I spent the day at Neighbourhood Festival celebrating Manchester's iconic venues and great up-and-coming acts

The city doesn’t necessarily need a whole festival to showcase this, but in Neighbourhood Festival this is what it gets. Across more than 10 spots around the city centre, the festival is one that gets fans into the party mood without needing to worry about waterproofs.

Your standard British festival sees fans hoping for good weather whilst standing in fields in front of perhaps half a dozen stages. Neighbourhood festival ditches all of this, and instead of stages, you have different venues.

On Saturday October 5, the latest instalment of this growing city festival took over Manchester, and festival goers intertwined with shoppers, pub goers and shoppers. On a chilly afternoon which had an autumnal feel to it, I ventured to the first venue of what was to be a full day bouncing around some of the best independent music venues around.

First up was Gorilla Hidden under one of the many railway arches across Manchester and a world away from the busy streets. It's a tight venue, but one that makes it feel as though the band is right on top of you. A flurry of fans came and went and with bands having a tight turnaround the venue was rarely quiet for long. ‘Almost Monday’ kicked off a set as fans were queuing almost back to the entrance to catch a glimpse.

Most of this set for me was spent in the upstairs of Gorilla, chatting to a Manchester band who told me about their career so far, and a return to their hometown. Surrounded by Neighbourhood Festival beer mats - a great souvenir idea - I put the music world to rights with Balancing Act.

Guitarist Jackson Couzens said: “Me and Kai (lead singer) hatched the idea for this band a little while ago, and it came to fruition about two and a half years ago when we released out first song. We met in a bar in Manchester called Jimmy’s, Kai was behind the bar. This is also where we met David (bass) and he would just pour us extra strong drinks. David then came to London to stay with us in our flat, we told him what we were doing and he wanted to get onboard.”

“Being in a band in the first place is a mistake, so it can only be up from there,” Jackson joked. Ahead of their evening show at The Bread Shed, Kai added: “Our day is just getting started.”

On the dynamic of Neighbourhood Festival, Kai said: “It’s like Manchester’s own South by South West festival in a way, but if I can be perfectly honest I’d rather be in a field. I love being here and at this time of year it keeps people busy, but what’s better than warm beer in a field.”

Jack said: “Six or eight years ago there was a really good scene here. A lot of smaller venues have closed and Covid happened, but now it feels like more people want to watch live music. It’s a difficult one for us as we live in London now so we aren’t here weekend to weekend.”

On this issue, Kai added: “After Covid, I felt like the scene died here, especially for what we were doing. When we went down to London, and I don’t want to feel like I’m cheating on my home town city, but the scene down there is incredible. We went down there with confidence, then we saw a few bands down there and thought differently.

“Across the UK in general, guitar music is in an amazing place especially after this summer. Fontaines DC, Wunderhorse, and The Last Dinner Party have paved the way for so many new alternative acts to come through. It wasn’t like this two or three years ago.”

The Bread Shed is a venue well known to Manchester gig goers, and with good reason. The late afternoon was spent at the barrier of this classic club, which is home to an iconic Kurt Cobain mural.

Manchester project Dirty Blonde burst onto the stage with a fiery display and one of many hometown shows today. They are a relatively new project and have sounds on the way, but they did play an ode to their home city which went down well with a packed Bread Shed.

Lead singer Ailis MacKay dominated the stage with an electrifying performance, and the slick guitar play of Hailey Tate complemented this well. MacKay headed around the crowd at the start and end of the set, and was adored by the fans watching on. This was further proof of the quality of the Manchester guitar band music scene.

Keeping the local vibe going was Balancing Act, who I had become familiar with earlier in the day. Charismatic frontman Kai made the stage his own, and with a Mick Jagger style swagger, steered the band through an empowered set.

As a hardened group of fans belted out the chorus of songs, the joy on Kai’s face was easy to spot. He started the set off in a suit jacket, but the hot, sweaty environment of the Bread Shed saw this removed relatively quickly. It also helped to make him more flexible for some fine dance moves. They will be back, and like with Dirty Blonde, there is plenty to be excited about.

Wandering back towards the city centre, I stopped in at the Deaf Institute to catch some of Kid 12’s set. A cool and soothing set, the singer from Telford played to a small but intrigued crowd in the old venue. It was a world away from the explosiveness of the Bread Shed, but it showed the diversity of this festival.

Keen to tick off as many venues as possible, my next stop was Mother Mary’s. The Irish bar was busy with the usual Saturday evening buzz, but tucked away downstairs was a small stage that welcomed solo artists throughout the day. I watched on as London singer Lewis Fitzgerald played a soothing, passionate set. He was full of appreciation for the crowd that had gathered.

The evening turned into the night and a short but sweet walk to the O2 Ritz. one of the bigger venues hosting the festival, Irish rock band The Academic were cheered onto the stage. In a flash of smoke and lights, they showed just why they’ve earned a spot towards the top of Neighbourhood Festival.

Moving around Manchester to take in this unique festival was great. More than 100 acts featured across the day and with so many venues it takes a good effort to get to them all. I spent time in half a dozen, and had a top time in them all. Manchester’s reputation as a music hotspot is safe as houses if this festival day is anything to go by.