After a break in 2024 the Neighbourhood Weekender Festival is back for 2025 for two days of music and fun on 24th and 25th May. The line-up for this year is stacked with brilliant artists so what better way to spend the late May bank holiday weekend than in Warrington with a celebration of music.
Saturday’s main headliners are James, a band that formed way back in 1982, frontman Tim Booth is sure to bring his usual energetic performance to the Victoria Park crowd, this band have been around the block a few times! After a very successful recent UK tour Liverpudlians The Wombats will bring their own brand of excitement to the festival as will The Reytons who have been busy these past few months touring Australia, Europe and the UK, these guys are sure to fire the crowd up for the weekend. The timeless Ocean Colour Scene are known for their wild live shows and this year will be no different while a few Scottish bands will make the journey down, The Snuts from West Lothian have built a massive UK fanbase and sold out most of the shows on the December tour, It is good to see Amy Macdonald back on the festival circuit too, her blend of indie and folk music has been entertaining fans around the world for twenty years now, not forgetting Glasgow’s finest Dylan John Thomas who’s music is ‘well kent’ around these parts, his debut album and tour in 2024 were very successful.
The Royston Club blew up big time during 2024, we were lucky enough to see them perform at the Neighbourhood Festival In A Day in 2022 at the Albert Hall in Manchester and since then they have become very popular around the UK, we also caught The K’s on that same night, their rise in the past couple of years has been remarkable. From just down the road in Leigh, The Lottery Winners should be very entertaining, they have just landed a second number one album with KOKO and this can be treated like a warm up for the summer tour supporting Robbie Williams when they will tour the UK and Europe playing in stadiums. There is always an Irish influence at the UK festivals and this year we have Kingfishr and Picture Parlour playing on the Saturday and a few more on Sunday. Festivals can also be about finding your new favourite band and we think that Overpass fall into this category, the Birmingham band have just come off a successful tour and Liverpool singer/songwriter Pixey will bring their own indie pop. Saturday is sounding so good already …
Welsh rockers The Stereophonics are the Sunday headliners on the main stage and are sure to attract a massive crowd for their set, Wigan indie rock band The Lathums are another band that are just off a successful UK tour after the release of album number three Matter Does Not Define, Alex Moore and the lads are sure to receive a heroes welcome from their local crowd. Inhaler dropped a fresh album earlier in 2025 alongside a sold out UK tour , Eli Hewson will be a big attraction on the Sunday that’s for sure. If rap music is more your thing then Dizzee Rascal will bring more than a few fans to the festival as will the excellent Wunderhorse. Getting back to the Irish influences folk group The Mary Wallopers have had a great couple of years including a December tour where we were lucky enough to see them perform in Belfast at the SSE Arena and the ever popular CMAT is back with new music that will no doubt be great live. Corella have been attracting a lot of attention this past year, we have saw them live a couple of times and can confirm that they truly are a special band.
Looking over the full weekend line-up we can confirm that we have seen twenty-eight of the bands live at least once and have watched most of them develop over the past few years. Artists such as Tom A.Smith, Alex Spencer and Kerr Mercer will play a part in the future of our music industry and we can’t wait to see what happens next with them next. There are a few bands on our radar to see on the Sunday such as Chloe Slater who we saw supporting Canadians The Beaches in 2024, and also Cliffords, Villanelle and Sunday (1994).
If you are still deciding if Neighbourhood Weekender is a festival you want to attend then just have another look at the line-up it has a ‘Stellar Cast’ as Alex Moore would say.
Tickets are available HERE.
Written by: Alan Brown
