Sunshine, soundwaves and a reyt Get Together in Sheffield.

Review and Photos by John Hayhurst

The Get Together Festival returned to Sheffield’s Kelham Island last weekend, drawing crowds to its industrial heart for a full day of live music, street food, and craft beer. The atmosphere was relaxed but lively as people moved between venues, with the Peddler Stage acting as a central hub. The festival made good use of the area’s layout — repurposed warehouses, courtyards, and taprooms created a natural flow between performances, food stalls, and bars.

A strong showing from local breweries meant beer options were far from standard. From crisp lagers to hazy IPAs, festival-goers had plenty of choice, with Heist Brew Co. and other Kelham favourites keeping the taps flowing. Food vendors lined the Peddler courtyard, offering everything from bao buns and wood-fired pizzas to vegan-friendly wraps and loaded fries. Long communal tables encouraged people to stop, eat, and talk — a necessary pause between loud, packed sets.

The festival didn’t feel overcrowded, and queues stayed manageable throughout the day. Whether you were there for the music or just the atmosphere, there was something to hold your attention — even if that was simply a good pint, hot food, and the hum of a Sheffield crowd enjoying a rare sunny weekend.

Gans, the Birmingham-based duo of Euan Woodman (drums/vocals) and Tom Rhodes (bass/vocals), opened the Get Together Festival with an unannounced set on the BBC Introducing stage at The Antiques Emporium. The surprise performance offered early attendees a chance to experience their raw, minimalist sound in an intimate setting. Their music, a blend of post-punk and indie rock, was delivered with tight coordination and great energy. Woodman’s rhythmic drumming and Rhodes’s driving bass lines created a compelling backdrop for their shared vocals, engaging the audience from the outset. The duo’s concise, impactful songs resonated well in the unconventional venue, setting a strong tone for the day’s events. For those who couldn’t attend their later scheduled set, this early performance was a fortuitous opportunity to witness Gans distinctive style first-hand.

Gravy took to the Darts Stage at Neepsend Social Club with a confident set that reflected both their chemistry and evolution. Originally formed by vocalist/guitarist Harrison Bailey and drummer Louis Tuxworth as a casual project between friends, the Leeds band has grown into a fully formed four-piece with the addition of lead guitarist Ben O’Halloran and bassist Jacob Priestley in 2022. That origin story was easy to sense in their performance — tight but unforced, full of character without any hint of pretence. Their sound straddled a line between wiry indie rock and rough-edged post-punk, with Bailey’s vocals carrying a drawl that felt distinctly Northern but never overly stylised. The Darts Stage, tucked into the friendly confines of Neepsend Social Club, suited them well — a well-lit room filled with nodding heads, plastic pint glasses, and a crowd happy to be a little too close to the speakers. Gravy aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they’re spinning it fast and with plenty of charm, and on the strength of this set, they’re a young band to keep on your radar.

Divorce delivered a surprise standout performance on the Peddler Stage, showcasing their distinctive blend of alt-country and indie rock. Fronted by Tiger Cohen-Towell and Felix Mackenzie-Barrow, Divorce’s chemistry was evident, with their intertwined vocals and engaging stage presence. Joined by Adam Peter Smith on guitar and Kasper Sandstrøm on drums, the quartet’s performance was tight and dynamic. Their playful banter and genuine connection with the audience created an inviting atmosphere, reflecting their roots in Nottingham’s music scene.

The band’s setlist featured tracks from their debut album, Drive to Goldenhammer, including All My Freaks, Karen, and Jet Show, each resonating with the audience’s enthusiasm. The addition of a colourful band of ladies called Neighbourhood Voices for the final two songs added a unique choral layer, and really brought together the community feel of this event. It was packed out in there.

We escaped to the Heist Brewery stage which has a stage set in front of huge steel mash tuns and amidst fresh cellophaned kegs of beer. Keenly able to create a fusion of post punk, nursery rhyme melodies and ‘Honk’y Tonk blues and Country, this lot were like a breath of fresh air. Honk singer Chip Smitten looks like he just stepped out of a late 60’s forgotten hippie band, is playing pedal steel solos and then picks up the mic to add some vocals and some nifty side to side dancing. It is toe tappingly infectious and goes well with a pint of something hazy with a high %ABV.

