Outbreak Festival

Outbreak Festival is an English hardcore punk festival and concert promotion company founded by Jordan Coupland and Lee Follows in 2011. Beginning at the Broomhall Centre in Sheffield, the festival has moved between a number of different venues and cities throughout its existence: being held in Leeds from 2012 to 2019, at the Well (2012), the Vox (2013–2014) and Canal Mills (2015–2019); and in Manchester from 2022, at Bowlers Exhibition Centre (2022, 2024) and Depot Mayfield (2023). Over its 13 date runtime, the festival has become one of the most prominent events in hardcore punk in the United Kingdom, hosting the genre's biggest native acts like Higher Power, Malevolence and the Flex, as well as fundamental international groups including the Cro-Mags, Gorilla Biscuits, Terror, Turnstile, Trapped Under Ice and Code Orange.

Outbreak Festival began in 2011, founded by fourteen year old Jordan Coupland and Lee Fellows.^[1][2] This first iteration took place on Saturday 10 September 2011, and was held in Sheffield at the Broomhall Centre.^[3]

The festival moved to the Well in Leeds for its second iteration, which took place on 8 January 2012. This move took place because the Broomhall Centre was not a registered music venue, meaning the event was risking being shut down by authorities.^[1]

Leeds

The third edition of Outbreak Festival was held between 22 and 23 September 2012 at the Well in Leeds. On Friday 21 September, a pre-show was held headlined by Grazes with support from xCurraheex, Trial & Error, Rough Justice and the Pact.^[4] The pre-show served as the final show for Grazes and xCurraheex before their disbandment. When the show was originally announced in August 2012, it was also meant to be the final show for Speak Up with support from Bleak Reality and Outrage CC.^[5]

Jülich

On 29 September 2012, a "European Edition" of Outbreak Festival took place at Külturbahnof in Jülich, Germany.^[6]

Outbreak Festival 2013 moved venues to the Vox in Leeds,^[7] following the Well's 2012 closure.^[8] This date was the UK live debut from festival regulars Turnstile,^[2] and at the time, the furthest they had played from their home in Baltimore.^[9] The Saturday featured Final Rage's final performance before their disbandment.^[10]

The Vox announced its closure at the beginning of 2015, leading to Outbreak Festival needing to relocate. The promoters originally intended to move to Canal Mills in the Armley area of Leeds, although the date at the time was not available, so it began to be organised at Control in Burley, Leeds. However, the date at Canal Mills soon became available, leading to Outbreak Festival 2015 taking place there instead.^[11] Between Angel Dust and Broken Teeth's sets, a brief, impromptu set by Higher Power took place.^[12]

Outbreak 2016's Saturday took place on 30 April, while its Sunday was eight days later on 8 May. The Saturday featured a one-off reunion set by Dead Swans, while its Sunday had the same for Dirty Money. Sunday was also one of only four dates which Trapped Under Played in 2016, and was the only one not in continental Europe.^[13]

Outbreak Festival 2017 took place between 29 and 30 April, at Canal Mills. It was originally announced that one of the headliners would be a reunited Turning Point featuring Tim Mcmahon of Mouthpiece on vocals, in tribute to the band's vocalist Frank 'Skip' Candelori who died in 2002, however Turning Point did not play the final event.^[14]

On 15 June 2018, a pre-show took place took place at the Temple of Boom featuring Payday, Rough Justice, Last Wishes, Insist, Revulsion and Blind Authority. The festival took place at Canal Mills on 16 and 17 June.^[15]

Outbreak Festival also organised Have Heart's two 2019 reunion shows in Leeds, both taking place on 21 July. The first one announced had support from Abuse of Power, Big Cheese, Payday and Stages in Faith. After that show sold out, a matinee show was announced with support from the Flex, Mil-Spec and World of Difference.^[16] Furthermore, they organised Backtrack's final UK show before their disbandment. Taking place at the Brudenell Social Club, the event took place on 9 November 2019, with support from Higher Power, Hangman, Last Wishes and Greed.^[17]

On 9 February 2020, it was announced that for Outbreak Festival 2020, the festival would relocate to the Leadmill in Sheffield, and would be headlined by Knocked Loose. Additional bands announced for the year included Trapped Under Ice, Terror, Incendiary All Out War, Broken Teeth, Fury, Fiddlehead, Renounced, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Ecostrike, Magnitude, Antagonize, Young Guv, One Step Closer and Anxious. However, this year did nottake place due to the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom.^[18] On 1 September 2020, the festival announced Knocked Loose as the headliners of Outbreak Festival 2021, alongside Madball, Youth of Today, Vein.fm, All Out War, Higher Power, Fiddlehead, Incendiary, Xibalba, Sanction, Renounced, Broken Teeth, Drain, Narrow Head, Young Guv and High Vis. The announcement stated the festival would take place between 25 and 27 June 2021 and would be held at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester. This date also never took place due to COVID-19 lockdowns.^[19]

