Video: Some of the acts due to appear this year have performed on Notts TV’s 6:30 Show
The Hockley Hustle celebrates its tenth anniversary on Sunday and features local bands, musicians, poets and dancers performing across 25 Nottingham venues.
The annual intimate festival, organised by Tommy Farmyard, raises money for local charities and has generated £100,000 since 2006.
Tickets are £12 in advance for Sunday’s event, £15 on the day, and the money will go towards seven local organisations – including the John van Geest Cancer Research Centre and the Nottingham branch of Rethink, which helps people with mental health problems.
Locally-sourced food, rustled up by Nottingham Street Food Club, will be on offer as people visit the different venues in Hockley.
Ben Welch, who is part of the team behind the festival, said: “We’ve got 250 artists, not just music actually, and I’m involved in the street performance side of stuff because we’ve got a theatre-kind of background.
“We’ve got two massive samba parades happening with big, mechanical birds. We’ve got a silent disco happening and we’ve got some great sketch comedy from some local theatre companies.
“It feels great that we’re branching out from celebrating the brilliant kind of music that Nottingham creates, as well as all those other things, too.”
Who’s played there before?
Clifton-born chart-topper Jake Bugg cut his teeth at the festival in 2010, playing at the Broadway Cafe Bar. The Nottingham troubadour delivered a set featuring his country-esque, sixties-sounding rock ‘n’ roll, two years before he released his critically acclaimed, self-titled debut record.
Burgeoning Bramcote singer Callum Burrows, otherwise known as Saint Raymond, has also played at the festival and so too have anthemic indie outfit, Amber Run, who closed the BBC Introducing stage at Nottingham Contemporary in 2014.
Highly-rated indie aficionados Dog is Dead also shone two years ago, on the same bill as alt-rock collective Kagoule.
Five acts to keep an eye out for:
April Towers: Rising Notts duo April Towers, comprising of Alex Noble and Charlie Burley, have been compared to New Order and the Pet Shop Boys. Their third single, A Little Bit Of Fear, featured as a FIFA 16 soundtrack, and the hotly-tipped band headline The Hockley Hustle Stage, downstairs at the Hockley Arts Club, at 11.30pm.
Eyre Llew: Pronounced “Air Loo”, alt-rock group Eyre Llew have been together for a little over a year but have made meaningful strides in that time. Releasing a handful of singles, and with a debut album in the pipeline, the three-piece’s staple song, Fero, has amassed a near-75,000 hits on Spotify. Catch them on The Hockley Hustle Stage at 10.30pm, before April Towers.
Ady Suleiman: Grantham-born Suleiman, whose father hails from Tanzania, has a very bright future ahead of him. Intersecting soul, hip hop, R&B and jazz, the local lad produces a unique sound that is likely to charm the crowd. Suleiman also plays on the The Hockley Hustle Stage at 8pm.
Indiana: Headlining the BBC Introducing stage, at Brewdog, singer-songwriter Indiana is well worth checking out. The dark electronic musician, from Long Eaton, has previously played at Glastonbury and Splendour and her show gets underway at 10.30pm.
Same Streets: Indie-rock upstarts Same Streets play at the Jam Cafe Bar at 6pm. Just over a week after supporting Milburn at Rock City, the four-piece from Nottingham – made up of guitarist and vocalist James Gooch, guitarist Jacob Harris, bassist Isaac Bloomfield and Seb McNish on drums – are raw and exciting.
