Lancashire’s Highest Point Festival has revealed two new headliners for its line-up, as it prepares to return to its 54-acre home in Williamson Park this summer.
The festival has revealed that Grammy award-winning chart-toppers Clean Bandit are set to perform the headline slot on Friday night, followed by rock legends Kaiser Chiefs on Saturday.
The Lancashire event, which lays claim to the title of being the county’s biggest open-air music festival, has already confirmed music royalty and former ‘The Verve’ frontman Richard Ashcroft as its third headliner.
Image: Highest Point Festival
Further announcements revealed by Highest Point today include support slots from the likes of Basement Jaxx, Sigala, Example, Brit Nominee Not3s, Low Steppa, as well as performances from breakout stars Mae Muller and Mimi Webb.
Revellers can also look forward to appearances from Horse Meat Disco, SASASAS, Shy FX, Sub Focus, Turno, DJ & producer Emily Nash, Lancaster natives Lowes, Judge Jules, Luke Una, Charlie Tee and local hero Matt Thiss plus indie favourites Reverend and the Makers, The Lottery Winners and The Sherlocks.
Bringing a heavy dose of nostalgia, Escape Classics, Mr Wilsons Second Liners, 80s V 90s and Funkademia promise to wow crowds.
Elsewhere, festival favourites The Cuban Brothers will return once again with their outrageous comedy performances.
During the 2022 festival, guests can expect to see a huge variety of artists across multiple stages whilst enjoying regional street food and craft beer on-site.
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Image: HIghest Point Festival
New additions to the festival this year include the Not-tober beer hall, a new area of the festival which will feature an immersive bingo experience with rave intervals, dance-offs and audience participation, karaoke, drag acts & more.
There will also be a new drinks masterclass area, a bigger stage area at The Woods, plus more bars and more toilets.
The next wave of tickets for the festival go on sale this Friday at 9am and can be bought through Skiddle. This year the festival will take place between Thursday 12 and Saturday, 14 May 2022
Full weekend tickets start at £135 for an adult, or £115 for a two-day ticket, whilst individual day ticket prices start from £42.50.
The setting for the festival could very well be one of the most beautiful event sites in the UK, with enchanting woodland, and breathtaking views over Morecambe Bay and the Lake District fells and mountains.
Image: Highest Point Festival
The park is also home to Lancaster’s most iconic building, the Ashton Memorial, which dominates the city’s skyline at around 150 feet tall.
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Jamie Scahill, co-founder of the festival said, “It was amazing to be able to host the festival last September after two years off, the crowd was amazing and we had such incredible feedback.
“Now we’re back to our usual festival weekend in May, and we have another huge line up heading for Lancaster.
“We can’t wait for the festival season to kick off!’In 2021 the festival welcomed 35,000 ticket-holders for four days of fun-filled musical performances from some of the music industry’s biggest names.”
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Georgina Pellant -
9th February 2022 