On 8 December 2021, Every Time I Die were announced as a headliner, however the band disbanded before the festival took place. At the same time Chubby and the Gang were announced to play, however they too dropped out before the event took place.^[20] Venom Prison, Rotting Out, Modern Life Is War, Madball, God's Hate and Youth of Today also dropped out before the festival took place.^[21][22][23]

This iteration was the first year the festival took place at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester, selling out the venue's 5,000 person capacity.^[9] The year's pre-show took place on Thursday 23 June, and featured last-minute headliners Counterparts, with support from SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Static Dress, Modern Error and Guilt Trip.^[24] Stick to Your Guns were originally booked to headline this pre-show, however were dropped from the bill on 7 June following comments made by Jesse Barnett about the Russo-Ukrainian War.^[25] Over the weekend the premises was also home to an art exhibit and a skate ramp.^[24] Friday was the final date of Your Demise's ten year anniversary reunion, as well as featuring a secret set by Malevolence.^[9] On the Saturday, Basement performed a tenth anniversary set for their albums I Wish I Could Stay Here (2011) Colourmeinkindness (2012).^[26] Additionally, in a tent stage, Ray Harkins, host of the 1000 Words or Less podcast, interviewed Nate Rebolledo of Xibalba, Bryan Garris of Knocked Loose, Olli Appleyard of Static Dress and Brendan Garrone of Incendiary on the Friday; Mat Kerekes of Citizen, Isa Holliday of Slowcrush, Jimmy Wizard of Higher Power, Walter Schreifels of bands including Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand, and producer Will Yip on Saturday; and Kat Moss of Scowl, Anaiah Lei and Dez Yusuf of Zulu, Daniel Tracy of Deafheaven, Anthony Alzando of Ceremony, Kadeem France of Loathe and Nicky "Money" Palmero of Nothing on Sunday.^[24]

On 27 June 2022, Outbreak Festival announced that 2023's festival would take place at Depot Mayfield,^[27] a venue with a capacity of 10,000.^[28] Outbreak 2023's lineup saw the festival put a greater emphasis on hip hop music than before, with both Denzel Curry and Death Grips as headliners alongside hardcore bands Converge and Bane.^[28] On Thursday June 22, a sold out pre-show took place at the Bread Shed and organised by Concrete Culture. It was headlined by One Step Closer, with support from Higher Power, the Flex, Fate, Despize, Dynamite and the second live performance by Nix.^[29] During the weekend there was an art exhibition curated by Screw Gallery and a free on-premise Uppercut Deluxe hairdressers.^[30][28] Friday was headlined by a reunited Bane, the festival was the only European date on their 2023 reunion tour.^[31] On the Sunday, a live episode of Knotfest's Hardlore podcast, hosted by Harm's Way's Bo Lueders and Twitching Tongues' Colin Young was recorded in front of an audience of festivalgoers at Manchester's Star and Garter pub.^[32]

Outbreak Festival 2024's first announcement was 15 December 2023 which included the information that the festival would return to Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester.^[33] Balance and Composure were originally scheduled to play on Saturday, but due to travel issues their set had to be moved to Sunday.

On 15 May 2024, it was announced that a one day Autumn edition of Outbreak Festival would take place on 27 October at Bowlers Exhibition Centre, Manchester.^[34]

In an article discussing Outbreak Festival 2018, NME writer Tom Connick credited the festival with being one of the main locations for hardcore internationally, as well as one of only a few that prove subcultures have continued to exist into the age of the internet,^[15] going on in another article to call it "surely a highlight of the year".^[35] Kerrang! writer Sam Law called Outbreak Festival 2022 the "kind of show [that] wasn't just a watershed moment for the UK scene, but for hardcore on a global scale",^[36] while a 2023 article by Huck magazine called its 2023 iteration "the heart and soul of hardcore".^[28]

When the festival began to put an emphasis on hip hop artists in 2023, it received some backlash from fans of hardcore. However, this same lineup was praised by Metal Hammer for being the most prominent heavy music festival to embrace a high number of women and people of colour in its lineup, with writer Stephen Hill calling the festival the leaders of "a quiet revolution".^[37]

Footnotes

Citations