Is This Derbyshire or Not?: Y Not Review

The Gryphon braved the Peak District and its ever-changing weather, with Gabriel Morrissey-Limb giving a rundown of this year’s stacked festival.

Thursday

Headliner: The Wombats

Thursday greeted the early-birds with sets from the likes of Pixey, a producer/artist with melodic pop-rock to liven up the crowd. Scottish supernovas Vistas were up later on The Big Gin stage with recognisable hits such as ‘15 years’ and ‘Dayglow’ enveloping the growing crowd of arrivals. Singing their hearts out, they were certainly what we needed to hear to bring some energy after a long day of travelling. They also played some of their new material, suggesting an edgier sound with brattier guitars, which would excite anyone following their progression.

Picking up some food and drink, we decided to tour the grassy plains of Y Not before the headline act of the evening, The Wombats came on. We trekked past The Giant Squid stage and The Quarry to be greeted with a cinema and a market, before eventually introducing ourselves to the other people who had been given press access.

Thursday’s headliners, The Wombats, were next on our menu. Delivering an effortlessly cool set of old and new classics, including releases from their latest album, Oh! The Ocean (2025), as well as hits such as ‘Greek Tragedy’, ‘Lemon to a Knife Fight’, ‘Moving to New York’ and ‘Kill The Director’. The Merseyside band played the dutiful role of an early headliner perfectly.

Friday

Headliner: The Prodigy

Day Two was, naturally, a much busier day. The Lancashire Hotpots were first up, greeting the early risers with a fun folky set, getting the crowd to create a giant conga line at one point. After satisfying our stomachs, we went to the Giant Squid Stage to see Manchester-based Foxgloves, performing their single ‘Tell Me A Story’, and it was clear that they were a band to keep an eye on.

Indie-veterans ‘The Futureheads’ were our next port of call, singing a Kate Bush cover of ‘Hounds of Love’ as well as their classics, such as ‘Struck Dumb’. After this, we saw Welsh rockers Panic Shack, who delivered a set so good I was surprised they were on so early.

The Big Gin Stage was also used by alternative indie band hard life, delivering a set comprised of songs such as ‘othello’ from their new album onion (2025). The festival was feeling much more like itself, with a larger crowd arriving in droves and the weather being fickle as ever.

Friday’s headliners could’ve easily headlined any of the days. The Prodigy, the dance music icons, blew the lid off the place. Lasers took to the skies and, feeling as though they’d stepped out of the future, they delivered easily the best performance of the weekend. Anthems such as ‘Invaders Must Die’, ‘We Live Forever’, and the controversially named ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ were met with delight from the crowd. MC and frontman Maxim greeted the crowd and told us how important festivals like this were, dedicating several of the songs to young audience members in the crowd and dubbing them the next generation. Combined with a touching tribute to Keith Flint with a remix of Firestarter, the sun went down, but the lights dimmed on a phenomenal set. The Prodigy served as an example of genre icons, and despite losing their previous frontman, they persist and do it very, very well.

Image Credit: Adam Lievesley & Y Not Festival

Saturday 

Headliner: The Courteeners

Saturday greeted us with sun and smiles. After a lie-in and breakfast, we ventured to The Allotment stage to see BIMM student and rising star Daisy Peacock perform, with a sound reminiscent of early Taylor Swift, a sort of indie-country. We were blown away by the fact that someone so young could give such a good performance.

Heading to the press tent for our assignment of interviews for the day, we were able to interview the high-energy band ALRIGHT and rock legends The Subways.

We then sat down at the back of The Big Gin stage to catch some of Red Rum Club’s set before heading off to The Quarry to see viral indie-pop band Daydreamers, dripped in style and purple lighting. The music dropped from the stage onto us, particularly singles ‘Call Me Up’ and ‘Colourblind’.

We found ourselves at The Allotment once again to catch the sensational Eighty-Eight Miles. Something that I love about festivals is the opportunities they give you to find new favourites, and Eighty-Eight Miles with their suits and faux-80s Blossoms-esque sound are definitely that.

Sigrid was up on The Big Gin stage, with a renewed energy in part due to her funky new single ‘Jellyfish’, her fun Norwegian pop was exactly what the weather was calling for as the sun rays soaked the festival goers. Chloe Slater brought her clever, contemporary lyrics to the festival at the same time, so we split up to catch both sets. 

The Crooks wear their influences on their sleeves, and even after a hiatus, their set played out in the best way, with it being Oasis summer. We then headed over to see the indie alternative artists The Last Dinner Party on the main stage, performing an unreleased track from their upcoming album and with a creative set adorned with pillars, it’s hard not to view the band as one of, if not the, most exciting prospects to come out of the UK in recent years. The Giant Squid Stage looked like something out of a music video as The Subways took to the stage. There was moshing, calls to sack off the far-right with ‘Influencer Killed The Rockstar’ and their hit classic ‘Rock and Roll Queen’.

The headline act this day was The Courteeners, performing a cover of Sunday’s headliners Madness, ‘It Must Be Love’ and having the crowd sing ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ back to them. It was a nostalgia-soaked evening that made you feel as though you were 18 again, with all of the benefits that entails.

Sunday

Headliner: Madness

Sunday brought the rain with it, being awoken to a wet tent, it seemed as though the weather app had been correct, worrying us for the day ahead. The clouds persisted as the day began, but so did the crowds. Eventually, the winds staved off the storm, allowing us to see acts such as Noasis, an Oasis tribute act, on The Big Gin Stage, drawing over 20,000 people as they performed covers of the Oasis classics.

Leeds indie-scene legends The Pigeon Detectives were up next on The Big Gin Stage. We didn’t stray too far away from Y Not’s biggest stage today as we had interviews to carry out. Eventually, they were completed and we were able to relax, with a few libations really getting us in the mood for 90s Brit-Pop hit makers, Shed Seven. As the sun finally split through the clouds, you couldn’t help but feel the mood of the festival grounds lift with people dancing and celebrating engagements to ‘Talk of the Town’ and ‘Chasing Rainbows’. 

Relaxing before the final act of the weekend, we made our way to the main stage as the sun set, and on came the Ska-Pop band that everyone knows; Madness. Gearing up for their own tour, they played all of their classics, with the crowd knowing every word to hits including ‘Our House’, ‘It Must Be Love’, ‘Nightboat to Cairo’ and more. The old boys closed the festival out in the best way: peacefully. There were no songs to make you feel like moshing, simply to sway, swing and love, and despite their age, the band seems to have earned a spot of forever relevance well into the 2020s, something few can really say they have. People from all over came to see the Peak District to see and experience an incredible weekend of music, film, comedy and more. Y Not has successfully pulled this off for twenty years, and if it stays like this, it should carry on for at least another twenty more!

Words by Gabriel Morrissey-Limb