Handmade Festival is Leicester’s biggest independent music festival with venues across Leicester City Centre including Attenborough Arts Centre, The Cookie, Dryden Street Social, Firebug, O2 Academy Leicester, The Shed, The Soundhouse & The Y Theatre. The event will take place on Sunday 5 May.
This year there will be more than 50 acts spread across 10 stages all crammed into one Sunday afternoon and evening. Having been voted as one of The Guardian’s top ten best city music festivals of 2019, and with the amazing lineup, this year’s festival is set to be one of the biggest and busiest yet. There will be a regular (free to wristband wearers) bus travelling between venues, hopefully you’ll be able to keep an eye it’s whereabouts in the Handmade festival app but don’t quote me on that!
Music in Leicester always have a fantastic time at Handmade festival, see our multimedia review of last year’s festival.
This year’s highlights include:
Metronomy are headlining the festival with The Sherlocks and Black Honey also on the bill. They are among the many acts which have been announced and will be playing on the day.
Metronomy are actually celebrating their 10th anniversary as a band, so it will be a good excuse to have a party. Their songwriter Joseph Mount also co-wrote Robyn’s 2018 album, Honey.
The Sherlocks are an alternative rock band from Bolton-upon-Dearne, near Sheffield. Interestingly, the band is made up of Kiaran and Brandon Crook, Andy and Josh Davidson- two sets of brothers! They will be at o2 Academy Leicester.
Black Honey, a Brighton-based disco noir outfit, played Handmade back in 2016 and are now back having released an album (which reached number 33 last September).
Dream State and Can’t Swim will be at Dryden Street Social. Can’t Swim are a band from New Jersey, currently touring the UK after having released their second album This Too Won’t Pass last November. Dream State are a post-hardcore band and their single ‘White Lies’ has almost 3 million plays on Spotify.
CHILDCARE will be playing the The Cookie. They’ve recently supported Bastille on tour and we definitely recommend you check them out. Their debut album is out very soon and their art-pop sound is a delight.
Last year, Circa Waves and Drenge headlined the festival.