Item: Sounds From The Other City Festival 2026
Rating: 9
Author: Luke

Photo Credit: Breige Cobane

The set up is simple: each year a selection of the region’s best promoters and selectors are given a budget and a stage with the mission of booking the new music that most excites them. The churches, pubs, cafes, and lecture halls of Chapel Street form the backdrop for this array of new musical talent.

I start on the sprawling Green where I’m invited to try badge making by the Salford Badge Club. This workshop is soundtracked by Hater, a Scandi indie pop four piece. This isn’t a gentle warmup and they’re thrilling the crowd. A woman making a badge from a 1996 copy of Kerrang! shouts correctly “these guys are really quite good”. It’s going to become the theme of the day.

At Salford Museum and Art Gallery, I find Ellen Beth Abdi, who’s using loop pedals, synths and a drum machine to project her dreamy delicate vocals. They truly fit the grandeur of this Victorian building. She reminds us that “Salford is changing faster than anyone can keep up” but that it’s vital we champion and support new artists. The audience are transfixed and the call and response on the final song – without any actual lyrics – is communal in a way that’s hard to explain.

I only came to see SLAG because the name sounds fun. I leave having bought the merch. The lead singer piles onto the stage in a sequined dress with the rest of the band, before proceeding to fill the room with a full throttle energy. This is a high tempo 30-minute set, properly loud. The seated theatre feels like the wrong setting, although the quieter pieces have a tenderness that suggests they can do both, and do both well. When they’re back – surely they must be – I hope it’s standing room only. I’ll be there with my SLAG pin badge.

Notable by its absence is any mention of that other city’s musical heritage. This is a festival that is forging its own identity and not trading on past musical history. The only allowance to the past, a Smiths song by DJ Kurlz in the snug at the New Oxford pub. If ever there was a time for that, this was it, given Salford Lads club is just down the road. Their set becomes a mix of garage house, and this is standing room only with people clambering onto sofas and partying amongst the many, many, balloons.

Moonchild Sanelly is the closest to a headliner, performing her first show of 2026. The South African artist takes us on a journey through her self-styled genre of “future ghetto funk”. ‘My Power’ is the song she guests on with Beyoncé and sets the energy early. Diving into the excellent diss track ‘My Demon’, the energy (and the booty shaking) is infectious. The audience is swinging along, some are on the stage, no one wants it to end. ‘Big Man’ - the song with Self Esteem - is an excellent choice if it truly must end. Arms are in the air, it’s a full sing along, and she absolutely owns it as a solo performer.

The night is just starting with a diverse late-night lineup giving plenty of options to party on, I drop in on Aiden Francis b2b Fastlove who are taking over a small room in a pub somewhere. Others head to that infamous Salford venue, the White Hotel.

At a multi-venue festival like this you might expect some duds, but there hasn’t been a single miss. Sounds From has served up a Salfordian smorgasbord of musical talent. Every act has been incredible, and I have a new list of artists and DJs to revisit. Bring on 2027.