Twinfest reveals the German, French and Northants acts playing this year’s festival

Acts from Northampton’s twinned towns of Hamburg in Germany and Poitiers in France will again be joining musicians from the county at venues across the town from Thursday, July 25, to Sunday, July 28.

Kenny Precious, one of Twinfest’s organisers, said: “Twinfest is the highlight of the local music calendar isn’t it.

“Every year we have an amazing response, but this year it’s been outstanding.

“We’ve tried very hard to curate a fresh look to the shows this year, which we hope puts a lot of newer acts directly in the spotlight, as well as having absolutely massive headliners at all venues across all four days.”

“We’re oversubscribed by 4:1 for the slots available, which is an incredible advert for Twinfest and the town’s differing scenes, which seem to be bursting out from the limited amount of grassroots venues old shoetown possesses.

“The response, as always from Northampton, has been humbling.

“The hardest part of the whole process is to finalise a solid and rewarding line-up for each day and differing venues.

“We always try to keep the shows as musically diverse as we can.

“I think it’s definitely one of the reasons the festival has become so popular now.”

This year’s visiting bands are France’s Tituba and Apewards from Marburg.

Talking about both, Mr Precious said: “This year we have two really excellent and exciting bands from our twin towns.

“Tituba are a three-piece rock outfit from Poitiers, they’re defined as Sub Pop / rock, very reminiscent of the 90s alt rock scene.

“Think Pavement, Mudhoney, maybe a bit of Buffalo Tom floating around in there as well.

“They’re a fun and exciting band to watch, rammed full of energy.

“Expect to be jumping, moshing and maybe a bit of crowd surfing with these guys.

“Apewards from Marburg are a heavy blues / stoner three piece, with meticulously crafted songs of an extremely high standard.

“They are very polished and high quality act we’ve been trying to get on the Twinfest lineup for a few years now.

“Luckily for us and Northampton, the planets have aligned and they’ll be romancing the gig going public with their brand of high quality earworms come July.”

Over the four days, gigs will take place at The Garibaldi, The Lamplighter, The Black Prince, The Charles Bradlaugh and V And B.

Joining the visiting acts will be Lily On The Green, Headswitcher, Rolling Thunder, Killer Saucers From Hell, Lame, Latent Dream, The Vandervalls, Fountain, Pavilion, Freya Rose, Tom Rose & The Heathen Orchestra, Litesleeper, Rebecca, Chargr, Alex Gardner, J. E. Martin, Russell Heyworth, Dancing Drums, Mrs Pilgrimm, Emmi Fortune, Bee Church, Beings, Aurora Sun, Balter, Canyons, Down 'N' Out and Afreine.

There will also be an outdoor performance in the town centre from the Northampton African Association’s Dancing Drums.

Talking about the diverse range of acts playing this year’s festival, Mr Precious said: “While most standard events have lineups that match musically, we challenge that norm and put together acts that wouldn’t normally necessarily share a stage together.

“We see this as a flow, a journey that we take the audience on, giving them the chance to discover styles or genres they wouldn’t normally be presented with at your average gig.

“A lot of effort goes into trying to make that work and seem natural.

“The best thing for us I believe is bringing so many different genres of musicians together, as well as their audience, throw into that mix musicians from different countries and cultures and we’ve got an incredible and unique festival experience.

“It really is quite upsetting that the festival isn’t big enough to give everyone who applies a slot on the lineups and this year more than ever we’ve had to let some serious talent down.

“The whole four days are one great big melting pot of music and culture, we’re fundamentally a festival of friendships, bringing people together through brilliant music and a whole lot of partying, we don’t sleep much over Twinfest.”

There is an admission charge into gigs at The Black Prince and The Charles Bradlaugh. Day tickets and weekend passes are available in advance from www.stalkersstudio.bigcartel.com/products

The full day and stage splits for Twinfest 2024 are as follows:

THURSDAY, JULY 25

The Black Prince:

Apewards (D)

Lily On The Green

Tituba (F)

Headswitcher

FRIDAY, JULY 26

The Lamplighter:

Rolling Thunder

Apewards (D)

Killer Saucers From Hell

The Garibaldi:

Tituba (F)

Lame

Latent Dream

The Vandervalls

SATURDAY, JULY 27

The Charles Bradlaugh:

Fountain

Apewards (D)

Pavilion

Freya Rose

Tom Rose & The Heathen Orchestra

Tituba (F)

Litesleeper

Rebecca

Chargr

V And B:

Alex Gardner

J. E. Martin

Apewards (D)

Russell Heyworth

Dancing Drums

Mrs Pilgrimm

Emmi Fortune

Bee Church

SUNDAY, JULY 28

The Black Prince:

Beings

Apewards (D)

Tituba (F)

Aurora Sun

Balter

Canyons

Down 'N' Out

Afreine