FESTIVAL REVIEW: YNot? Festival, Pikehall Farm, Derbyshire, Saturday 1st August 2026
It’s day three already and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. A quick check in at the media tent revealed we have interviews with The Vaccines and The Clause later, that has put a spring in our step and that step gets even springier with the first act of the day … the one and only Mr Motivator! There are at least a couple of thousand down at the Big Gin stage for this and it is fun, fun, fun (and some sweat!) for the full forty-five minutes, this has set everyone up for a big day of music ahead.
Sheffield singer/songwriter Harry Lyon kicks the music off for the day on the Quarry Stage, we always try to see a couple of emerging artists each day at a festival and Harry brings a unique synth-pop sound that resonates with the decent sized crowd that are down. Our only visit to the Flamingo Jacks tent of the weekend had comedian Dom Jolly take us on a walk down memory lane with clips of his Trigger Happy TV show that was shown on Channel 4 around twenty-five years ago while Scouting For Girls need very little introduction, they have been the staple of UK festivals for years … and are still providing great entertainment wherever they play but crucially they are latching on to each generation and building a brand-new fanbase every time. Roy Stride on vocals/piano & keys is a very charming character on stage and works the crowd so well during a set that included all the bands big hits covering the past twenty years including the big singalong She’s So Lovely, Elvis Ain’t Dead and I Wish I Was James Bond. The cover of Dexys Midnight Runners song Come On Eileen was enjoyed all around in the sunshine. 8/10
It’s been around a year since we last saw Sheffield band Rosadocs live at Sound City, they seem more solid as a band now with the five-piece releasing new music since then. Frontman Keelan Graney has developed his own style of vocals that keeps the fans onside during the half-hour set that includes their biggest tracks to date including Run Away Instead, No.54 and At Your Door, with an upcoming autumn tour on the horizon they are sure to grow in popularity. 8/10
The Happy Mondays are the late afternoon headliners on the Big Gin stage and we reckon to have only saw them live once around ten years ago when they supported Madness. Whether it be Bez shaking his maracas prancing all around the stage or Shaun Ryder’s vocals it makes for great entertainment … at times, to be honest it is difficult to make out the vocals of Ryder sometimes during the forty-five minute set however the backing vocalist Rowetta more than makes up for this with a very powerful vocal range, Happy Mondays are not really a band that we would go and watch live. 6/10
Meanwhile back over at The Quarry The Clause have attracted a massive crowd to the tent as they did last year when we saw them at Kendal Calling. Last year’s debut album Victim Of A Casual Thing has well and truly launched the careers of the Birmingham quartet. Pearce Macca on vocals keeps everything running along smoothly as they run though an entertaining set that ends with Elisha, Fever Dream and the track that the crowd always connect to … In My Element. This is by far the band’s most streamed song to date and seems to resonate so well with this crowd, just about everyone is singing the chorus back to the stage, watch these guys grow. Look out for our interview with Pearce Macca soon! 9/10
The Vaccines have been on tour recently bringing their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? back to life after fifteen years, we were lucky enough to see them live in Glasgow and Edinburgh already this year so we already knew … what to expect from The Vaccines! Ok the debut album isn’t played in full today due to time constraints but playing eight tracks from that debut album was good enough for us. It also allowed them the freedom to play more of the hits that the fans were expecting, songs such as Headphones Baby, Your Love Is My Favourite Band and Heartbreak Kid from latest album Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations had some of the best crowd reactions (and singalongs). The last song of the seventeen-track set All My Friends Are Falling In Love ended a fun-filled set but that’s just what we expect from The Vaccines. Look out for our interview with Justin Hayward-Young soon. 10/10
When we were backstage interviewing The Clause earlier we couldn’t help but notice Bilk vocalist Sol Abrahams strutting about backstage all dressed in leather and it also reminded us that we hadn’t ever seen the band live so tonight would be the time for that to change. We headed up to the Giant Squid, the third largest stage at Y Not to watch them play a half-hour of classic/progressive rock that hit the button. We really enjoyed Spiked, Sister Mary and Brand New Day. 7/10
A quick stop off for some food and having a listen to Kaiser Chiefs in the background led to us being back in the Giant Squid for Inspiral Carpets, we have been looking forward to this one for months after catching the band play at Kendal Calling last year. The packed tent was a mixture of young and older music fans making for an appreciative crowd, Inspiral Carpets released brand new album in January – Burn Like The Sun – we would get to hear three new songs tonight from the album including Drag The Bag and There’s A Better Way and Wolf At The Door with all three songs sounding great. There is always something about watching a band in a tent that is special, whether it be that the sound reverberates around the tent or the feeling that it is an indoor gig. This music takes us back to a time when The Stone Roses, James & The Charlatans were riding high, in fact a certain Noel Gallagher was a roadie with Inspiral Carpets years before Oasis were formed. A few of the big hitters are played early in the set including She Comes In The Fall, Joe and Two Worlds Collide, Stephen Holt on lead vocals and Clint Boon on keyboards steal the show. From the opening keyboard sequence of This Is How It Feels the song is instantly recognisable, the crowd are singing back the words to the band while Dragging Me Down and closer Saturn 5 are a delight to hear live again. Inspiral Carpets head out on a UK tour with The Wonder Stuff in the autumn and is one not to be missed! 10/10
Two Door Cinema Club had already been on the Big Gin stage when we arrived, like The Vaccines a few hours before this show is part of the 15th anniversary of the Tourist History album. The band describe themselves as “guitar driven post-punk hooks with dancey, electronic polish”, we agree with every word of that, it is hard not to dance to the music of Two Door Cinema Club. We ended up getting to hear eleven songs from the Tourist History album, so a decent return. The opening part of the set “chapter one” is dedicated to that very album with Cigarettes In The Theatre, I Can Talk, Come Back Home and This Is The Life naming just a few. We get to hear a few from the Beacon album during the “epilogue” section including Sleep Alone, Next Year and Sun while “chapter two” has another five from Tourist History, Undercover Martyn was a joy to hear live. There was only one song to finish off the twenty-track set: What You Know. This is by far the band’s most popular song and at the last count had well over one billion streams on Spotify alone. The Y Not crowd are well engaged with this tune and why not as it is the last band of Saturday night at Pikehall Farm. 10/10
Saturday was an outstanding day of music, we wonder if Sunday can live up to that.
Check out our review of Thursday and Friday here.
Written by: Alan Brown
