After trying to be organised and eating before arriving at the venue, we unfortunately missed the first band, One State Drive. Saltwounds were about halfway through their set when we got there, playing to a room of about 10 people. Similarly to the bands yesterday, this didn’t affect the energy in their performance at all. From what I could tell from the cheers of those that were there, the songs that they played went down well.
No Insight were up next and were very excitable for a Sunday afternoon. For some reason, a couple of songs into the set a few crowd started linking arms and spinning in circles. They then played “Critical”, during which Gian Carlo really got the crowd going with hands in the air clapping along. They paused for a breather to tell the room that they had to leave at 7am to get to another festival. The penultimate song they played seemed almost to be about a celebrity crush on Cara Delevingne.
When Counterpoint made their way onto the stage they gripped everyone’s attention during the first song by being a slightly heavier band than those before them. After a couple of songs, Dom on vocals thanked the festival organisers for having them there and asked the crowd who had been there all weekend in response to which a few dedicated hands rose. Throughout “Honestly?” there were lots of heads banging in the crowd and everyone moved a little closer to the stage. They then played “Between You and Me” during which they managed to mix in some Linkin Park lyrics from “Points of Authority”. Towards the end of the set they announced they had some free t-shirts to give away and started throwing them off the stage at the very keen audience .
Next up were Heartsink from York and straight away they were teasing the crowd with “come forward, we don’t bite… much!”. They had a replacement drummer in for the set as Jake Roughton couldn’t make it. After a few songs they thanked the venue before playing a cover of 21 Pilots’ “Heathens” which the crowd responded well to, singing along to most of the song. Zac Roughton on vocals and guitar quickly spoke about the bands new merch that was available to buy before their last song of the set.
Northern Horizon had a dramatic beginning to the set when the bass and guitarist jumped off the drum stand in sync. They played a couple of songs back to back before stopping for a brief chat with the crowd which ended in “lets get on with it!”. After they’d got warmed up on stage, one of the band decided they felt like getting down with the crowd and running around the venue. The second to last song of the set with the first song they every released – however they called it “a bit sh*t” which was slightly strange.
After a quick sound check, Saving Sebastian were up next. They bounced onto the stage and began with non-stop energy. During the middle of the set the guitarist took some inspiration from the previous band and came down to the crowd. They stopped for a quick thank you to Adam the event organiser and to talk about their merch table before moving on with the final 2 songs of the set. The last song, titled “I Hate Bands That Use Ridiculously Long Song Titles to Name Their Songs, When They Could Have Just Chosen a Simple Phrase from the chorus… It Really is That Simple” seemed rather ironic!
As soon as Rainfalls took to the stage they began chants of “Yorkshire, Yorkshire” which instantly got the crowd’s attention. They were definitely the heaviest band of the festival so far with lots of screams. Bass and guitar players Jonathan Almond and Craig Jamieson got some serious height on their jumps. They took a quick pause to ask “where’s everyone gone?” before carrying on with their set with “This Is a Revolution”. Lead singer Gary Gordon didn’t seem to like looking at the audience, either that or he was so involved with the music he forgot they were there during songs as he spent most of the time looking at the drum kit or facing sideways. Their next song, “Monologue Part 2”, started with a much softer and slower intro, but this didn’t last long before the head banging started again. They thanked the crowd for their care and attention and asked them to stick around after to look at their merch. Gordon jumped down into the crowd to try to get them moving and after the final song had ended he threw himself on the floor along with the drummer smashing a cymbal on the ground too.
The Young & Restless from Northampton were next and there seemed to be a few more people here now as the bands were starting to get slightly more well known. Their second song of the set, “Sweet Chin Music”, had lead singer Sam Morrison down in the crowd wasting no time to get familiar with them. They then covered Blink 182’s “Dammit” which got the majority of the crowd moving and singing along, especially when Morrison held the mic down to the front of the audience getting them to sing. They quickly thanked all the organisers and everyone for coming out before moving on to a love song that they dedicated to everyone in the room.
Sticking with the theme of the word “young”, the quartet from Deal, The Young Hearts were next on the line up. They went straight into their first 2 songs of the set before talking about not being able to see anything due to the dry ice. The next song, “Bloom” off their EP Honestly, I’m Just Thinking, had the crowd’s heads banging along and showing they were thoroughly enjoying it. Lead singer Craig Lawrence mentioned that it was an honour to be playing alongside the other bands before asking the crowd if anyone had been down to the south east of Kent, when someone shouted that they had driven down from Newcastle to get an amp from there. A couple of songs later they played “Smoke” during which more people were entering the venue and instantly looking impressed. They ended their performance with a quick shout out to the organisers, saying that it had been an absolute pleasure to be there.
Unfortunately, we had to leave early due to a broken DUBS ear plug becoming lodged in our photographer’s ear and ventured off down to Selby minor injuries unit to have it removed! The for the smaller bands was definitely appreciated by the and overall the festival was a hit with those who attended, and it’ll be good to see it back another year.
Photos by Jack Barker Photography