However, if you thought that was crazy, well Johnny Rocket from The Moonlandingz said “hold my beer taster…” and borrowed some of that keg cellophane to wrap two toilet rolls around his chest and then proceeded to wear his ‘Toilet Paper Tits’ on stage at Peddler. Johnny is of course Lias Saoudi from Fat White Family, his Moonlandingz alter ego Johnny is joined on stage by Jeanie Crystal (Jeanie and the White Boys) who has directed several of their recent videos for their latest album No Rocket Required. Together they create a quite bonkers celebration of dance, rave and art combined whilst Adrian Flanagan in bucket hat and rain mac, looks after keys and samples, looking like he’s never left the 90’s.

Bassman is in full gay leather biker mode and the rest of them look negatively normal. The most outrageous performance of the day award cannot go to anyone else but The Moonlandingz as they continue to push boundaries and stun audiences with every performance.

After that, Chinese American Bear were far too tame and sane for us, so we shifted quickly back to the Neepsend Social Club for Girl Group. Katya, Thea, Maria, and Mia are all from Oslo, while Lil is the Yorkshire resident. The five women met while studying at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and they each bring their own individual sounds and a full-spectrum of sonic references, and it was their shared frustration with the music industry “Boy’s Club” that first laid the foundations for Girl Group and their exciting debut EP. Performing today in what was essentially a working mens club with two dartboards behind them – the irony surely can’t be lost on them. What we saw though, was a great start and reminded me of when I saw The Last Dinner Party for the first time, the choreography, harmonies and sounds are all there, and it will be interesting to see where they land in a few years time.

I then saw Tom Haywood from The Blinders casually walking up the street with a guitar case in hand. The last time I saw him was at Live at Leeds (In The City) when he was on stage with the incredible Avalanche Party. It turns out he has a new band called Whitehorse and they have replaced Oh Hippo on the BBC Introducing Stage at 5:45pm. We arrive just as they start and immediately it felt like The Blinders but without the bold, brash and brilliant energy that they used to bring to the stage. Something was missing, it needed a jump start from a defibrillator, so we didn’t stop to see if the 2^nd half improved.

There were a couple of excellent named bands for us to watch soon (Sex Mask and Freak Slug) but first our final trip to the darts stage at The Social Club for My First Time. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t recognise their name at the time, and yet their song Workwear was one of my favourite songs of last year. Stayed for a couple of theirs which I really enjoyed and would have stayed longer, but the draw of an unknown band called Sex Mask pulled me in.

This was in The Alder bar and courtyard, usually occupied by singer songwriter types, but there was a 3 piece limbering up – literally, singer Wry Gray was doing stretches on stage during the first track. This was the first outing to the UK for this Melbourne(AUS) based band and very quickly they drew people in to the front and were not messing around with acoustic twiddling. This was a full on rock show in a small pub, sweaty mosh time and I’m glad I stopped around to see it – latest single Beheadal was a superb relentless almost Math Rock opus.

Guitarist Kaya Martin might look like she’s just stepped out of a preschool staff room — all calm energy, smart dress outfit, and an unassuming presence — but don’t let that fool you. On stage with Sex Mask, she trades gentle vibes for snarling distortion and sharp-edged riffs that cut straight through the noise. Her playing is confident and unrelenting, anchoring the band’s post-punk chaos with a steady, powerful undercurrent. It’s that contrast — the quiet poise of someone you’d trust to supervise snack time, paired with the ability to unleash walls of sound — that makes her such a compelling performer.

Freak Slug were next and as a contrast, the lighting at Yellow Arch was the worst of the festival by a long way. However, this worked to Xenya Genovese’s advantage. She is the brainchild of Freak Slug and delivered a captivating performance that blended grunge-infused alt-pop with dreamy vocals. Backed by a tight-knit band— Caitlin Mounteer on drums, then Nicolaj Thomsen on guitar and Alex Martin on bass, who physically towered over the much shorter Xenya.

There’s something quietly magnetic about her; she doesn’t shout for attention, she draws it in. Her vocals drifted over woozy guitars and shuffling drums, all slightly off-kilter in the best way. Songs like Killer and Spells hit with a kind of bittersweet punch — delicate but unsettling.

