Y Not Festival - Friday

10,000 people, 64 Bands, 7 stages across the day and 1 almighty electrical-storm-enduced evacuation; if you want to describe Friday of Y Not in numbers, it’s possible, but here at SI, we’d rather use 600 words and put a gallery at the bottom of it. 33 photos from Day One no less.

The day starts with a quick succession of up and coming acts. From the blues-rock infusion of Whisky Stain howling with the prowess of a Black Key through to the Johnny Flynn looks and Mumfords’ rhythm of underage duo Natterjacks, the fun really begins when Alcopop Records and Big Scary Monsters joined forces on the Giant Squid Stage.

SI sticks around to watch Axes perform the most enthusiastically joyous post-rock set its possible to witness before straying out into the open once more as ominous clouds sweep over the site. Visits to the Beach Bar and Magical Pizza Gardens take us back just in time for some math-rock.

Delta Sleep’s newest material is making the last three years of slow and steady progress seem very much worth it as the band’s math-rock sounds filled the tent before My First Tooth made an early bid for ‘Act of the Weekend’ with their breed of folk mixed with hooks that most bands spend years trying for. Gunning For Tamar rock out in a big way as their new material blends with huge tracks such as Chocolate Hooves. Keep a watch out for these Oxford boys’ debut record.

Taking mostly from the duo’s UK Top 40 record, PSB’s stage demeanour doesn’t change. Samples and pre-recorded messages “We’re so excited to play … Y Not Festival” are greeted with raucous cheers from the assembled and the band get on with their distinctly electronic sounding live show. It’s as well oiled as a Spitfire (incidentally the title of one of their tracks) and about as easy to compute as “Simon” (see ROYGBIV for witty reference).

As the crowds leave PSB’s set, the aforementioned ominous clouds begin to leak profusely as we take refuge in Stagecoach’s set. Debut album under their wing, Stagecoach have a plethora of tracks to choose from for a half hour set and they don’t disappoint. Singles Work!Work!Work! and Action mix in with We Got Tazers and Headbanger’s Ball as they storm through their set just in time to miss the very real storm that’s built outside.

Playing right into Chapel Club’s hands, the darkness draws a big crowd into the Quarry stage. Whilst their new record isn’t nearly as dark as their first effort, music from each album is greeted fondly and of course Surfacing sees the lowest pitch singalong of the weekend from Y Not’s increasingly damp patrons.

At this point, everything begins to break. An electrical storm takes Mystery Jets off stage, delays Johnny Foreigner and cuts Quarry headliners Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip’s return to the live scene in half. Just as the duo get into their third track and have the huge Y Not crowd in the palms of their hands, stage crew rush on stage to evacuate the Arena for half an hour. Le Sac hugs the crowd and walks off whilst Pip crowdsurfs all the way out the back door to brave the storm himself. By the time The Horrors take to the main stage to headline, Dan and Pip are back on and power through their set with the kind of aggression and gusto that shouts to much bigger things in the next year.

The tagline of the festival? Small. Fresh. Loud. After just one day, all of that’s been proven and there was even a huge storm to top it all off. 

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Braden Fletcher