As Ian Dury once said “it takes longer to get up north the slow way” and so it was on Friday for the annual pilgrimage to Pikehall for the tenth Y Not Festival. Due to heavy traffic, we managed to miss Slaves by just a few moments, thankfully that was the only frustrating point of a truly wonderful weekend.

Y Not Festival is one of those events that truly has something for everyone, the music ranges from Death Metal to Acoustic, Rap to Reggae, plus some genres you haven't heard of. All though Y Not isn’t a true 'Family' Festival, there are circus activities available to keep the kids amused during the day.

After the main arenas close in the evening there is still plenty going on with live music in the Saloon Bar and the Xanadu arena's plus a silent disco through till 4:00 am.

When it comes to food the festival offers a wide range of options to satisfy everyone's taste buds, plus it’s significantly cheaper than many events of the same size.

Oh yes and then there is the fine selection of ales, ciders and perry’s, including the Y Not ale all at a very reasonable price.

Walking around the site it was good to see that there had been no major layout changes, so it was off to the Hog & Barrel for a pint of Moonshine, where there was a sound check going on. Cassia Sounds were introduced as “An ideal festival band”, which got me interested immediately, their music was of an indie folk nature with a bit of dance thrown in for good measure. At the end of the set their front man admitted it was their first festival gig, it didn’t show, and well worth listening to if you are in the Macclesfield area.

The Quarry Stage played host to Public Service Broadcasting, no longer a two piece but a band with a brass section which gives far greater depth to their sound (while making the stage a little congested). Their performance was a delightful mix of old and new with the likes of ‘Spitfire’, ‘Gagarin’, ‘Everest’ and ‘Go’, going down very well with the crowd.

The Friday headliner on the Big Gin Stage was Snoop Dogg, who arrived on stage fashionably late, the expectant crowd didn’t care, they were just delighted to see a true legend in the Peak District. His set kicked off with ‘California Love’ at one point he referred to the crowd as Matlock (clearly saw the sign as he drove in), other tracks in the set included ‘P.I.M.P’, ‘Gin & Juice’ and a version of House of Pain’s, ‘Jump Around’.

Saturday seemed destined to be a day to spend in the ‘Giant Squid’ with its heavier line up., some of the highlights included: allusondrugs their churning grunge sound was just what the doctor ordered to kick of the afternoon, but I must be honest still don’t get the relevance of HEREPES. Black Peaks, so deep was their sound that you could feel your heart vibrate, brilliant. Whereas Bo Ningen sound and theatricals was were akin to Jimi Hendrix.

Over on the Big Gin Stage, it was time for indie favourites Ocean Colour Scene, it’s easy to forget how many great tunes they have written, once they had performed ‘You’ve Got It Bad’, ‘Riverboat Song’ and ‘So Low’, I was wondering what big numbers they had left out. Oh I had forgotten ‘Hundred Mile High City’ and ‘The Day We Caught the Train’ a great way to end an exhilarating set.

Saturday headliner were Basement Jaxx, a band who know how to entertain, big songs, dancing, colour costume changes and FUN. With 20 years in the tank Basement Jaxx have a back catalogue to die for, so their set had all the favourites including ‘Good Luck’, ‘Red Alert’, ‘Never Say Never’, ‘Raindrops’ and ‘Romeo’ which seemed to be the excuse for some of the lads to sidle up to their partners.

As the gorillas hit the stage for ‘ Where's Your Head At? ‘singer Vula Malinga had another costume change this time a pink high vis jacket, she hit the plunger to trigger the confetti cannon into the crowd and fireworks behind the stage.

Like most festivals Sunday morning at Y Not was a challenge, as the effect of 2 days partying start to take their toll, we finally get into the arena, just before the annual paint fight. The Y Not paint fight is like no other I have witnessed (and boy I have seen loads), yes it’s the usual mass of colour for a few minutes, but those involve stay around the Y Not sign singing and jumping, and those who arrive late roll in the paint as if to say “I was there”. This year we even witnesses people bring their own paint along so as not to miss out on the fun.

On the Big Gin Stage big band King Pleasure & The Biscuit Boys have the ‘afternoon’ slot, over the years they have become firm favourites at Y Not, performing classics of the thirties and forties including ‘Fiesta’. During their performance it’s difficult not to take your eyes off the double bassist: Shark Van Schtoop who regularly plays the bass behind his head.

Over on the Giant Squid Stage the recently reformed Forever Never, put on a great set with frontman Renny Carrol letting everyone know they were from S-ix, the bands cover of John Farnam’s eighties classic ‘The Voice’ went down a storm as did their current single ‘Never Giving Up’ and the finale ‘Empty Promises’.

Rolo Tomassi delivered their unique style of matchcore to a packed Giant Squid, lead vocalist Eva Spence has a truly unique style one moment her voice can melt your heart the next second it can rip your balls off as she screams that Cory Talyor would be proud of. Their brutal set consisted of familiar tracks including ‘Ex Luna Scientia’, ‘Adrasteia’ and ‘Stage Knives’.

In the early evening Johnny Marr took to the stage, for a 45 minute performance which made you feel good to be alive, with songs that straddled The Smiths, Electronic, a cover and of course his own material. The highlight was ‘How Soon Is Now’, sounding as fresh today as the day it was released plus a rousing rendition of ‘I Fought Ther Law’.

The Sunday headliners were Primal Scream, for the old school Y Notters this was a proper headliner, indie to the core. It’s easy to see why the good people of Y Not were excited to Primal Scream, not only have they written some of the best music of the past 30 years, they know how to structure a performance, starting slowly and reaching a crescendo, leaving the crowd baying for more, and so was the case with this set.

The early part of the set saw Bobby Gillespie strolling around the stage as they performed the likes of ‘ Jailbird’ & ‘Kill All Hippies’ however by the time we got to ‘Swastika Eyes’ he was strutting like a peacock. From that point forward it seemed that every song was trumped by the next until they got to ‘Rocks’, when they left the stage, a truly great performance by a truly great band.

Y Not 2015, I doff my cap to you, splendid line up, brilliant vibe, 100 ales and ciders, plus the weather played ball, what more could I wish for. Happy Birthday to you and the Y Notters that help to make Y Not such a great festival.

A limited number of early bird tickets are available for Y Not Festival 2016 

Review by: Mick Game

Photo's by: Chris Poots