Outbreak Manchester 2025

Following a new twist on the formula with Outbreak London in Victoria Park under the LIDO banner, Outbreak returns to its home at the BEC Arena for a fantastic blend of cult acts, shoegaze, UK live performance debuts and classic hardcore. Time could be spent dissecting and comparing the two events, arguing which is better, but ultimately the attendees at Outbreak Manchester are not phased, they’re here for the music and to give each and every act everything they have.

Tucked away on an industrial estate in Trafford Park, Outbreak Manchester cements itself as not only a cornerstone of the hardcore scene, but a festival top to bottom of interesting and exciting bookings that are standing toe to toe with much bigger events. The following selection of acts all appeared at Outbreak Manchester as part of the first time they’d ever played UK shows: Have a Nice Life, Jane Remover, They Are Gutting A Body Of Water, XweaponX, Feeble Little Horse, Kumo99. Additionally Sunny Day Real Estate make their long awaited UK return, their first UK shows in 15 years, a broad career spanning set that has young and old fans alike embracing Jeremy Enigk and co’s genre inspiring midwest emo jams.

SDREs set comes as part of the more alternative/shoegaze inspired Saturday line up. With generally the heavier and traditionally hardcore acts playing on Sunday. Despite this however Final Resting Place, described as one of the heaviest acts of the entire weekend, played on Saturday. With a set so loud and intense you’d wonder if Parklife attendees at Heaton Park could hear, they make it clear if you still want disgustingly heavy riffs and a front pit that looks like a warzone it can still be found all weekend.

The three stage (Outdoor main stage, large second indoor stage and a smaller third indoor stage) layout of Outbreak Manchester makes the flow of music a breeze, with very minimal clashes. The large outdoor stage is loud - which isn’t always a given at many outdoor festivals, one has to wonder if the BEC Arena’s location away from Manchester has had a part to play in this. Both indoor stages are also incredibly loud - with They Are Gutting A Body Of Water opening the second stage on Saturday you couldn’t ask for a better band to air the cobwebs out of the room. 

Outbreak’s proud ‘no barrier’ policy works fantastically across all stages, allowing those who want to get stuck in the chance to after signing a waiver. There aren’t many places in the world that allow this type of stage set up to happen and the festival and its security should be commended for allowing people to be free but also keeping a close eye on safety. Despite people launching themselves off stage to their favourite riffs, music isn’t stopped due to injury, which is increasingly rare these days for even non hardcore shows. This is a testament to the attendees too, who clearly understand the etiquette, and are quick to get someone back on their feet. What an experience it must be to be playing to an Outbreak crowd when they’re two stepping to every song in your catalogue, Ian Shelton of Militarie Gun declaring in his set “I don’t know how they let you do this, it should be illegal, but I’m glad it isn’t”.

One act you wouldn’t expect to be bolstered by this set up would be Have a Nice Life. A band whose debut album Deathconsciousness picked up widespread online appeal years following its release, it’s a miracle that they even perform in a live setting (only starting to do so in 2017). It’s astounding to hear Dan’s voice with such clarity, not bogged down by the low-bitrate album recording. Not that it would have mattered, as the crowd are belting all the lyrics along anyway. Bloodhail becomes almost anthemic, as the crowd surrounds Dan on stage, but leaving him his own space to sing. Dan and Tim seem incredibly humbled, who thought an album put together on a budget of less than a thousand dollars would unite so many people like this.

Shoegaze legends Slowdive eased into the evening with a dreamy and panoramic shoegaze set which had the front pit section in its most calm format, with people holding hands and skipping across the stage. Rachel Goswell watches over with a huge grin on her face, you can tell their continued connection to younger fans means a lot to them. Glassjaw (Worship and Tribute set) who are sandwiched between Slowdive and Alex G in the schedule provide a blistering album performance that the crowd are incredibly involved with. In typical Outbreak 2025 fashion again this is another slam dunk booking, providing UK fans with the chance to see this album in full, alongside Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence on Sunday. Glassjaw fit right at home at Outbreak and both sets remind us of their influence on the post-hardcore scene. Alex G closes the main stage Saturday with a mellow but at times raucous set, with Alex yelping his lyrics at times. Some people may have been confused by this booking at first, but his set goes down a treat and is some good variation from other acts across the weekend.

Sunday kicks off with a UK first set from XweaponX, which consists of two members of Sunday headliner Knocked Loose, meaning Bryan and Isaac have the pleasure of opening and closing Sunday. Their set is blistering, and after a day of mostly non-hardcore music from Saturday, feels like a reset back to Outbreak’s roots. Later in the day Contention provided another masterclass in hardcore, the amount of limbs flying in the pit was a sight to behold. One band that seemed to dominate the t-shirt game this weekend was SPEED. Despite being from Sydney this almost feels like a homecoming to them. Jem Siow commands the crowd in one of the best ways all weekend, while also showing his gratitude to the UK hardcore scene. 

After the penultimate main stage performance of the weekend by Denzel Curry, the main outdoor stage begins to fill. This isn’t a surprise, Knocked Loose are on an incredible rise, a band that seems to have transcended the genre like no other in recent times. Playing Coachella and Jimmy Kimmel in recent years, it was time for them to return to Outbreak. Bryan Garris reminisces how they’d previously played the second stage before questioning “and now we’re here, what the fuck happened?”. The sublime and genre pushing You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is probably the answer to that, which the set draws heavily from. Suffocate tears through the arena, with the refrain being belted in unison by the whole festival. You can easily see why they’ve cut through with their caustic performance. Bryan throughout the set brings out a few guests, George Clarke (Deafheaven), Jem Siow (Speed), Olli Appleyard (Static Dress) all add their vocals to Bryan’s throughout the set - as if he needed it anyway. The set is closed on a XweaponX cover, bringing the whole day full circle. 

A spectacular weekend and a love letter to the hardcore scene.