Radfest Review: Nottingham's Best One Day Family Festival Has Everything You Could Wish For

Radfest is a festival primarily for teens, families and the community. A Teen Tent, dedicated to young musicians including Ewan, Lack of Service, Krenda, Romy, Lizzie and Joshua & Jack Todd, giving them all an opportunity to play live, stood alongside the main stage and mixed with craft stalls, food and drink counters, an inflatable play area and even a skateboard park.

What more could you want? We even had sunshine all day!

The Main Stage kicked off with DJ LC until the first band Gender Envy appeared at 3:20pm, a Nottingham four-piece band with high energy and high hopes, pop-punk songs that were perfect for the start of the live sounds. With a new single just released, they are sure to be playing at a venue near you this summer.

Slendz, a young rapper from Derby, put on a great performance, armed with just a mic and his mobile phone through the PA as his backing tracks. His freestyle rapping, for someone this young, was an impressive sight and the crowd showed their appreciation. Definitely a name to look out for.

Betsey B gave us an emotional solo performance, armed only with her keyboard and a handful of personal songs that were perfect for her voice. This was a raw and vulnerable sound from a skilful singer songwriter who gave us a great set. 

Food and drink were to be found all over the festival and having stocked up, I was ready for more music.

Smokey Penny are a Nottingham alternate rock/shoegaze four-piece band and the first of the more rock-leaning bands to play on the day. It was great to see the members of the band sharing responsibility on vocals and even changing instruments during the performance. Their debut EP is coming out soon.

Concrete Rose gave an acoustic performance and despite initial sound difficulties, they gave a great roots reggae influenced vibe to the afternoon. This stripped back performance made the music more intimate but still had the energy to make folks dance. As one of Nottingham's favourite current sounds, they did not let us down.

Jayahadadream, Nottingham's latest rap star (originally from Cambridge but an honorary Notts folk now), provided one of those heart-stopping moments with great stage presence and talent.

Female rappers can be hard to come by and Jaya is one of the best, as she managed to spit her bars on topical subjects with power and conviction, at the same time as juggling the challenge of keeping the material suitable for the children in the crowd.

A great talent and a great performance.

Little Planets are a six-piece band from Leeds with two female singers fronting the group. Recently appearing on BBC Introducing, this act really managed to get all the young crowd dancing throughout their set and they gave the audience a high energy performance that everyone enjoyed.

They had a really tight rhythm section from bass and drums, leaving the guitarist to develop the sound with catchy riffs. I think it's fair to say that they left the stage with an army of new fans.

Last on to complete the day was The Hydes, another new sound from Leeds and riding high on the back of the release of their new single High Life.

Formerly known as Mundane Arcane, this five-piece indie rock band were serious about the responsibility of headlining Radfest 2023 and they gave us one their best performances, a sound that draws influences from the Manchester scene but with a classic rock twist on top.

Great musicians and really tight sounding, these guys were a great choice for the headline act. Rock music that makes you move is always a great sound to end the perfect day.

Well done to all the acts in both the Teen Tent and the Main Stage, the Confetti students for all the hard work with the sound and light production, the Radfest organisers for the overall organisation, and the Nottingham folks who turned up. 

Radfest took place in Radcliffe on Trent on 17 June 2023.

@radfest2023