Confessional Festival

This September, Blackburn’s Confessional Festival turns 10, celebrating with two days of live music set beneath the stained glass and vaulted stonework of Holy Trinity Church.

Confessional has quietly become one of the North’s most distinctive grassroots festivals – combining bold bookings with a sense of sacred mischief. Over the past decade, it’s played host to early sets from the likes of Working Men’s Club, Red Rum Club and Rianne Downey. For its 10th anniversary edition, the festival’s announced a bumper line-up of bands that ordinarily you’d only find playing in neighbouring cities.

Friday kicks off with a dose of groove from Secret Night Gang, the Gilles Peterson-endorsed jazz-funk-soul outfit who’ve lit up stages across Europe. They’re joined by Chorley’s psych-disco buzz band British Birds, the vintage pop of Design Rewind, alt-rockers Ugly Club, and a homegrown hero in the eccentric Bill Shakes, who channels 90s hip-hop through the lens of Northern working-class grit.

On Saturday, The Untold Orchestra bring euphoric re-imaginings of well-known tunes to the Trinity altar, while former Cabbage frontman Lee Broadbent returns with Gaol Bird, swapping what he calls “the self‑righteous beast” of rockstar posturing with catharsis, vulnerability and radical honesty. Also on the bill: 90s-inspired dreaminess from the much-hyped Freak Slug, electronic pop rock from Disgusting Sisters, cinematic gloom from Ruby Doomsday, and electronic post punk from analogue experimenters Material Goods.

As ever, the festival is fuelled by DIY passion and local pride, with organiser Pete Eastwood – together with Connor Synnott and a dedicated team – curating every detail. This includes an annual theme that shapes the décor and stage design. This year’s theme, In the town where I was born, reflects Pete’s wish “for people to recognise just how great our town is, and what we can achieve when we want good things for it.”

And that’s the spirit of Confessional: part festival, part community gathering, part love letter to Blackburn. Whether you’re returning or discovering it for the first time, the 10th edition promises to be the most celebratory yet.