Rochdale Feel Good Festival
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Rochdale Feel Good Festival
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With the world as it is, sometimes you just need a bit of unabashed joy. Enter Feel Good Festival, returning as part of a weekend that casts Rochdale in the spotlight once more, following a year as Greater Manchester’s Town of Culture.
The festival takes place across Rochdale town centre, with a ticketed main stage on the newly restored Town Hall Square, alongside free performances in various indoor venues, and a food and drink village for anyone who needs to do that human thing and sustain themselves physically.
While the previous night’s Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark event leans into heritage, this one leans into hits; music aimed squarely at people having a good time rather than people writing think-pieces.
Pop-soul star Gabrielle headlines on the strength of songs everyone already knows the words to. ‘Rise’ and ‘Dreams’ turned her into a fixture of any self-respecting wedding disco, and 16 top 40 singles across three decades means there’s little danger of a lull in her set.
Ash arrive with a similar back catalogue of crowd-pleasers. ‘Girl from Mars’ and ‘Shining Light’ remain textbook Britpop-adjacent guitar pop, three decades in and still built for a summer singalong. Fun fact: they headlined Glastonbury in 1997, and with an average age of 20, they were the youngest band ever to do so.
Starsailor round out the top of the bill, ‘Good Souls’ and ‘Silence Is Easy’ still carrying the same melodic ache that made them festival regulars in the first place. Last year, they completed a sell-out European tour celebrating their 25th anniversary, so you can expect them to be on good form.
Beneath the headline names, The Allergies are bringing their full band and unique blend of deep funk and infectious hip-hop to Rochdale for the first time. Middleton’s K-ESTATE fuse Happy Mondays swagger with jungle groove, while Rochdale five-piece Metro, fresh off a Battle of the Bands run, open the main stage.
If you want yourself an unselfconsciously fun day out this weekend, Rochdale Feel Good Festival more than hits the mark.
