Edinburgh Psych Fest 2026

Edinburgh Psych Festival returned to the capital for its fourth and biggest edition yet. Alongside its usual Newington base of the wonderful Summerhall and the Queen’s Hall, it added Cowgate’s biggest venue La Belle Angele and the jewel in the city’s crown, the almost 3,000-capacity Usher Hall. This expansion brought innovations with it, like a timetable app with a chat function which made clear both that the artists drawing the crowds were Quebec’s viral-costumed maths-rockers Angine de Poitrine, and when to make the journey from the festival hub to the furthest-flung venue to be sure of the day’s hottest ticket.

Larger crowds also meant larger queues for wristbands, the line from the Summerhall box office snaking round the corridors and out into the courtyard, but extra staff kept it moving swiftly and it wasn’t long before you could settle into the Royal Dick and the courtyard for a drink, walking past giant wooden replicas of the heads of Klek and Khn de Poitrine.

The definition of psych is often stretched to include just about any kind of music, but The Heavenly Bodes opened up The Dissection Room with some textbook psych-rock. If you were here for psych, their soaring riffs and slick grooves would have certainly ticked your box. They drew a big crowd and had the room bouncing despite the early stage time. 

Opening Summerhall’s Main Hall, with its gorgeous John Kindness ceiling mural, was Jill Lorean (think the car from Back to the Future but with a “J” instead of a “D”), the current project of former Sparrow and the Workshop front woman and long-term fixture of the Scottish Indie scene Jill O’Sullivan, still boasting her Chicago accent despite decades based in Glasgow. PJ Harvey was the obvious musical comparison as she unleashed her raw guitar licks and even rawer lyrics. She was pleased to see a full room, joking “I thought we’d have to wear polka dots to draw a crowd,” and the packed room were treated to an energetic performance, O’Sullivan acting out the lyrics with her hands whenever they were free of her guitar, Peter Kelly hammering away aggressively on the drums until he dripped with sweat.

Then it was time for a cross-town walk to the Usher Hall, which swelled to capacity, polka dots everywhere and polka dot inflatables bouncing atop the packed crowd downstairs in the stalls in anticipation of Angine de Poitrine. The staging was a simple half-and-half backdrop of spots, one side white on black, the other the reverse, onto which — slowed by their costumes and a sense of comic timing — emerged Khn and Klek to thunderous applause. They opened with ‘Angor,’ which laid out the structure of their pieces: Khn laying down a simple bass loop, then adding layer upon layer until the song climaxed in a maelstrom of different rhythms. 

Instrumental microtonal maths rock may not sound like everyone’s idea of a fun time, and it was here where the genius of the silly outfits came in. As they tweaked their oversized noses and emitted heavily modulated grunts and clicks they made for an incredibly stupid visual while delivering a far more cerebral sound, and this breaking down of the barriers had the crowd singing along with the familiar riffs on ‘Mata Zyklek’ and mosh pits opening up at the heavier climaxes. 

Every song was met with an enthusiastic response as the packed Usher Hall bounced along to these complicated rhythms, their complexity underlined by Khn attempting to lead the crowd in a 3:5 time clap along that was mostly beyond the masses. Every ounce of energy the crowd gave was being channelled back by Klek, all four limbs pumping away at his kit, his “nose” flailing around comically as he somehow kept up with layer upon layer of Khn’s guitar and bass loops.

The lighting stayed plain white with an occasional flash of gold, just like their iconic costumes, until the set reached its end with a rendition of ‘Sherpa’ and the lights turned red to match the frenetic, apocalyptic climax. After rapturous applause the crowd shuffled out sweaty and delirious, and yet somehow it was only 6pm and there was still a full evening of music ahead.

Back across at Summerhall, New York’s Renny Conti opened to the smallest crowd of the day, but as the warm shoegazy fuzz of the guitars bathed the audience in rich soundscape more and more people joined, for a mix of brand new unreleased material and older songs — the audience seemingly as unfamiliar with both, but happily swaying along to the American’s first Scottish performance.

Birmingham’s GANS brought a frenetic energy to the Dissection Room. From the first opening notes of ‘Do You Go?’ it was clear they were here to party and expected the room to be bouncing. It took two songs before saxophone and flute player Tommy Leather joined lead singer and drummer Euan Woodman in taking his top off, dripping with sweat as he jumped around the stage somehow with enough breath to keep playing. Woodman demanded a pit open up for ‘Over Again’ and the crowd duly obliged. After demands for more bouncing during ‘Make Me Weak’ the crowd was sufficiently whipped into shape for spontaneous pits to emerge as the clash of post-punk sound with techno beats filled the air. The set climaxed with ‘Oh George’ but the crowd wanted more, and any return to the city would certainly warrant a longer headline set.

After the frenetic energy of GANS, local band Acolyte provided a complete 180° in mood. Performance poet Iona Lee’s silky smooth voice conjured new worlds over the woozy, jazzy soundscapes built largely from bassist Ruairidh Morrison’s vast array of effects and loop pedals, which required him to be sat down and able to use both feet simultaneously to craft his mystical melodies. The crowd were enthralled: you could hear a pin drop in the rare moments of silence as they gave all their attention to the band.

Closing the night in Summerhall’s Main Hall were Floral Image, bookending the day with a return to straight-down-the-line psych-rock. The Norwich five-piece had the shirts, they had the riffs, they had the sideburns, and once they got over some early technical difficulties they had the tunes to get the crowd moving to their heady mix of upbeat synths and groovy guitars. A fitting end to a fabulous day of music.