Sounds From The Other City

100 artists. 17 stages. Salford’s Sounds From The Other City is back this Early May Bank Holiday.

What are the North’s promoters, record labels, radio stations and magazines most excited about right now? SFTOC’s line-up is the answer to that question. As ever, a diverse community of tastemakers has each been given a stage, and free rein to programme it however they see fit. For over two decades, that simple but radical proposition has set SFTOC apart, offering a lovingly made alternative to copy-paste festivals sponsored by your favourite evil corporation.

In Salford’s centenary year, creative producers From The Other have invited more curators than ever to programme independent venues and unconventional spaces around Chapel Street and The Crescent, from pubs and churches to concert halls and galleries. Curators include 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.

But who have they programmed?

Among the first names to catch the eye is Bristol’s favourite queer avant-gardist Lynks. Dubbed the “merchant of pure gay chaos”, the masked provocateur will take over Salford University’s brutalist Maxwell Hall alongside South African ‘future ghetto funk’ trailblazer Moonchild Sanelly and BBC 6 Music Artist of the Year 2025 jasmine.4.t. The bill is curated by independent Manchester promoter Grey Lantern alongside SFTOC’s grungier younger sibling, FaT OuT.

St Philip’s Church is always an audience favourite, and Hey Manchester! x Strange Days have played it well with the line-up. Art rockers Blue Bendy are joined by fellow South Londoners ashnymph, whose “jackhammer noise and clubby alt-rock” has been lapped up by The Guardian recently. Pyncher pull Manchester voices back into the mix, bringing garage rock with a spiky, Cramps-like edge.

Manchester’s original music night for the weird and beautiful, Brume, takes over Salford Museum and Art Gallery with a line-up featuring local electronic soul artist Ellen Beth Abdi and the city’s newfound nu-jazz fusion outfit NONUNONU. Over at the Grade II-listed Peel Hall, Now Wave are programming Milan W., Pollyfromthedirt and VERA SACRA, continuing their long track record of backing artists at the early edges of wider attention.

The spiritual home of the festival, Islington Mill, will be programmed day and night by Band on the Wall, Reform Radio, Manchester’s queer day-rave BENT, and LGBTQ+ POC collective Swagga. Across the building you’ll find performances from New York-born, Berlin-based hip hop artist Sorvina, Manchester hip-hop writer and producer Renee Stormz, and Chimpo, a cornerstone of UK bass culture.

Outdoors, the historic Bexley Square and the Green outside the University of Salford return as central hubs, anchoring the day with high-energy selections from heavyweight party igniters. And as night becomes morning, Salford’s notorious White Hotel hosts DJ sets and live performances from the fringes of the electronic underground, including cult figure and multidisciplinary artist Richie Culver and Preston singer-songwriter and producer Rainy Miller, founder of the record label FIXED ABODE.

You won’t recognise every name on the line-up. That’s kind of the point. In a world of algorithms designed to show you more of what you already like, Sounds From The Other City is made to push you towards what you didn’t know you were looking for – trusting local selectors to know what, exactly, that is.