“I HATE to drop this in, but when we won best small festival at the UK Festival Awards last year,” says Andy. “Everyone, like, people who come, or people who volunteer with us, everyone felt they had won, too.”

“I totally got that vibe as well,” says Ian.

“We were up against some big events,” he continues. “We thought we might have a chance to win the ‘best grassroots festival’ or ‘best metropolitan’. But when we didn’t win those, I thought, ‘never mind. We’ve had a good day. We got a seat at the table. The fucking food’s nice.’

“But when they read out the Manchester Punk Festival for the best small festival award… I’ll never forget the look on Andy’s face. It was, like, genuine shock, pure joy.

“We never started the festival with any sort of competitive element, we’ve never sought to win anything or seek notoriety.

“We literally just started the festival we all wanted to go to. So to be 10 years into it and get an award, and be sat at the table with some of the biggest festivals in the country, it was pretty insane. That was a pretty insane evening, wasn’t it?”

The Manchester Punk Festival organisers receiving the Best Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards 2024. Ian is 3rd from the right, backrow. And Andy is 2nd on the right, in blue jacket and heart-shaped sunglasses

“Yeah,” Andy agrees, “To be fair, we say we’re not about awards, and we’re not. But we did celebrate it like we won the Champions League.”

I have looked forward to moshing and skanking myself silly at the Manchester Punk Festival (MPF) since I moved to the city 12 months ago.

I couldn’t make it last year, but this time, nothing — not work, not nuclear war nor the revolution — is going to stop me from attending MPF this year — which gets underway Easter weekend, April 18 to 20.

The festival has its heart in the UK “underground,” DIY punk scene, but has also attracted world-famous and legendary bands like Propagandhi, Hot Water Music, Scream, Belvedere, Snuff, and more.  

Random Hand playing at the Manchester Punk Festival 2024 [Pic: Kristy]

2025 marks the 10th year since Andy, Ian and four of their friends, who were all running different punk gigs and even a grassroots not-for-profit record label in their spare time, decided to join forces and try something bigger.

“It was a collective from day one,” Andy says. “And it’s still that same collective of people.”

Though the festival has grown from around 650 attendees at their first shindig in 2015 to around 2,000 now, the team running the show has only expanded to 13, and they’re still doing it around their day jobs.

The festival hasn’t sold out to big advertisers. You won’t find any corporations setting up stalls. But you might find the local hunt saboteurs.

So, having run a hugely successful festival for a decade (though, thanks to Covid, this year will actually be their ninth), what are their highlights?

“For me,” Andy says. “I did the small DIY circuit for so long, and you play each weekend to relatively small crowds — you’re talking between 40 to 250 people.

“And then to see bands like Pizzatramp,” an awesome, somewhat underground, three-piece thrash-punk outfit from south Wales (see video below). “They’ve played hundreds of gigs, and sometimes there’s hardly anyone there, and then you see them fill the Union” — Manchester University’s 800-capacity student union bar.

“So, for me, seeing the small bands from the DIY circuit fill the rooms is the most special bit. But obviously you’re also booking bands that you never dreamed you would book as well. So those moments are pretty cool as well.”

Ignoring the fact that MPF has given Ian the platform to book some of his all-time favourite bands, and see his friends play massive stages, he says his highlight has been seeing people talk about the festival on social media from all over the world.

Johnny Foreigner on stage at the Manchester Punk Festival 2024 [Photo: kristy]

“Welcoming a band from as far away as South America; we’ve got a band from Brazil this year. We had a band from Peru last year.

“Being able to welcome them after the 30-hour trips that they made over to Manchester to play our festival, and for them to have a crowd of people that are willing to listen to them and get into them, is by far the thing that satisfies me the most.

“That is such a nice feeling. It’s very hard for me to describe.”

Manchester Punk Festival runs April 18-20. For tickets and more info, see: manchesterpunkfestival.co.uk

Ben Cowles is the Morning Star’s web editor.