Y Not Festival 2018 Highlights & Review - Stephi LaReine

If I had a quid for every time someone asks me about Y Not Festival, I'd be very rich indeed. In fact, if I had a quid for every person who frisbee'd out the pun "why not" whilst making their impulsive festival decisions, I'd be swimming in pound coins, a glamorous yet painful seeming dream of mine. I've spoken beforehand about the magic that goes down in Derbyshire from my previous Y Not review that captures the stunning landscapes of neon lights, the smell of freshly cooked pizza and glitter in unmentionable places the human body shouldn't have glitter. It's festival season and Y Not has a dear place in my ever-growing heart for it's northern roots and dedication to supporting new music. As I've always stated, music by the people for the people (and don't wear it out!) Todays post will be transfixing you through the rock'n'roll journey of my Y Not 2018 highlights in what I deem to be the most successful Y Not so far. Major kudos for having me as always Team Y Not!

The dawn of Y Not opened up to beautiful skies, a new festival site with the proviso of extra metal flooring so that transportation was with ease, no skidding in the mud and good vibes. After setting up the newest addition to the tent family from Gorilla tents with the use of a tent finder and acid smiley faces plastered up the side, we cracked open a few cans and hit up our music family of This Feeling. Having had a mooch at the festival site, and being majorly impressed by each stage being a 5 minute walk away from anywhere you need to be, it was never troublesome running from stage to stage when my favourite bands clashed. Our Friday cue'd Generation, Liverpool star studded faves of new-age punk that packed out the tent and made it onto my highlights video (check them out!). Following on to Circa Waves, yes it had only been a week since I saw another Liverpool favourite but T-Shirt Weather never quite gets boring, right?

Other major highlights of the Friday included Sophie and The Giants, Trampolene with Jack Jones blowing away the audience with his vocal charm. Following up with The Surrenders, Manic Street Preachers playing a life defining set on the main stage, along with the roar of The Libertines tailing off the night. But the party never stops when the headline act finishes, meanwhile at the This Feeling tent our DJ pals Katie Owen and Nineties Mike hit us up with everything from Miles Kane Coup De Grace to Gorillaz. RIP my voice for the next few days (again!)

Saturday came around with bright sunshine as we all emerged from a warm tent to cook up some breakfast, run around for a big day ahead of scoping out the best music which included the following; Catfish & The Bottlemen, Kaiser Chiefs, Pale Waves, The Amazons, Tom Grennan, Buzzcocks, The Seamonsters and Himalayas. Whilst we'd easily vouch my new favourite was hands down Tom Grennan for his vocal capabilities, and also the three green aliens that graced the back of the tent on their stag do, and had me in a stitch. Due to a couple of clashes we missed a couple of personal new music favourites, but what can a girl say when she's having quality romantic time eating pizza after it's been freshly made in front of me.

One element I've always loved about Y Not is their food, I explored everything from halloumi couscous wraps, Jack Daniels burgers, curry to pizza. It's definitely the kind of festival where you don't feel you have to rely on heading back to the tent to have a soup, when everything is freshly made in front of you and at an incredibly affordable price.

Weather didn't favour Y Not and their bodacious plans for day three of the beautiful festival. We decided to pack up our tents and ship everything back to the car to continue on the party with a slither of a chance that our tent might have flown back to the land of Oz. Starting up the day with Red Rum Club, one of Liverpools greatest upcoming bands with plans to dominate every festival they face.

I couldn't fail to mention The Horne Section by little Alex Horne, known for his assistance role in Dave's Taskmaster and finally The Wombats. Although the day presented a golden opportunity if the weather hadn't have been so unpredictable, we could have seen Peace, Jamoriquoi, Tom Walker, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Lucy Spraggen, Alex Ohm, Yak, No Hot Ashes and The Scruff.

One of the best parts of Y Not this year was their addition of All Out Beauty, a hub for getting styled up, including L'Oreal's Colourista & Stylista range for the ultimate hairdo, The Gypsy Shrine for glitter faces, boobs, bums (anything you desire, they will make you look incredible!) as well as having Tetley tea to provide fruity infusions whilst you dive into their ball pit, and have your photo taken by HP's and finally run up to their rooftop bar overlooking 360 views of the festival. We collaborated creating a plaited space bun look, with gems from The Gypsy Shrine - I couldn't pass up an opportunity to pose on my sofa of dreams in the form of a unicorn!