Photo Credit: Kevin O’Sullivan
After three great days, despite the tiredness kicking in for many we were determined to pack our final day of Y Not with even more live music.
Why shell out hundreds for Oasis when you can get an extra letter and the same swagger for a fraction of the price? Originally slated for a smaller slot, the buzz around Noasis was so electric they ended up bumped to the main stage — and rightly so. With Oasis firmly back on top of the music world, this tribute act’s timing couldn’t have been better. Liam’s sneer and snarl were pitch perfect, while Noel made a miraculous early return to Y Not after headlining solo last year — looking slightly worse for wear, possibly due to finding The Prodigy’s paracetamol’ back stage. From Rock ‘n’ Roll Star to Live Forever, Champagne Supernova to the inevitable Don’t Look Back In Anger, the set was a nostalgia-soaked, hangover-combating triumph. 7.5/10
Birmingham-and-Nottingham outfit Paradise Circus delivered a set full of charm and understated power — indie-rock laced with a strangely calming undertone. Frontman David, with all the exuberant swagger of someone very aware of the audience, swayed, spun and stumbled across the stage like a man drunk on his own music; even when visibly rocking, as if tossed by sonic waves thrown from the speakers, he remained in complete control throughout. Earlier tracks like Out of My Mind showed promise, and, although the set did seem to taper out at points, latest single Icarus and the unreleased closer Never Mind — a bittersweet anthem about leaving home and knowing you’ll miss it — saw them bow out on a heartfelt high. 8/10
A beautifully harmonious balm to the chaos of Sunday afternoon, Siobhan Winifred brought a gentle strength to her first-ever main stage set, and making damn sure it wouldn’t be her last. Her voice, delicate yet defiant, floated above punchy instrumentals like sunlight on dark water, the contrast making each track all the more compelling. Even with a good chunk of the set being unreleased — Inflatable Man, Good Little Bird, Revolution — it was a testament to her affability and general talent that the crowd seemed to lap it up regardless… though none more than the Keir Starmer-dedicated Let Down, the criticism met with a chorus of cheers. By the time Killers closed the set, Winifred had won over the crowd completely. Small in stature, huge in presence. 8.5/10
The Small Fortunes might be a misnomer — there’s absolutely nothing small about them. From the second the lead singer tore into a harmonica and howled through the likes of Times No Friend Of Mine or the unreleased Castaway, it was clear this band deals in big, bold, no-prisoners energy. Love Is Not Enough kept the momentum burning, even if the band’s sound did flirt with being a little one-note at times. But when that note hits this hard? It’s festival gold. Their confidence teetered on cocky, but crucially, the talent backed it up. Whether they can sustain it for a full headline show remains to be seen — but, with December dates incoming, they’ve got ample opportunity to live up to it. 9/10
If The Small Fortunes were a little one-note, Home Counties were… every note, all at once. The six-piece erupted into their set like a post-punk fever dream — vocals barked into the mic with righteous fury, while a whirlwind of tambourines, guitars, synths, and percussion danced chaotically around them. By the time the maracas emerged for Funk U Up and cowbells joined the fray on Wild Guess, it felt like a full-blown musical circus. Humdrum, the title track from their upcoming album, was anything but; Bethnal Green and You Break It, You Bought It, meanwhile, walked the tightrope between madness and brilliance. It was a lot. But once you surrendered to the chaos, the set became weirdly magnetic — like being slowly brainwashed by a very stylish cult. Hard to define, harder to forget. A theremin short of full insanity. 8.5/10
Mosh pits may have been swapped for hay bales, but the energy at Finn Forster’s set never wavered — though, in part, that’s because of his stupidly, revoltingly amazing voice. Raw, rich and utterly commanding, his vocals felt like a stage presence all their own, holding the Allotment crowd rapt from first note to last. Having helped open Y Not 2024, Forster returned a year on to help close out 2025, and the growth in set time shows a man slowly getting more in demand, though it feels honestly wrong to still have him on a small stage. Tracks like Long Nights, Feels Like and the unreleased Burning Bridges showed both emotional depth and mainstream potential, while Stay Right Till The End did exactly what the title promised, bringing things to a close with real heart — and a crowd that only got bigger as he went. It’s getting harder to imagine seeing him on stages this small for much longer. Go while you still can. 10/10
The Cork-based outfit Cliffords might not demand attention, but they sure as hell earn it, building atmosphere like a slow exhale before the storm. Lucky Girl and Bittersweet shimmered with a dreamlike sadness, while My Favourite Monster saw Gavin Dawkins’ trumpet cutting through the tent like a flare in fog, guiding Iona Lynch’s delicate vocals into the darker corners; it was Feels Like a Man that truly stunned though, twisting between feral roars and fragile croons, rage and resignation colliding in real time. Poetic, political — the red of Lynch’s dress a distinct match to the red on the Palestinian flag fluttering from O’Toole’s keyboard — and blisteringly, unapologetically loud when the tracks called for it; sure, Cliffords might not have had the biggest crowd of the weekend, but they definitely provided one of the biggest sets. 10/10
Let’s just get this out of the way — yes, Franz Ferdinand do, in fact, have more than one song. A lot more, as it turns out. Striding on stage to the iconic theme from The Naked Gun, the Glasgow legends wasted no time launching into The Dark of the Matinée, frontman Alex Kapranos throwing shapes like a man born to be backlit. From the almost robotic sway of Ulysses to the punchy stomp of new single Build It Up (co-written with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, no less), the set just simply refused to dip. Take Me Out, of course, lit the crowd up — but it was This Fire that truly scorched, its drawn-out instrumental intro giving way to a full-band roll call, duelling guitars, and the kind of eruption that had what felt like all of Derbyshire off its feet. Theatre, swagger, fax machine beats — a near-perfect headline set, about an hour and a half earlier than scheduled. 10/10
It felt like ‘madness’ to skip the main stage headliner for Circa Waves — but clearly, thousands shared the same delusion. Stepping into Annie Mac’s vacated headline slot, the Liverpool four-piece tore into their indie-rock anthems with nary a breath, Do You Wanna Talk and Hell On Earth, the crowd happily shouting along. The otherwise sinister, insidious Fire That Burns set the tent ablaze, the sole survivor of the post-Different Creatures setlist cull doing some heavy lifting, while the slow, shimmering love debut of new single Cherry Bomb, saw the tent lit up by the fracturing light beams of several spinning mirror ball. Sound issues briefly threatened momentum, but bassist Sam Rourke donning a pair of fan-donated pink shades helped lighten the mood, all while drummer Colin Jones seemed to punish his drum kit for some perceived slight through the faster numbers. Finally, before the crowd making their way over to the Big Gin stage for the tail end of the legendary Madness, Be Your Drug and a feral T-Shirt Weather closed the set with a cavernous pit and deafening cheers. Insanity? Maybe. Worth it? Absolutely. 9/10
Check out our review of Thursday/Friday at Y Not here and Saturday here.
Written By: James O’Sullivan
