A stunning Y Not Festival 2025 (Review)

Courteeners, Madness, The Prodigy, Sigrid, The Last Dinner Party, Noasis and The Wombats

Plus Franz Ferdinand, Shed Seven, The K’s, hard life, Primal Scream, Fish55Octagon, Fickle Friends, The Lancashire Hotpots, Pixey, The Twang, Riley Marsh, April Tapes, The Red Rum Club, The Pigeon Detectives, Mr Motivator, Foxglove, Eight Eight Miles, Circa Waves & more performed at the Peak District festival.

A stunning Y Not Festival 2025 saw headline sets from The Wombats, The Prodigy, Courteeners and Madness in a weekend of crowd sing-alongs to pop, rock and indie classics.

Among other bands on the bill were The Last Dinner Party, Primal Scream, Sigrid and Maxïmo Park, while The K’s performed a triumphant set in the week they hit number 1 in the album charts.

‘Oasis summer’ hit the festival as tribute band Noasis played to a 20,000-strong festival crowd after being bumped up to the ‘Big Gin’ main stage due to massive demand. Riding high off the Brit-pop revival, lead vocalist Darren Spiby cracked out covers of ‘Wonderwall’ and kept the rain at bay with their Noasis festival spirit. Video of the ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ Poznán and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ in full voice here.

Elsewhere on a huge bill, Mr Motivator got everyone up for the weekend at Saturday lunchtime, and festival goers got involved in Rockaoke, Silent Disco and the annual Paint Fight.

Thursday (31st July)

Headliners The Wombats were welcomed back to Pike Hall, previously playing in 2018. The charismatic band were eager to “bring the energy”. Kicking off with a timely ‘Sorry I’m Late’, the band rounded off their stellar set with indie favourites ‘Greek Tragedy’ and ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’ to a buzzing main stage crowd.

Friday (1st August)

A pulverising Prodigy headline set saw Maxim challenging the crowd to bring the rave and rock energy as the band delivered massive beats with hits including pounding opened ‘Voodoo People’, ‘Invaders Must Die’, ‘Out of Space’ and ‘No Good (Start The Dance)’. Mastermind Liam Howlett pulled the strings of a truly epic set from the dance legends.

In a white suit, black shirt and crocodile boots, Bobby Gillespie led Primal Scream into a rocking ‘Don’t Fight It, Feel It’ before the disco-tinged recent single ‘Love Insurrection’ and then an unstoppable’Jailbird’.

The Hunna enjoyed a mass singalong with the epic ‘Bonfire’, singer Ryan Potter saying: “Y Not, you sound beautiful. Do you think you can top that? I want you to sing your hearts out.”

The crowd did top that, taking the lead on a communal ‘She’s Casual’.

hard life frontman Murray Matravers took to the stage on his festival homecoming, with Y Not revealed as the first festival he visited 15 years ago, as well as being his first ever gig in the open mic acoustic tent.

Saturday (2nd August)

Courteeners preempted a Sunday set from Madness with their own cover of ‘It Must Be Love’ in a raucous set that saw them asking for free tequilas and singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to someone called Greg before launching into ‘Not Nineteen Forever’.  

Brit Awards Best New Artist Last Dinner Party brought the theatre to the stage with their set decorated with ornate Roman columns. Lead singer Abigail Morris stepped out in a black trench coat over a long white dress. The band warmed up the packed main stage with opener ‘Burn Alive’ and, later, pulled off an incredible live debut of their new release, ‘Angus Dei’. The rockers wrapped up their set with their stomping anthem ‘Nothing Matters’.

Norwegian singer-songwriter Sigrid lit up Pikehall with familiar hits and her enthusiastic band. Blasting out optimistic tracks ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’, ‘Plot Twist’, ‘Sucker Punch’ and ‘Don’t Feel Like Crying’, the young artist proved her vocal tenacity, hitting belting notes while keeping the crowd energised. With a superhero-style cartoon avatar hovering behind her on-screen, the singer launched into the final segment of her set, closing off with megahits ‘Mirror’ and UK top-ten chart single ‘Strangers’.

