While at Bolton Food and Drink Festival on the August bank holiday, I was surprised to see a few notifications from the Neighbourhood Weekender X account pop up on my watch.
In previous years, the initial line-up for the two-day Warrington festival has dropped in mid-to-late Autumn so I hadn’t even been thinking about it.
Unfortunately, now that it is out there, I doubt that I’ll be thinking about it much more before next May.
But let’s start with the good.
The Royston Club being on the second line of the poster is a surprise but it feels very well deserved. They’ve naturally progressed their way up the Neighbourhood line-up over the past few years; from the Viola Beach stage to the Big Top to early on the main stage, and now to this prominent slot. I’ve spoken at length – both on this blog and in real life – about how big I think The Royston Club could be so this makes me feel like I actually know what I’m talking about.
I’m not as familiar with the work of Kingfishr but it’s a similar story with them – I’ve certainly seen their name much lower down this bill so for them to now be on the second line feels like a reward for them putting in the hard yards on the smaller stages over the years.
Rick Astley, for my money, is also a smart booking. His back catalogue (Never Gonna Give You Up and Together Forever aside) may lack mainstream appeal but he’s self-aware enough to know this and instead his shows are usually a bit of a party with loads of covers thrown in.
As always, there are some exciting smaller bands on the line-up as well, such as The North, Cherryholt and Keyside. Westside Cowboy and Arkayla feel like obvious omissions at the moment but I wouldn’t be shocked if they were being held back for the second wave.
Before I get to the negatives, I will also say that I had a blast watching Paul Heaton and Rianne Downey headline back in 2023 and I’ve no doubt lots of people will this year but overall the set of headliners feels lazy.
This is the eighth Neighbourhood Weekender and Courteeners’ third time headlining. As previously mentioned it is also the second time that Paul Heaton has headlined in four years.
For me, The Reytons epitomise ‘indie poo’ so seeing them on the top line of this poster is depressing. They do seem to have a fervent fanbase who genuinely believe they’re the second coming of Arctic Monkeys, so I’m sure someone will tell me I’m wrong, but their success completely baffles me. They also headlined the Big Top as recently as 2025 so like the other two headliners, it just feels repetitive.
Is the pool of headliners for this festival really so small? In fairness, they’ve thrown out a few curveballs in recent years with Pulp and The Stereophonics in 2023 and 2025 but aside from that it seems like they’re just recycling the same five or six headliners.
If the pool really is that small, that’s fine but then what’s the point in sending around a survey each year that asks who we’d like to see at next year’s festival, with names such as Wolf Alice, Fontaines DC and Tame Impala if these aren’t actually available to you?
Maybe I’m just shouting into the void and perhaps when people fill in these surveys, they’re overwhelmingly voting for Courteeners. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’ve had some of my best times at Courteeners gigs but surely we have to draw the line somewhere and realise that we’re paying £80 to see practically the same setlist over and over again, performed progressively worse as Liam Fray’s voice deteriorates. No matter how much Dark Fruits you drink, that’s a pretty sobering thought.
What do you think of the Neighbourhood Weekender 2027 line-up? Will you be going? Let me know in the comments.
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