Meltchester 2025

The contrast couldn’t be greater: on one side of Manchester, a small army of technicians, security teams and venue staff are preparing the UK’s largest indoor arena for an epic three-hour show by Bruce Springsteen, one of the best-selling artists of all time.

Elsewhere in the city, tucked away from the sun under a concrete fly-over of the Mancunian Way, a local skatepark is playing host to Meltchester Vol #4 — a showcase of punk and psych bands put on by local indie label Sour Grapes Records.

I don’t think any of the Meltchester crowd regret which option they chose. 

Projekts Skatepark might not seem like an obvious venue for a day festival, but in fact it’s an ideal fit for Meltchester’s welcomingly laid back, genuinely DIY atmosphere. From its surprisingly all-ages crowd to the makeshift nature of its stage and bar setups, this festival is clearly a labour of love for its organisers — and it’s hard not to share their affection. 

The night before the festival, an announcement goes out that The Wytches and Heavy Lungs, two of the biggest names on the bill, have pulled out. Sour Grapes manage the situation admirably: the lineup is quickly shuffled around, set times are adjusted, and local punk band Wax Head join the bill at impressively short notice.

If Sour Grapes were feeling any lingering anxiety over the last-minute reshuffle, they couldn’t have asked for a more surefire start to the day than opening act Divorce Finance, who introduce themselves as “Leeds’s premium country and western band”. They’re only half joking: with their spring reverb, slapback echo heavy sound, I’m reminded more than a few times of The B-52s of Bossanova-era Pixies. The songs are sharp and energetic, but mostly I’m impressed by their infectious sense of humour: “Time for a patriotic number” announces their frontman, decked out in John Lennon shades and what appears to be a Red Army officer’s cap, before he stands to attention for a chintzy keyboard rendition of Britannia Rules the Waves.

It’s a level of energy and impishness that sets the bar high for the rest of the day. Local brother-sister/bass-drums duo Slap Rash make a pretty good go of clearing it; by the end of their set one of them will be playing bass from the top of an audience member’s shoulders, apparently drawing energy from the mosh pit raging below him. 

Other highlights of the day include the chunky riffs and belting vocals of New Zealand two-piece Earth Tongue, and local act Keg, who describe themselves as a “seven piece sonic explosion”.

In fact, Keg make me briefly wonder whether the gap between the bands playing here today and Bruce’s E-Street Band over in Co-Op Live is really so wide after all. There’s a real wall-of-sound approach to their mix of everything from guitars and drums to synths and trombone, and they regularly lock into a groove that gives each band member a moment to shine.

Ten years and six albums into their career, festival veterans Snapped Ankles are by far the day’s biggest draw. Taking to the stage in their customised ghillie suits — somewhere between ancient rural folk traditions and modern day hunt saboteurs — it’s as if nature has come to reclaim the little concrete oasis of Projekts.

The band are here off the back of their most recent (and most openly political) album Hard Times, Furious Dancing. It’s a fitting title – even compared to the raucous energy earlier in the day, Snapped Ankles have the crowd fired up and dancing as if they’ve only just arrived. Not even the volume cutting out abruptly at 11pm on the dot, halfway through the band’s final song, seems to have much of an impact.

As the crowd go their separate ways — some back home to bed, some to the after party at Manchester institution Big Hands — all memory of the festival’s early lineup wobble seems forgotten. Or maybe it’s well remembered, but simply embraced and forgiven. As I was told by one attendee, when I first arrived and asked if she knew the details of the updated set times: “Things are pretty loose here in the skatepark.”