Chesterfield rockers April Tapes made their Y Not debut – earning their main stage spot as this year’s Apply To Play winners. The five-piece got Pikehall rowdy and ready for an afternoon of music. While it marked their first time performing at Y Not Festival, it definitely doesn’t look like it’ll be their last.

Birmingham collective The Twang returned to Y Not for the first time in more than a decade for a triumphant main-stage set. Singer Phil Etheridge said: “It’s great to be back at the festival. It was a lot of fun, and thank you to all the people who came to see us.”

Alright the allotment stage through a series of “knees up” bangers like ‘Dress Code’ and ‘Runaway’ and bassist Brad Mills said: “I keep saying to the lads – and the lads likewise – it’s our favourite festival we do – the size, the feel and the atmosphere. It’s an absolute belter and we’d do it every year if we could.”

After a set of exquisite melodies, including the rousing ‘Call Me Up’, Riley from Daydreamers said: “We’ve never been here before and it’s been a pleasure. The crowd were great and just really enjoyed every moment of it.”

Getting festivalgoers into gear, Mr Motivator had the Y Not Festival crowd moving to Eminem remixes and punchy pop tunes – all at midday! The fitness guru opened the main stage to a sea of early risers. He led a couple of hundred happy campers, including some bananas, Cruella de Vil and a dinosaur, through his morning workout to get them set for the rest of the day.

Sunday (3rd August)

“That was insane – that’s the best crowd I’ve ever seen,” a member of Madness was heard uttering as they left the stage before the encore. Singer Suggs led the band through a set packed with stone-cold pop classics ahead of their forthcoming Hits Parade Tour later year. ‘One Step Beyond’, ‘Baggy Trousers’, ‘Our House’ and, of course, ‘It Must Be Love’ – the crowd sang every word.  

The day opened with tribute band Noasis, who had watched Oasis at Wembley the night before. James ‘Noel’ Cropley, said: “I loved it. We saw Oasis on Saturday at Wembley and it still seems a bit weird that I was watching them do Champagne Supernova last night and here I am in front of 20,000 people playing the same songs. It’s a reality check sometimes. But it’s still magical for us to come out and play to this many people. 
So, perfect. All right. Yeah, I’ll see you.”

Fresh from their number one album success, The K’s stormed the Big Gin to one of the biggest crowds of the weekend. Drummer Nathan Peers said: “We’ve had such an overwhelming week – in the best way. The love we’ve been shown, the support we’ve had – it’s just been so overwhelming. To get a number 1 album and then go out to a crowd like that – it’s just the cherry on top.”

Before leading Shed Seven through hits including ‘Chasing Rainbows’ and ‘Going For Gold’, indie legend Rick Witter said: “Y Not is an amazing festival. It’s really safe. 
It’s very well run, it’s clean, and it’s full of lovely families, and we’re going to rock it.”

Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos was full of praise for Shed Seven and excited to see headliner Madness. He told the crowd: “The first single I ever bought as a boy was ‘Baggy Trousers’, so I’m really excited about that.” They followed a lauded Glastonbury set with an even more spectacular Y Not show.

Y Not Festival

Y Not Festival’s John Dell said: “Y Not Festival saw our biggest ever Thursday night with a set from the Wombats, a thunderous Prodigy headline and an anthemic Courteeners and a glorious Madness performance. An Oasis sing-along in the Derbyshire countryside was ideal for a Sunday afternoon. It’s Oasis summer after all!

“This year’s Y Not Festival has been the best ever, and we’re proud to bring the likes of The Last Dinner Party, Primal Scream, Sigrid and Maxïmo Park to the Peak District.

“The crowd has been immense throughout – thank you to everyone who made this the party of the year!”

Sign up for Y Not 2026 early bird pre-sale here.