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Outbreak Festival was born from humble beginnings, organised by hardcore-headed adolescents Jordan Copeland and Lee Fellows, with a desire to unite U.K hardcore with pioneers across the pond. The first show took place in Sheffield’s Broomhall Centre, a local community centre with a main hall and no live music licence, which the pair spent cleaning the night before the festival. Since then, the festival continued to grow, finding what was a permanent home in Leeds before eventually wandering down to Manchester, nestling down in Trafford’s industrial B.E.C Arena.
Since the run of Outbreak shows, hardcore itself has had a phenomenal rise in popularity – what was once a seemingly underground and misunderstood genre, with barrierless gigs relegated to pokey venues and community halls, has wormed its way into mainstream culture. The recent success of bands like Turnstile, who exploded into mainstream culture with 2021’s third album ‘Glow On’, have helped to put hardcore on the map, borrowing from influences outside the genre to create a sound that is more polished and accessible to newer audiences.
Social media algorithms also play a part in reaching wider audiences, with bands like Superheaven going viral and enabling this year’s headliners Basement’s ‘Covet’ to hit 100 million worldwide streams and go gold in the United States. What was once a community driven scene founded in local shows has now sprawled into something much larger, drawing in kids in from places scenes couldn’t reach with D.I.Y philosophies and spawning new, budding scenes across the world.
Outbreak has embraced this shift in hardcore to invite more genres, artists that embody D.I.Y and punk philosophies without the hard riffs to back it. Recent iterations of the festival have seen an embrace of hip-hop and electronic artists, inviting artists like Denzel Curry – a rapper beloved with hip hop and hardcore fans alike after his ripping cover of Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Bulls on Parade’ and emerging hyperpop artist Jane Remover to the festival.
Now in its fifteenth year, Outbreak seizes its biggest stages with a stacked hardcore lineup for Outbreak Manchester, and a collaboration with All Points East to bring metal giants Deftones to Victoria Park. The stratospheric rise of the festival is testament to the unwavering ethos that underpins it – from barrierless shows and championing local hardcore to the emphasis on sustainability within the festival. As the festival spreads its wings, with Adidas collaborations to Bring Me The Horizon shows, the roots of the original community are still in the place from its humble beginnings in Sheffield.
Here’s to the next fifteen years.
Kaitlyn Brockley
Image: Outbreak Official Lineup Poster