“In terms of the breadth of talent, from emerging to established names, it’s the most exciting Manchester has been in my time,” says Rivca Burns, a 20-year veteran of the city’s music scene who is creative director of Salford’s Sounds From the Other City festival. “In terms of the infrastructure, it also feels like a precarious time. We’re losing rehearsal spaces and grassroots venues are struggling.”
In 2023, Aitch and Meekz are flying the flag for Manchester rap, Blossoms from nearby Stockport have updated the region’s indie with soft-rock pomp, and artists such as R&B singer-songwriter Pip Millett, speed garage producer Interplanetary Criminal, doom-punks Witch Fever, trip-hop experimentalists Space Afrika and industrial outfit Mandy, Indiana are pushing forward a city that in the past has been guilty of letting Madchester nostalgia overshadow the new. Even in the shadows that Burns describes – of post-pandemic debt, the cost-of-living crisis and the threat posed by commercial development to independent venues – Manchester continues to channel its innovative and creative spirit into supporting a new wave of talent.
