Get Together Festival may not be the biggest, multi-day festival out there, but what it is, without any doubt, is a reliably excellent day out for any lovers of alternative and independent music. Guaranteed to have a spectacular line-up and to be a perfect occasion to discover new artists to fall in love with, the Sheffield-based event has gained a devout following over its recent editions, and no surprise: it is buzzing with a true sense of community that is not always a given these days in music spaces, and can rely on a number of well-established venues which are truly committed to delivering the grassroots experience in its best possible incarnation. This year’s line-up was replete with acts spanning a good range of different ranges, including real household names and promising newcomers, and everything in between. Add to that a gig poster art show curated by Tom J. Newell and a series of surprise DJ sets featuring the likes of Dead Dads Club, Crimewave, and The Moonlandingz (in the person of Sheffield native Adrian Flanagan, who got people dancing to an excellent array of tunes), and the festival was promising to be a day to remember.
Not even a truly grim day weather-wise, with relentless rain and frigid temperatures, could dampen the spirit of the crowd that gathered in the Kelham Island and Neepsend area of the city - a true stronghold of grassroots venues, the likes of which are becoming sadly rare in the UK - to partake of the celebrations. It is a further testament to the festival that the organisation ran smoothly, with only minimal queues and almost no one left out of whichever set they wanted to see; and that the atmosphere felt safe and welcoming throughout, even for the solo gig-goer. People from a good range of ages and walks of life came together in the audience, a welcome sight considering the increasingly ageist vibes which can be picked up at festivals sometimes; and it was great to see people from different subcultures get curious about each other’s music and celebrate its diversity together.
Our festival afternoon started early as Yes and Maybe tackled the ever difficult early set at the Neepsend Social Club. Having come directly from Paris, they showed up on stage in slick pinstripe and proceeded to deliver an equally slick performance, a smooth and locally cheeky take on indie rock with a welcome edge added by well-considered lyrics. It is a layered, carefully curated sound that owes in places to early Arctic Monkeys and channels in others a touch of Gorillaz, ultimately finding a voice of its own that is cutting, danceable, and with a sense of humour. As an icebreaker this performance did a very good job, also thanks in no small part to the French-Scottish duo’s stage charisma.
Dipping our toes into the big stage at the Peddlers Warehouse, we managed to catch the tail end of a delightfully demented set by Leeds’ own Stealing Sheep, delivering electric pop with a political undertone, aided by an impressive string of visuals (and costume changes, and props!) sitting squarely between David Lynch and Wes Anderson. After a short break, a perfect manifestation of the broad tonal range of the festival was offered as Gwenno took to the stage, bringing the mood somewhere else altogether with an intense opening track meant to evoke the arrival of Summer (which remained conspicuously absent from the city, but no one can be faulted for trying). This was a masterclass of a set from a consummate performer who came to the stage with full awareness, and command, of both presence and voice: and what a voice that is, flowing seamlessly through her trilingual songwriting (Cornish, Welsh, and English) and getting the crowd to sing along in all three. Blending folk and old tradition with synth-pop and contemporary sensitivities, this was as ever a tight, confident set from an artist who needs no introductions at this point.
Festivals like this are also perfect spaces to make new musical discoveries; a great array of up-and-coming artists populated the line-up this year, and standing out among them were Cork’s own Babyrat, currently on a bit of a UK festival bender which has seen them grace The Great Escape and Get Together in rapid succession. Judging from their set on the Alder stage, you would not have thought they were tired: this was a true energy bomb dropped in the middle of the packed room, aided by the low stage and by a band all too happy to get up close and personal with the audience. Look no further than this set for proof that pure, straightforward garage rock is not dead: with a series of short, punchy tracks and a true delight in performing, this band was quite possibly the biggest positive surprise of the day.
A rather different vibe, but no less intriguing, came from City Parking, bringing a tenser, more subdued, but no less immersive atmosphere to the Yellow Arch stage. On the more experimental end of the spectrum, this may not be everyone’s flavour: near-hypnotic guitar ripples provide the background for spoken-word lyrics replete with a cutting, self-deprecating, and often dark sense of humour. Vocalist Jade Cook warned the audience about the necessity of being able to not take yourself too seriously, as a framing device for the band trying out some new tracks during their set - the audience playing along and being rewarded for it with something that was different and challenging in a good way. You may call this post-punk if you will, although the word seems by now to have lost any meaning, but there is definitely something punk still kicking in its spirit.
Going into the evening, the rain let up at last just in time for people to gather in the open around the new Curious Yard stage, and be hit by the way of riotous mayhem that is Lynks. There is a feeling that at least some of the people in the crowd didn’t quite know what hit them, but then one could argue that it is near impossible to be fully prepared for Lynks, who is in many way the masked hero contemporary pop did not quite deserve but very much needed. Stage choreography seamless as ever, set packed with old favourites and new tunes (including a moment of delightful insanity getting the crowd to sing along to a recipe for bèchamel), channelling queer euphoria and queer rage in equal measure, this was the kind of set that reminds everyone of how good pop music can be when it remembers it can still have teeth. If security got a little tense around crowd-diving, crowd-surfing, and at one point a handful of audience members being invited to an impromptu ‘VIP area’ onstage, this was all worth it in the service of a delightful, adrenalinic, and, yes, political piece of high-octane entertainment. Lynks may not have come here for art, as per latest single, but art happened anyway.
Back to the Peddlers Warehouse for the last set of the night, and what a nightcap it was as The Horrors wrapped the day up with a headline set to be remembered. Ever since their recent line-up reshuffle, they have been very busy as a touring band again, which is great news because their live sets are as sharp as ever; but their Get Together performance saw them quite possibly in better form than they have been even throughout the recent season. Lights low, the band stalking like apparitions through thick stage smoke, the audience found itself wrapped in an otherworldly atmosphere even as frontman Faris Badwan intoned the first few bars of ‘The Silence That Remains’, and from that point it was like being somewhere suspended and slightly out of time as the show trod on relentless. There was something viscerally powerful in hearing the crowd echoing back the cry of “Free Palestine” from the stage, and there was something ethereally soothing in watching it sway to the flow of the synths. It was a truly electric performance, no holds barred, sheer artistry as a conduit for the laying bare of visceral, complex feelings, and the lingering buzz of it echoed in the murmured conversations between audience members as they filed out to go dance the night away at one of the late-night DJ sets that wrapped up the festival.
Not only living up to its reputation, Get Together went above and beyond this year, delivering a day of the best music has to give. So what if the heavens opened - this was warmth enough for all.
Chiara Strazzulla
Images: Chiara Strazzulla