justin Timberlake has been announced as a headliner of Lytham Festival 2025. Credit: SuppliedAlanis Morisette will also headline Lytham Festival 2025. Credit: Supplied
The seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician performed a sold-out world tour back in 2021, celebrating 25 years of her landmark album Jagged Little Pill.
On Saturday 5 July the Lytham Festival stage will be graced by Justin Timberlake, as he brings his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour to Lytham Green.
The former NSYNC star has won 10 Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, and even earned an Oscar nomination, with six studio albums and 54 million album sales under his belt.
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The closing night will be headlined by global rock icons and Scottish legends Simple Minds and Texas.
One of the most successful bands to ever come from the UK, Simple Minds have sold more than 60 million records worldwide and enjoyed number one singles on both sides of the Atlantic.
Simple MindsTexasSimple Minds and Texas have announced a joint headline show at Lytham Festival 2025. Credit: Supplied
And Texas have a four-decade-long career with 10 studio albums, five compilation albums and 45 singles, including their iconic debut I Don’t Want A Lover.
Details of who will be headlining on Wednesday July 2 and Thursday July 3 along with all support acts and special guests will be announced soon.
Lytham Festival co-founder Peter Taylor said: “It’s that time of year again and what a line up we have planned. Everyone we are announcing today is an absolute music icon and we can’t wait to welcome them to Lytham.
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“Alanis Morissette is quite simply a cultural phenomenon and an artist with incredible integrity and acclaim who is celebrated globally. To then have the huge superstar that is Justin Timberlake headlining the following night is a booking we are very excited about and one we are confident will be a huge hit.
“Then we have a brilliant double headlining set with two amazing Scottish artists, in the form of Simple Minds and Texas, to close the festival. These are two bands that I know will be very popular with our Lytham audience.
“And we’ve not finished there. Watch this space as we still have our Wednesday and Thursday headliners plus a lot of special guests to announce in the coming weeks. It’s only September but already Lytham Festival 2025 is shaping up to be another incredible week of live music.”
Individual tickets for Friday to Sunday go on sale at 8am Friday from lythamfestival.com
A brand new grunge and hard rock festival is kicking off in Manchester
Danny Jones
Manchester grungers, hardcore heads, and fans of all things rock, pay attention because there is a brand new festival coming to the city centre – and it has possibly the best name for a live music event we’ve heard in some time.
Ahem… let us introduce you to Broken Knees Fest.
Yes, donning a name that feels increasingly more relatable the closer we get to the wrong side of 30, Broken Knees Festival 2025 marks the inaugural edition of Manchester’s newest series of rock and grunge gigs, helping spotlight rising artists across the genres from within two crucial grassroots venues.
Very loud music inside tightly-packed, small-capacity rooms? It’s a winning formula that never fails. It’s about time we broke a sweat – here’s hoping the knees just about hold out.
Hosted in the heart of the Northern Quarter, which continues to thrive as a creative hub for new music and art of all forms, the festival will be debuting at small-cap favourites Gullivers and Castle Hotel just across the road.
As you can see, the lineup is full of up-and-coming talent within the guitar-driven space, but you can bank on more than a few bringing their die-hard fans to fill the place out to the rafters.
It doesn’t matter if you prefer punk, hardcore, grunge or another specific sub-genre found somewhere in between the ever-sprawling rock spectrum, there’s something to suit all alternative tastes at this one.
With the likes of Bohmen, Mavis, One Dimensional Creatures and Smother headlining the first-ever iteration of the festival across four stages, you can expect plenty of energy and even more noise.
Set up by the events group of the same name, Broken Knees Promotions, who help platform rock and alt acts across Greater Manchester and beyond year-round, this is more than just a festival: it’s a grassroots celebration through and through.
Best of all, if you’re interested, you don’t have to wait long because it’s kicking off next month.
Gigs go off in here. If you know, you know… (Credit: Audio North)
Broken Knees Fest 2025 is happening on the weekend of 21-22 June, and you’ll be glad to hear that, as a brand new event, prices have been kept nice and low.
The early bird window had prices starting from just £12, and although this tier has now sold out, day tickets are still only £15 while a full weekend pass will set you back £25.
Until then, why not dive into another load of new Manchester music? We round up artists from all genres each month; we’ll also confess to leaning slightly more towards the heavier stuff from time to time.
Olly Murs cancels Manchester gig after walking off stage six songs into huge arena show
Daisy Jackson
Olly Murs has now officially cancelled his show in Manchester tonight, a day after walking off stage just six songs into a huge arena gig.
The Heart Skips a Beat star had been performing in Glasgow last night when he abruptly stopped the show, apologised to fans, and left the stage.
The gig was cancelled around 30 minutes into his show, which is part of a huge UK arena tour that was meant to be heading to Manchester tonight.
A tearful Olly said that he was seeing a doctor last night and would update fans of the rest of his shows ‘as soon as I know anything’.
It’s now been confirmed that his gig at the AO Arena will not be going ahead.
Olly Murs said in a statement: “30 minutes into my set in Glasgow I lost my voice & unfortunately had to leave the stage midway through the show. This has never happened before and not something I take lightly.
“I’m sorry to all the fans who came out to the show last night and am forever grateful for your support.
“To everyone in Manchester and Birmingham I’m deeply sorry, but am unfortunately going to have to cancel my shows this weekend. I have contracted a respiratory infection and have been instructed to go on a strict 48 hour voice rest by the doctor to ensure no further damage to my vocal cords.
“I have been enjoying this tour so much, and am so sorry to let down my fans – but have to put my health first. I’m hoping to be fighting fit in a few days to finish this amazing 15 year celebratory tour with a bang.”
In a video he shared to Instagram last night, Olly Murs said: “Firstly I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I had to walk off after six songs and cancel the show. I’ve never done this in 15 years.
“Most of the time as singers you can kind of get through it if your voice isn’t 100% – I walked out tonight thinking my voice was great, I maybe felt a little bit run down but I didn’t think I couldn’t do the show. I wouldn’t have come out there otherwise.
“So to walk off after six songs, as I said, I’m so sorry. As you can probably hear from my voice, I just sounded rubbish and it’s unfair for you guys that spent all that money to come and see me. You deserve the best show and me being at my best, and I’m so sorry from the bottom of my heart.
“Hopefully I can recover from this.
“I’m actually going to see a doctor tonight which is great, so I’ll give you guys an update as soon as I know anything. Obviously I wanna try my absolute best to make these shows possible at the weekend.
“So yeah, so sorry for everyone tonight, apologies from the bottom of my heart. Gutted.”
Daisy Jackson -
23rd September 2024 
