Y Not Festival is back for 2022! The North’s essential music festival returns next summer after two years away on 29th – 31st July to bring music lovers the celebration they all deserve. For their fifteenth edition, Y Not are delighted to announce two of the UK’s best live acts as their 2022 headliners – COURTEENERS and BLOSSOMS.

Spanning a career of over a decade, COURTEENERS are one of the UK’s most celebrated live acts. These seasoned festival performers continue their arena-filling mainstays on an international touring circuit. Now, six albums in, the local legends are bringing their energy and incredible catalogue to Y Not Festival on Saturday 29th July.

The Manchester rock band COURTEENERS have released an impressive six top 10 albums and it all began with St. Jude in 2008 and the anthem ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ – St. Jude was an incredible and era defining record that set the stage for their later works including: 2010’s Falcon, 2013’s Anna, which included ‘Are You Still In Love With A Notion?’ And their latest 2020 album More. Again. Forever. Prepare yourselves for a HUGE Saturday night at Y Not!

BLOSSOMS return to Y Not for their first headline performance on The Big Gin stage on Sunday night. The smooth Manchester quintet broke through in 2016 with their massive self-titled debut record, which earned them a Mercury Prize nomination the following year. Their second album Foolish Loving Spaces hit the No.1 album spot in 2020 and continued their brilliant success. Get ready for an energetic show, packed with fan favourites and singalong hits ‘Charlemagne’ and ‘Honey Sweet’, plus newer material ‘Your Girlfriend’, ‘The Keeper’ and ‘If You Think This Is Real Life’.

We can’t wait to headline next year. Y Not was the first festival I ever went to in 2012, so to be back there headlining is really quite surreal. It’s going to be a very special night.

Tom Ogden – Blossoms frontman

This is a line up for the true music fans – with a rich weekend of iconic musical talent, from NOTHING BUT THIEVES to pop and soul queen GABRIELLE and rap royalty EVE to acclaimed indie outfits SUNDARA KARMA, alt-rockers SPORTS TEAM and post-punk duo SLEAFORD MODS. Plus, next summer will see some of the hottest UK talent and the next generation of headliners; PALE WAVES, JADE BIRD, BEANS ON TOAST, ALFIE TEMPLEMEN, VISTAS, LARKINS, GIANT ROOKS, AIRWAYS, LAURAN HIBBERD and the return of local legends, THE LANCASHIRE HOTPOTS.

We are so delighted to be announcing the first wave of our 2022 line up! After what has been an incredibly challenging two years for live music, and especially for so many other independent festivals, we are proud to present our line up and to welcome everyone back to Y Not Festival for the celebration we all deserve. We’ll be bringing our most exciting line-up yet with two explosive headliners, Courtneers and Blossoms, as well as some of the UK’s next generation of headliners like Jade Bird, Pale Waves, Nothing But Thieves, Sports Team and so many more big names and returning headliners to come. We will see you next year!

Jason Oakley, Managing Director at Y Not Festival