I've changed. It's not you, it's me. In years gone by I've crammed myself into as many fields as physically possible over the short Summer festival period, but now I find myself less than exuberant working out the logistics of my second stint in festival-land this month. I mean, who will feed the cat when I'm gone, and how the hell am I going to get to Derby without a driver's license or enough money for a train ticket? After a last-gasp effort to sort my life out however these problems quickly fade into the background and everything clicks into place. Hire car in tow, cat safe with friends (thanks Stu), my girlfriend and I made the long journey North to Y Not Festival.

Arriving without much of a musical agenda in mind we wondered the site to find our bearings. Spread over six main stages there is plenty to be seen at any time of the day, and has previously played hosts to the likes of Snoop Dog, White Lies and Andrew W.K – an eclectic mix which gained them the Best Medium Festival accolade in last year's awards. Having set up camp late on Thursday we missed the evenings entertainment from The Coral so it was Friday before seeing any music. Due to unforeseen circumstances Kelis had to drop her set so we wondered over to see the last of Traams, who were wrapping up with an assault of psychedelic noise. The Quarry tent was so packed at the start of DJ Fresh that roughly the same number of people remained outside as did inside, so we chose to end the night with Deap Valley - a scuzzy all-female White Stripes with much better drumming and plenty more fuzz.

The phrase “Everybody has good neighbours” is often particularly untrue at a festival. A torrent of drunken just-about-18-year-olds blaring out timeless classics such as Hey there Deliliah and singing along atonally until 3am being a prime example. Occasionally however a proverbial diamond in the rough appears, as it did with Paul, Michael, Aaron and Kev (AKA Uncle Knobhead). A long standing festival troupe, we spent many an evening sharing drinks rations and talking nonsense, ironically becoming more loud and annoying than our more youthful counterparts. If you can't beat them, out do them. 

Saturday's selection was somewhat more familiar with Dinosaur Pile Up and Black Peaks slinging riffs around in the festival's heaviest stage The Giant Squid. Catfish and the Bottlemen put on an energetic, crowd pleasing show on the main stage having been invited back to play again, but Band of Skulls stole the show for me. Hands down the best sound I heard over the weekend, their straight up brand of dirty rock exemplified how to be a headline band.

Feeling my age come Sunday morning we managed to usher ourselves into the main arena mainly for food but also for Kagoule, a three piece rock band from Nottingham. Not too far from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins albeit with more vocal harmonies and slightly spacier sections they're well worth your time. Most of the rest of the day was spent waiting for the evening, drinking the remainder of gin in eager anticipation for Madness. The Hives were first however and they didn't disappoint, culminating in a crowd led chorus of Hate to Say I Told You So. Having been the second time I'd seen them live they're guaranteed to get a stagnant audience moving.

And so began the mad rush to the main stage to watch British legends Madness do exactly as their name entails. I'm fairly sure I ended up on Kev's shoulders spilling more beer than I drank, and generally dancing around like an idiot. There couldn't have been a better band to bring the festival to a close than them.

Overall I was impressed at how much Y Not managed to squeeze into the weekend. Aside from the main stages there was a plethora of smaller tents smashing out everything from Dubstep to Soul, numerous food choices (and that's coming from a vegan), and plenty of family based activities to keep the kids entertained. After increasing their numbers drastically from last year there are still a few kinks to work out in terms of organisation, but if they keep booking the right bands and championing their eclectic nature things are only bound to improve further. My only complaint is having to drive six hours down South with a stinking four day hangover, and let's face it, that's my own bloody fault. 

Review by Liam McMillan
Photos by Alex Williams