OUTLINE ON THE ROAD - Mangata Festival Nottingham
A journey across borders to explore a developing rock/metal festival in Nottingham.
FULL PHOTO GALLERY HERE
I arrive in Nottingham train station for what will be my first experience of Mangata festival, which is only a short 20 minute walk towards Rock City. The festival is set across 4 stages, two at the Rescue Rooms, another at Ghost nightclub, a block down from the Mangata gate. The fourth stage at the Tap 'n' Tumbler, is on the next street down, the only venue of the festival that is free to enter, resulting in a great mix of locals and festival goers sharing the aural experience even if they weren't expecting it.
There is a local connection to this festival with post-thrashers, Shrapnel, being a late addition to the lineup and local graphics/logo wiz, Rory Petts from GraphicsFix, who is sponsoring the stage at Ghost. On arrival at the venue there seems to be an air of anticipation. People milling about, bands unloading and preparing their gear, and fans waiting around eager to get their wristbands on hit the rail. I join the queue with the other photographers/reviewers who seem a friendly bunch.
This is my first time at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham and wow, it's a complex, labyrinthine structure. It's easy to lose yourself here with it’s corridors leading to stairways, leading to new rooms and lots and lots of stinking toilets!!
I enter the main room and I'm quite impressed by the stage layout, there's even a balcony on two sides. Festival organiser Joel Wheeler is seen milling about, he's looking very focused but excited. There's a handful of stalls selling food and other merch, let's hope they can do some good business.
Highlight for me from the festival are Wigan based Boss Keloid, whose sound is absolutely gigantic. There’s a lot of love for this band, sections of the crowd flinging their arms in the air and singing along. There is a slight lull in the set when showcasing songs off latest album, Family the Smiling Thrush, due to their complexity. Even frontman, Alex Hurst acknowledges this but once they play the few tracks from Melted on the Inch album, the crowd can be seen nodding in unison. This is a spiritual experience!!
Over at the Tap 'n' Tumbler, I managed to catch a few songs from Shadowvale, with frontwoman Lara Kelly, eyes closed seemingly lost in her pain and anguish.
Shrapnel appear at the Ghost stage, initially suffering from some technical issues, they soon overcome to perform some tracks from latest album, In Gravity, and with new frontman Dan Moran, are surging ahead with this new musical direction.
There's lots of ascending and descending at this festival and there's going to be a lot of sore quads in the morning but overall, the general feel is of connectedness and happiness.
Isn't this what it should be about?
On the top floor is the Red Rooms stage sponsored by Blue Monkey Brewery, whose beers I didn’t actually see anywhere! It's steaming hot up here and rammed to the rafters, making it very difficult to get anywhere near the stage for photographs, but I try and partly succeed.
Highlights on this stage are Kryptess, which feature festival organisers Joel Wheeler and Tom Else. As you can imagine they go down very well.
Headliners of the mainstage Hacktivist appear in a blaze of light and mix metalcore with rap. They draw the loudest crowd reaction of the day and command the stage throughout their set.
Although there are a couple more bands to close the festival at the other stages, I've decided I need to recuperate, get some food and get my head down. I've enjoyed this festival immensely and can only thank the organisers for putting all the time and effort in.
Early bird tickets are already on sale for Mangata Festival 2025.
