Bolton got into a party atmosphere on Saturday as music lovers from all over the region flocked to the Made in Manchester Festival.
The day long celebration of Greater Manchester’s musical heritage was held at Bolton Arena and saw an array of tributes to legendary bands of the recent past like New Order, Oasis, James and the Stone Roses as well as new unsigned bands.
For organiser Rob Brierley, this fourth outing for the festival is a culmination of months of dedicated preparation.
He said: “We’ve got tributes to bands from throughout the decades in Manchester, bands that many, many generation will have liked and we’re starting to bring their children to festivals listening to music that they really were fond of.”
He added: “That’s important, having the mix of tribute bands and original bands, we’ve had some fantastic local bands.
“You have to say this is the best platform they’ve had to perform, they’ve been getting 1,500, 2000 people watching them, so I really do like that mix that we have.”
For the bands themselves, this was a chance to step up to show what they can do on a huge stage, with rockers Killjoys, whose member Miles Clark, Jake Rajbhandari, Jonny Wallis and Adam Critchlow first met as pupils at Bolton School, thrilled to take part in what was for them a home coming gig.
Miles said: “What’s nice to see is there’s gigs coming to Bolton, there’s people willing the come out, its been great.”
He added: “We’re going to be back, we’re going to be playing the Bolton fan zone very soon!
“We don’t know when, we’re playing wherever!”
In between sets by DJ Steve Sweetmore the festival featured the sounds of New Order tribute True Order and James tribute Laid.
As the afternoon turned into evening Appy Mondays, the Courtbetweeners, the Resurrection Stone Roses and finally The Importance of Being Oasis took to the stage.
But there was also space for newer bands like Wigan’s Part Time Signals, rockers Façade and the Jade Assembly and for adventurous sounds like Warrington band Scratch, who use live instruments to recreate some of the best loved dance tracks of the 1990s and 2000s.
Scratch frontwoman Em Davies said: “We’ve done a bit in Bolton town centre and a few other festivals like the food and drink festival so yeah its good to be back.”
Made in Manchester Festival in Bolton underway with the amazing Scratch, The atmosphere is building @TheBoltonNews @MadeInMCRFest #festival #music pic.twitter.com/3y5FU0lXlq
— DannyCrompton (@DannyCrompton1) September 3, 2022
She added: “The aim was to come out of Covid like a Phoenix, just completely tear it up, that’s our goal!”
Bolton Arena was festooned with stalls and food and drink outlets, including from famous Bolton firms like Carr’s Pasties, throughout the day with everything festival goers could wish for to hand.
There were also opportunities for children to enjoy fairground rides.
Next year will mark the Made in Manchester Festival’s fifth outing, which will take place in June.
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Mr Brierley promises this next event will be bigger and better than ever, with some special guests likely to make an appearance to mark the milestone year.
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