Then it was time to go to the Church of BC Camplight. It felt like a beautifully unhinged theatre production disguised as an indie rock show. Perched behind his keyboard, Brian Christinzio delivered every lyric like it was torn from a diary page — part confession, part stand-up monologue, part nervous breakdown. I was stood just off-centre in the warehouse crowd, and you could feel the room shift with him — from sweeping melancholy to sudden bursts of surreal humour.

“We haven’t played in an awful long time so its going to be a bit shitty” he lied, the band were tight, navigating his twists and turns with ease, layering lush synths and guitar over pounding drums. Tracks dipped into deep personal territory, but nothing ever felt too heavy — there was always a wink, a jab, a left turn just when you thought you’d figured him out. It was messy, honest, theatrical, and totally gripping.

Meanwhile back at Yellow Arch Master Peace had a much smaller than anticipated crowd to start with for his rock rap set which blew the roof off by the time he played tracks like I Might Be Fake and GET NAUGHTY ! He jumped in the crowd and started a sweaty mosh pit which seeped into the courtyard beyond. Probably a bad scheduling clash with BC Camplight and Gans as I reckon most people had to make a difficult choice at that point.

With a few minutes to spare I checked out Good Health Good Wealth at The Alder, curious to see how their lo-fi, jazz-tinged rap would translate in a live setting — but the atmosphere just didn’t land. The duo’s laid-back delivery and mellow beats felt lost in the pub’s open, echoey space, it’s not that the material lacked charm — there were glimpses of clever wordplay and smooth flow — but the setting worked against them. What might feel intimate and introspective through headphones sadly came across a bit flat and detached in person.

My only gripe with this festival is the headliners are all on at the same time, no reasonable overlap, and with such short distances between the venues they could have thought about that a bit more.

I chose English Teacher as my headliner, with the thought that I could maybe catch the tail end of Hot Wax next door – forget that, the queue for them was down the street and already on a ‘one in—one out’ basis.

English Teacher’s headline set at the Peddler Stage was everything a festival closer should be — tight, cathartic, and full of momentum. I’d edged my way into the middle of the crowd as the sun dipped behind Kelham Island’s brickwork, and from the moment Lily Fontaine stepped up to the mic, it felt like the day had been building to this. Her vocals were magnetic — switching from calm, observational lines to something more fractured and urgent — while Lewis Whiting’s guitar lines rang out sharp and shimmering over the pulse of Nicholas Eden’s bass and Douglas Frost’s crisp, dynamic drumming.

Lily with hair down this time (I love the rarer ‘afro’ gigs) had a problem with her mic stand which broke the ice early, she is much more at home with a Yorkshire crowd and was openly thankful for being back in Sheffield.

This Could Be Texas landed like a mission statement — sprawling but exact — and The World’s Biggest Paving Slab then had the crowd fully locked in, singing along like it had been around for years. There was a real sense of occasion, but no big gestures — just a band who knew exactly what they were doing, it didn’t feel like they were performing at us; it felt like they were pulling us into their world for a little while. As the final notes rang out across the warehouse, it was very clear English Teacher aren’t just riding this wave of adulation since the Mercury Music Prize award — they’re steering it.

Get Together Festival delivered exactly what it promises on the tin: a day stitched together by discovery, variety, and a real sense of Sheffield’s community spirit. Spread across Kelham Island’s warehouses, breweries, and backroom stages, the festival offered the kind of line-up where you could catch a Mercury Prize winner, a band you’ve never heard of, and a surprise set next to a stack of antique lamps — all within a few hours. Some sets soared, a few didn’t quite land, but that’s part of the charm: it’s a celebration of the unpredictable energy that makes live music special. It’s the kind of festival where you bump into someone you saw in the crowd an hour ago and end up sharing recommendations over a pint.

Whether it was big moments on the Peddler Stage or quiet discoveries in the corners of Yellow Arch and The Alder, the day had a rhythm all of its own. Get Together isn’t about headline hype — it’s about the joy of roaming, listening, and stumbling onto something great and that’s why I’ll keep coming back year after year.

Get Together Festival took place at Kelham Island, Sheffield on Saturday 17 May 2025.