SOUNDS FROM THE OTHER CITY ANNOUNCES 2026 FESTIVAL LINEUP
Sounds From The Other City (SFTOC), Salford’s long-running independent festival of new music, returns on Early May Bank Holiday Sunday 3 May with a genre-spanning showcase of new artists from across the UK and beyond. The 21st edition is curated by some of the most exciting promoters, record labels, radio stations, magazines, and tastemakers in the North, including: community music venue The DBA, record label FIXED ABODE, DIY station Steam Radio, music magazine SEEN, queer Sheffield venue Gut Level, and Manchester’s musical powerhouse Now Wave.
Hosted in Salford in its centenary year by creative producers From The Other, the festival will take place in independent venues and unconventional spaces across the city, with 17 stages around Chapel Street and The Crescent, from pubs and churches to concert halls and galleries.
Artists announced today include the uncategorisable masked provocateur Lynks, one of 2025’s most electrifying, genre-smashing performers. Dubbed the “merchant of pure gay chaos”, Lynks will take over Salford University’s brutalist Maxwell Hall alongside South African ‘future ghetto funk’ trailblazer Moonchild Sanelly and Manchester-based artist jasmine.4.t - BBC 6 Music Artist of the Year 2025 and one of The Guardian’s 2025 ‘ones to watch’ following her “gorgeously written debut” album, You Are The Morning, produced by US supergroup Boygenius. The Maxwell Hall lineup is curated by independent Manchester promoter Grey Lantern and Sounds From The Other City’s grungier younger sibling, FaT OuT.
County Durham’s masked ambient pop artist Pollyfromthedirt will join an exciting lineup of new music discoveries in Salford’s 300-capacity Grade II-listed Victorian concert hall, Peel Hall, curated by the legendary Manchester promoters Now Wave.
The critically acclaimed, genre-straddling South London six-piece, Blue Bendy, praised by NME for their “bold, inventive art-rock”, will perform in the beautiful St Philip’s Church alongside fellow South London trio ashnymph, and Pyncher - the Manchester quartet lauded by Louder Than War last year as “defiant, inventive and impossible to ignore”.
Manchester’s original music night for the weird and beautiful, Brume, will take over Salford Museum and Art Gallery with a programme featuring stalwart of the Manchester music scene Ellen Beth Abdi and the city’s newfound nu-jazz fusion outfit, NONUNONU.
The spiritual home of the festival, Islington Mill, will be programmed day and night by the legendary Band on the Wall, multi-award-winning Reform Radio, Manchester’s infamous queer day-rave BENT, and the LGBTQ+ POC collective Swagga with performances from New York-born, Berlin-based artist Sorvina, Manchester-based hip-hop writer and producer Renee Stormz, and Chimpo, a cornerstone of UK bass culture and one of Manchester’s most influential DJs.
Also taking place at Islington Mill, in a Sounds From the Other City first, a cohort of early career music promoters will present their own exciting artist programme developed over a free 8 month training course in collaboration with Factory Academy, Factory International’s award winning training arm based at Aviva Studios.
Continuing on till the early hours, Salford’s notorious White Hotel, the iconic heart of experimental nightlife in the North, will see DJ sets and live performances from the fringes of the electronic scene including Prestonian singer-songwriter and producer Rainy Miller, founder of the record label FIXED ABODE.
The historic Bexley Square, and the much-loved Green outside the University of Salford will return as central outdoor hubs for the festival with a heavyweight combo of party igniters ready to forge new festival memories.
Presented by Salford-based creative producers From The Other, the festival offers a snapshot of the artists set to shape the sound of 2026 as heard by some of the region’s most exciting independent tastemakers.
Emma Thompson, Co-Director of From The Other said, “This year we’re shining a spotlight on Salford’s independent venues and the selectors in the North who shape our programme. Giving these organisations the space to showcase the artists they champion is vital - not just for discovering emerging talent, but to recognise how important these spaces are for our scene. Roll on 3 May when Salford will host another explosion of new music across countless genres, with Chapel Street once again full of people searching for their next musical obsession.”
Tickets are available from soundsfromtheothercity.com. Prices remain unchanged from 2025 with tiers at £30/35/40/45.
Early Bird ticket access will be available to mailing list subscribers from Thursday 29 January with remaining tickets on general sale from Friday 30 January.