Y Not? Festival 2026 day four is here too soon after three previous fabulous days. The weather and the Peak District landscape are stunning and the music and lineup has been top notch.
The Greenview Farm, Pikehall site has welcomed many thousands of people from across the UK and overseas across the four days, for this sold out 19th edition of Y Not? Festival.
This year the sparkling lineup was headlined by The Libertines on day one, The Reytons on Friday, Two Door Cinema Club on Saturday, and Sunday it is The Streets.
What began as a house party in 2005 has grown into the most anticipated weekend in the Peak District, renowned not only for its standout lineup of iconic artists, bands and DJs, but for a family friendly experience that goes far beyond the music.
Y Not has firmly established itself as a festival for everyone, bringing together indie heavyweights, emerging talent and a vibrant mix of experiences to create a truly unforgettable weekend.
Bringing the festival to a triumphant close, UK garage pioneers The Streets topped the bill on Sunday, unleashing their signature fusion of hip-hop and electronica to round off an electric four days in the Peaks.
On Saturday, festivalgoers descended on The Hog & Barrel for a pub quiz to test their Y Not knowledge. Drawing nearly 2000 participants, this battle of the brains may be in the running for the title of the UK’s largest single-venue pub quiz on record.
For this year’s event: credit must go to the sound crew on the main stage for the superb sound quality. You probably expect that from a big festival, but it is not always the case and here it is noticeably spot on for every act.
Bang on 9.15pm the final headliner of the four days arrives on stage, to a backdrop of a green bus shelter, red post box, street light and shop fronts. Stark contrast to the glitzy and glam party-time sets and costumes of various other bands across the four days.
A gritty and grimy setting for Mike Skinner’s gritty and grimy in-your-face lyricism, performing his hit 2004 second album “A Grand Don’t Come For Free”, in full.
I have to say a good chunk of the crowd left early into the set, and some were heard to describe the material as “bleak” and “depressing”, commenting this brought the vibe down after four fabulous days, and it was a mistake to end the festival on this sombre note.
Others we spoke to (mainly younger people) “f***ing loved it”. Although one person deciding to leave the arena early, was heard to mutter: “I saw that bus stop on stage and was sad when no bus came to take the miserable sod away”. Harsh, but it made me laugh out loud.
Mr Skinner clutching a pint of beer at the bus stop, either leaning against it in his £1,045 Stone Island black shiny jacket (other brands are available!); or sat inside it, at one stage with a female singer. Starting the set with, “It Was Supposed To Be So Easy”, it really was easy for 99.9% of ticket-holders to have an absolute ball in the Peak District for Y Not? festival 2026. Dry your eyes mate…
Warming up for headliners The Streets, Scissor Sisters bring the party vibes – writ large! Jake Shears and the gang really go for it; camp and colourful and a visual spectacle as well as musically fabulous. We get all the hits and more…
Lots of costumes and props, including a green army jeep. They kick off the set with a banger, their big 2006 hit: “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ ” from the band’s second album. The song was co-penned by a chap called Elton John who also played piano on it.
At Y Not, Scissor Sisters’ second song is “Laura”, then “She’s My Man” and later their 2004 smash hit, “Take Your Mama”, with Jake explaining that before they came on stage, someone said they used to listen to this band in the back of her mum’s car, so this song tonight is dedicated to her.
So what shall we do now? How about a giant paint fight? Yeah, why not at Y Not? 2pm Sunday, “The Colour Run”; a chance for kids and adults to get messy and it looked like huge fun. Obviously colourful to watch and take photographs and video footage of; from a safe distance, if you do not want to end up looking like a Jackson Pollock canvas!
Check out the photo here of the expensive cameras one press snapper ended up with in the media centre after he shot pix of the paint fight. [Not our photographer Liam’s gear by the way!]
The wonderful Sophie Ellis-Bextor is a crowd favourite at any festival and very much so here. The 47-year-old artist brings an infectious party spirit – remember her infamous ‘Kitchen Disco’ videos during the pandemic? The crowd love her and she is in fine voice. Super band too, including her husband Richard Jones, who is in Sophie’s band and is also a member of The Feeling. The couple have been married for 21 years and have five children.
Fourth in the set is a sparkling version of Abba’s, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”, and of course she also offers up her biggest hit, 2001’s “Murder On The Dance Floor”. Co-penned by Sophie, it has sold in excess of four million singles and has charted in many countries, peaking at # two in the UK. Perfect live song.
Lottery Winners. Always good value, always super fun and always really enjoyable. They take to the stage to the Fatboy Slim track “Praise You”. The Manchester band are fronted by cheeky chappie and born entertainer Thom Rylance, who says :”Y Not festival. We’ve only got half an hour, so I can’t do my usual bullshit of talking loads! No foreplay! I need full energy from you!” He got it too, the crowd loved them.
Opening with “Burning House” and then “Worry”, when he dismantled part of the mic stand because “I want to look like Freddie Mercury”. He had to get one of the band’s tech’ crew, Hamish, to come on stage to sort out the mic stand, getting him up to the mic to say “Hi” to the festival. Thom then sat on the edge of the stage, commenting: “This will make a good picture, perverts”, cheekily addressing the assembled snappers in the “pit”. Then on to song # three, ” Start Again”.
Later in the set the band deliver a cover of the easy-listening ballad, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”, the 1967 track first recorded by Franki Valli, and since covered by a myriad of artists including Andy Williams, and Lauryn Hill. Lottery Winners’ version prompts a mass singalong; letting the song go into the verse, at which point Thom digs out the crowd with the comment: “See you’re all full of shit, none of you know the words, you went in all strong on the chorus!”
During Rizzle Kicks’ main stage set, one of the duo spot a lad doing a back flip in the crowd, and ask him if he thinks he would be able to do it on stage, to which he says yes. So up he comes and proves he was not fibbing; with a big back flip in front of thousands and a raucous roar from the crowd.
Nice to see the festival offering up a chance for a new and unsigned band to play the main stage, and today it is the turn of Derbyshire locals The Last Orders at 1.30pm, who won the opportunity in a competition. Nice job they did too.
At 2.30pm it gave us the chance to see a singer dressed in a Tesco bag! Yes really, scroll down! Black Honey is the band, from Brighton and fronted by Izzy Baxter Phillips, aka Izzy B.Phillips. They released their fourth album, “Soak” in April last year. Buy it, every little helps!
Honourable mentions of Essex band The Bracknall over on The Pit stage, and also Scottish band The Snuts on The Quarry stage who rammed the place out. We also enjoyed US act We Are Scientists from New York on the Giant Squid stage.
- In 2027, Y Not? Festival returns from 29th July to 1st August for its 20th anniversary edition. Tickets are on sale from Friday 7th August.
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