Manchester Psych Fest returns this weekend with its thirteenth edition, bringing a sprawling day of psych, indie, post-punk and leftfield pop to venues across the city. A festival where the thrill of discovering the next big thing sits comfortably alongside the big-name draw, Manchester Psych occupies a space where for every established favourite commanding a packed room, there’s another act tucked away on a smaller stage waiting to become the name everyone is talking about by the end of the night. While the likes of Stereolab, The Beta Band and Ty Segall provide plenty of reason to buy a ticket, it’s the festival’s less obvious choices that could make the day particularly memorable.
Here are some of the acts firmly on the IINAG radar.
Angine de Poitrine
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid hearing about Angine de Poitrine this year, Saturday could be your introduction.
The Quebec duo have gone from cult curiosity to one of 2026’s most talked-about live acts with remarkable speed. Khn and Klek de Poitrine perform beneath enormous papier-mâché heads and polka-dot costumes, combining surreal performance art with virtuosic, microtonal music that refuses to sit comfortably inside any conventional genre box. Their viral KEXP performance has propelled them to a much wider audience, while their second album, Vol II, has only added fuel to the fire.
A booking that rewards those who go in without expectations, the appeal of an Angine de Poitrine set is allowing it to unfold around you, as their cult-like fanbase leads the atmosphere as much as the band themselves. Beneath the absurdist presentation is some seriously accomplished musicianship, a duo destined for bigger stages with unusual tuning and chaos that makes them unlike anything else on this year’s lineup.
With their 5pm set at the O2 Apollo, they’re one of the day’s major opportunities to see a band in what looks increasingly like a breakout moment.
Girl Group
By 8pm, head towards Gorilla for Girl Group.
Another reason to abandon your pre-made itinerary, Girl Group bring a sense of unpredictability to a line-up that already covers an impressive amount of ground. The five-piece blend social commentary with infectious hooks and themes of radical friendship.
Psych Fest rewards spontaneity; the idea of ducking into a venue and leaving your original plans behind just because a different band feels too good to miss, Girl Group feel like the perfect match for those looking to have that experience.
Bleech 9:3
For something with a little bit of bite, look no further than Dublin’s Bleech 9:3. Already having sold out their entire tour for this Autumn and Winter, packing out tents at all of the major festivals and collecting a huge fanbase along the way, the band have developed a reputation for being immediate yet unvarnished, with a live energy that promises to be a festival highlight.
While there’s no shortage of guitar bands to be found on this year’s Psych Fest line-up, Bleech 9:3 cut through the noise, carrying a rawness that feels a perfect match for this year’s lineup. Tracks such as ‘Jacky’, ‘Cannonball’ and ‘No Surprise’ offer a good introduction, but it’s ‘Figure 8’ that perhaps best demonstrates what makes Bleech 9:3 so compelling: enormous, grunge-heavy rock carrying songwriting that feels deeply lived-in.
They hit the O2 Ritz at 5:30pm, you can expect a busy room.
Automatic
Arriving to Psych Fest with momentum already behind them, Los Angeles trio Automatic have carved out their own corner in alternative, combining the colder edges of post-punk with synth-driven grooves and a sensibility that’s incredibly hard not to dance to. Their minimalist setup- synths, bass and drums- gives their music an almost mechanical precision, but there’s plenty of warmth and humour underneath the surface.
Their third album, Is It Now?, released in 2025 via Stones Throw, sees the band leaning further into that rhythmic side. Tracks such as ‘Mercury’ and ‘Is It Now?’ are sleek and propulsive, while the album’s darker lyrical themes take aim at modern anxiety, environmental crisis and the absurdities of contemporary life. Automatic’s live shows arrive in a way that brings their musical precision to life, leaving plenty of space for their songs to breathe whilst maintaining a relentless forward motion. Expect the cool restraint of their tracks to come to life in something even more kinetic.
Catch them at Projekts Skate Park at 4:30pm.
Bathing Suits
Leeds’ Bathing Suits emerged from the city’s DIY scene with a simple philosophy: make it loud, danceable, and don’t behave themselves. Their debut EP, KILL Bathing Suits, released in April via Underplay Recordings, throws electro-clash, punk, dance and industrial noise into the same room and sees what survives.
‘Empathy’ stretches out into a seven-minute noise-trance assault, while ‘I Can Be A Freak’ and ‘Swan Princess’ lean into huge beats, distorted guitars and four-to-the-floor momentum. Tracks that come to life when played live, especially in a room full of people who have stopped caring about what time it is – making their midnight slot at YES’ Pink Room fitting and appropriate.
There’s always going to be a temptation to build a rigid itinerary and attempt to execute it with military precision, but Manchester Psych Fest makes doing the opposite incredibly easy. While the big names are more than enough reason to turn up, the unexpected discoveries are what make the festival incredibly unique.
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