SINCE Neighbourhood Weekender’s inception in 2018, the town has played host to some of the biggest music stars in the world.
Noel Gallagher, Kasabian, Pulp, some huge names have headlined Weekenders. Just as vital to Weekender’s DNA though is not the big stars, but the platform it provides to up-and-coming artists to become big stars.
Over the years, several huge names in the music industry have gotten their start at Weekender, and today we will look at five of the biggest names in music to feature at Weekender early in their career.
Sam Fender
The Geordie singer worked his way up from the lowest stages of Weekender to playing on the main stage. Sam appeared on the Weekender line-ups for 2018 all the way through to 2021, where he appeared on the main stage as one of the biggest acts at the festival that year.
Whilst he is now one of the most well-known artists in the UK, Sam’s initial appearance at Weekender in 2018 came at a time when he had yet to release his debut EP ‘Dead Boys’.
He had publicly released a number of singles which had begun to gain traction, but Sam’s stardom didn’t pick up steam till well after his debut at Weekender.
Now? Sam’s star has risen rapidly, with a Brit Award to go with his mega success.
When comparing the monthly listeners from his time at Weekender to now, the picture of his rise since featuring at the Warrington Festival is clear. With just 235,966 monthly listeners in the summer of 2018, his current listener base is 17 times higher than it was in 2018, with a current monthly listeners of 4,000,000.
Lewis Capaldi
Once upon a time, the global superstar Lewis Capaldi was playing Neighbourhood Weekender, not even gracing the main stage.
In 2018, Lewis featured on the second stage, with the not exactly prime time slot of 3:05pm-3:30pm. Alongside Sam Fender he graced the lower half of Weekender lineups.
In summer 2018, despite having released a few singles, Lewis had yet to even release his first album
In the intervening years, the Scottish star has gone on to become one of the biggest and most recognisable names in the British music scene. His hilarious social media usage and heartbreaking tunes have won over the hearts and minds of the public, culminating in a revealing Netflix documentary this year which showed his ongoing struggles with Tourette’s.
Similarly to Sam Fender, Lewis’ spotify listening has exploded since appearing on the second stage of Weekender. He already averaged 2,500,000 monthly listeners at Weekender, before having released his first album, due to his viral social media success.
Now, however, he’s a bona fide superstar, with 35,100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of publication.
Yungblud
The Yorkshire-born singer may have got his start on Emmerdale, acting in a single episode as ‘Matt’, but he got a leg up in his burgeoning music career from appearing at Weekender in 2018.
The 2018 lineup, also featuring Sam and Lewis, was a hotbed for future talent, with various successful acts coming out of the lower reaches of the lineup.
Returning in 2020 to play higher up in the lineup, Yungblud’s career has exploded in the last 2 years since the release of his debut album ‘21st Century Liability’. His second album, ‘Weird!’, debuted at the top of the UK charts, with various songs garnering millions of listens, and his stardom on the rise.
Maisie Peters
Appearing at the Victoria Park festival in 2019, Maisie Peters has since been named an up-and-comer to watch out for in 2022. By all accounts, she has lived up to that moniker.
The Brighton-born singer has gone from being just another up-and-coming name at Weekender to headlining her own festivals, having been announced as the headline act for Sound City 2023 in Liverpool.
The Indie singer is maybe not yet a household name, but in certain circles she is huge, and has come on leaps and bounds since her small set at Weekender 2019.
Crawlers
The most obvious name on this list and yet another most meteoric rise following their Weekender debut last year.
The most recent name on this list to appear at Victoria Park, debuting just in 2022, but the Warrington-born band have gone from viral strength to viral strength in the year in between.
Featuring two band members from St Gregory’s and having played some of their earliest gigs at FC2, the quartet have Warrington in their DNA, and have become a huge name in the year since their Neighbourhood debut, recently announcing they’re set to play Glastonbury for the first time.
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