Organised and curated by The Met in Bury, the Head for the Hills takes place on 14, 15 and 16 September at Ramsbottom Cricket Ground, within easy reach of Manchester, Head for the Hills, now firmly established as the festival season’s final fling, is in its 8th year, welcoming over 12,000 visitors in both 2016 and 2017.
Head for the Hills has a great reputation for representing exciting new music, alongside world-renowned headliners, and has an inclusive family focused ethos, an inspiring creative arts programme and a strong commitment to maintaining the festival’s beautiful environment.
Also joining the weekend line up will be The Lovely Eggs, an underground surreal-psych punk rock duo from Lancaster and Liverpool’s electro-pop band Stealing Sheep will be performing their Suffragette Tribute.
The festival features a wide variety of daytime family arts, food stalls, and beer tents and day and weekend tickets are available, and camping is available.
Friday night sees a spectacular ska doubleheader as The Beat and The Selecter join forces in a much-anticipated return to the festival. The Selecter’s lead singer, Pauline Black has recently performed with Gorillaz on their new album tour.
They will be joined by The Lovely Eggs, an underground surreal-psych punk rock duo from Lancaster, described by NME as “One of the country’s most beloved underground bands” with songs produced by Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), remixed by Tjinder Singh (Cornershop) and sampled by Zane Lowe for Scroobius Pip.
Headlining Saturday is Britpop band The Bluetones; the London-based musicians originally formed in the ‘90s and have performed over 10,000 shows in more than 73 countries. They will head up an eclectic day full of music and arts with, Stealing Sheep, Barry Hyde (of The Futureheads) and returning North East Newcastle folk rockers Holy Moly & The Crackers.
Also on Saturday, Liverpool’s electro-pop band Stealing Sheep will be performing their Suffragette Tribute. In partnership with Manchester-based creative music charity Brighter Sound and Edge Hill University, they are bringing together 15 female drummers and percussionists with design, AV and production students to create a marching band and procession, inspired by women, equality and empowerment.
Alice Jemima brings her ethereal electro-pop to the Saturday line up. Signed to Sunday Best, her self-titled first album has been described as ‘A floaty, intoxicating debut…’ CLASH and which she described, speaking to The Line of Best Fit, as a cross between Chet Faker, Lana Del Rey, and The xx’s debuts.
Complementing the stellar Saturday line up further will be Scottish folk and soul band Adam Holmes & The Embers, ambient post-rock Manchester six-piece Young Monarchs, Nottingham indie-pop band Deco, Bristolian alternative band, The Romana Flowers, and London singer-songwriter Emily Capell, whose music has been described as a mixture of blues, indie, pop and punk and played on nation-wide stations BBC 6 Music and Radio X.
On Sunday, legendary Dublin rock band The Boomtown Rats will fulfil the Sunday legendary closing set. With a career spanning four decades and fronted by legendary Irish singer-songwriter Bod Geldof, the band announced in 2017 that they plan to release their first album in over thirty years and are set to close the festival in style with the final headline show of the weekend.
World-renowned party purveyors and London six-piece, Molotov Jukebox led by International acclaimed actress Natalia Tena, make an anticipated debut at the award-winning festival.
Tickets are now on sale for the event, which is organised by The Met in association with Blueprint Studio and Scruff of the Neck. Weekend tickets are on sale now from £95 for adults, with discounts for children and families, while youngsters under the age of six go free.
For the full line up and more information on food & drink vendors, arts events and workshops that will fun over the course of the festival, please visit their website here.
