6 Music Festival 2023 Preview - Lauren Laverne and Stuart Maconie
The BBC 6 Music Festival takes place this weekend, with the event having swiftly established itself as a staple in the alternative music calendar. The first event in Manchester in 2014 included headline sets from Damon Albarn and the Horrors over two days, and the preceding nine years have seen the festival expand and evolve, all the while travelling the length and breadth of the UK.
But times change and, while previous years have featured new and established acts playing regular sets, the 2023 iteration will showcase the broad mix of artists listeners expect to hear as well as some exclusive material, in the form of acclaimed rapper Loyle Carner teaming up with the AMC Gospel Choir. In addition, both Christine & The Queens and Arlo Parks will be premiering their new live shows on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Yet the biggest change to the festival’s set-up is taking place on a structural level; while the 6 Music contingent has passed through Newcastle/Gateshead, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, London, and Cardiff, for the foreseeable future it will have a permanent home in Greater Manchester, near the BBC Media Centre in Salford. The move is part of the BBC’s wider commitment to broadening their operations across the UK but, for the network, it’s a logical move as Lauren Laverne, host of the 6 Music Breakfast Show explains: “The majority of our programmes come from Salford and we’ll be making that transition over the next few years, so it seems like a really sensible thing to do.”