Tramlines 2026

Tramlines started out as a city-wide event across multiple local venues, before moving outdoors to spaces like Devonshire Green and Ponderosa Park. Since 2018 it’s settled into a more focused format at Hillsborough Park, a shift that’s allowed the festival to grow into its current calibre of headliners, with Fatboy Slim, Courteeners and Wolf Alice topping the bill this year. I attended all three days, and found my yearly pilgrimage to the Owls’ end of the city surprisingly more enjoyable than it’s been in recent years.

My opinion of the festival had never turned negative, there just seemed to be a lot of dead time between the early ‘special guest’ slots and the headliners. Stages like The Open Arms and great bookings on the Leadmill Stage this year ensured punters were occupied from noon till kicking-out time.

I entered in the evening on Friday, the first full set I saw being Leeds indie stalwarts Kaiser Chiefs. Starting their set with Factory Gates from their 2014 album Education… and War was a bit left-field, but from thereon it was a greatest hits set that no one in the crowd seemed to be able to resist. Many ‘ohhhhhhhs’ were to be had, with Wilson climbing up the scaffolding of the main stage during ‘I Predict A Riot’.

Then over to the Leadmill stage for Brighton indie quintet Black Honey, who provided a solid hour of polished rock to keep the energy high before the night’s headliner, Fatboy Slim.

Kicking things off with a message on the main screens pleading with people to ‘put your phones away, let’s enjoy the moment’ - Norman Cook kept the crowd moving from the first drop of ‘Rockafeller Skank’ all the way through the night. Fatboy is the first dance headliner the festival has booked since Craig David in 2018, the year the festival moved to Hillsborough Park. Judging by the crowd he pulled and how active they were, there is a strong case in booking dance oriented headliners more often.

An earlier start on Saturday for me, with Ross Noble headlining the comedy lineup on ‘T’Other Stage.’ Having comedy in the second stage tent early doors allows attendees to ease into the day before venturing out to other stages for some live music. Ross was predictably chaotic and tangent-laden, spending a good portion of the set threatening a worker on the ghost train situated next to the tent.  

I then tried the heavily Jubel sponsored Open Arms stage, laden with hay bales for the crowd to sit on. This stage focused on local acts mostly, with the local talent platform ‘Pattern and Push’ supported strongly. I caught NYDU, a soulful chill moment with powerful vocals, and Darcy Rose, who stated she was the youngest ever performer at Tramlines last time she was there at just 14. The latter getting the whole area singing along to a cover of the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie.’ 

The drink selection seemed to be a bit more varied than in recent years, with Madri and Jubel alongside Atlantic and Thatcher’s options and the festival’s own ‘Aye PA.’ Food stalls were also plentiful and of high quality; I only saw extreme queues for the coffee and cake stand near the main stage. 

The main stage was the busiest I’d ever seen it at that time of day when I approached it at 5pm. Rick Astley was in Hillsborough. Going straight into ‘Together Forever,’ the crowd were immediately onboard with his charm. Covering Raye’s ‘Where Is My Husband!’ in the middle of the set kept the younger demographic happy but, as soon as the opening drums to ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ echoed out across the park, everyone was dancing. 

The high energy continued into the next band, the perennial support act Blossoms. They started their set with ‘Gary’ from their last album of the same name, with the titular fibreglass gorilla towering behind them on stage. This felt like a headline set, with each track being met with huge sing-alongs, and Rick Astley joining them onstage later on for new cut ‘Joke About Divorce.’ Closing trio ‘Your Girlfriend,’ ‘There’s A Reason Why..’ and ‘Charlemagne’ elicited a crowd reaction any of the headliners would have been happy with. Maybe this will finally push them to that top spot next time around. 

Sunday started with impressive Irish folk-grunge band Brooki over in the Leadmill stage, and continued with an ABBA Disco over in T’Other Stage tent. This was packed for the time of day, and got even busier with the arrival of a rain shower early afternoon. Bleech 9:3 filled out the Leadmill stage tent, and got the liveliest crowd of the weekend, with the Irish grunge band getting full moshpits going from the first track. 

Sheffield’s own Reverend and the Makers were next up on the main stage, bringing with them a sense of ownership of the crowd. Many locals were clearly there just to see them, with tracks being echoed back to them by the audience as if they were the day’s headliners. Richard Hawley joined the group for the closing track of the set, world cup anthem ‘Silence Is Talking,’ to make the stage as ‘Sheffield’ as humanly possible.

Wet Leg were the penultimate act of the festival, with intense billows of smoke accompanying their punchy opening number ‘Catch These Fists.’ They kept the energy high throughout the set and their bigger tracks like ‘Wet Dream’ and ‘Chaise Longue’ could easily sit alongside the more prominent tracks from the big hitters of the weekend. 

Wolf Alice were the ones to bring the weekend to a close, with ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ from their latest album ‘The Clearing’ immediately getting the crowd onboard. Many people I spoke to throughout the weekend knew what to expect from other headliners, but had only heard of Wolf Alice in passing, or not heard of them at all. I feel they must have won over everyone standing in that field in Sheffield pretty quickly. Highlights from that recent album such as the toe-tappy, piano driven ‘Just Two Girls’ and the anthemic ‘The Sofa’ served as some of the festival’s best moments. The heavier tracks like ‘Yuk Foo,’ in which frontwoman Ellie Rowsell sauntered down to the front of the crowd to scream at them directly, and set closer ‘Giant Peach’ showed just how versatile they are as a band. They even pulled off playing the sprawling eight minute ‘Visions of a Life’ from the album of the same name without losing the audience’s focus.

The shift away from the male fronted guitar-band headliners of recent years with Reytons, Jamie T, and Richard Ashcroft all topping the bill over the past few festivals, has clearly breathed new life into the festival. After Fatboy Slim and Wolf Alice both won over the crowds in Hillsborough in such distinct ways, I hope Tramlines keeps mixing up its headliner choices. This was also the first female fronted headliner the festival has had since it moved to its current home.

After Wolf Alice ended, the entire audience was dancing to the songs playing over the speakers as they began to filter out back into the real world. That joyous, free feeling is what they need to aim for in future years, as it left me wanting to return to the park much sooner than I anticipated.