Tramlines 2026 Review: A Weekend of Firsts for Sheffield's Premier Entertainment Festival

Tramlines + Carolina Faruolo

2026 was our 5th year covering Tramlines Festival since starting the magazine. It was a weekend full of firsts, but also some repeats too, with the lineup boasting a host of some of the freshest talent around alongside festival staples, and staples of this festival in particular.

Friday

Speaking of festival staples, our first band of the weekend were The Coral on The Sarah Nulty Main Stage on Friday. The scouse indie mainstays have a tried and tested setlist, filled with some of the most recognisable songs of the noughties. However this set fell flat for us. As is the case so often at festivals, so much of the memorability of a performance hinges on the engagement of the crowd, and we found this lacking a lot, not helped by a fairly static performance.

An inauspicious start to the weekend then, but it didn't take long for it to pick up. Next up was one of the most talked about artists in the country. Westside Cowboy have made short work in making a name for themselves up and down the UK, but after listening to them and now seeing them it is easy to see why. In a furiously fast paced 30 minute set in The Leadmill tent, Westside Cowboy flexed all of their extensive musical muscle to wow a packed crowd. There is so much to enjoy about this band from the vocals and lyricism to the incricate guitar melodies to the exceptionally energetic drumming, it was a true tour de force and one we can't wait to see again when they return to Sheffield in November on their own headline tour.

Back to the Main Stage next for The Vaccines who have recently been celebrating 15 years of their iconic debut album What Did You Expect from The Vaccines. This set did well in paying homage to this iconic moment with the band treating us to a set full of the bangers that were produced back in 2011 with the release of this album. Not content to just rest on this though they weaved in plenty of hits from throughout their time at the top of their game.

Next on The Leadmill Stage (noticing a theme here?) was Radio Free Alice. The Melbourne based band is on a tear through some of the UKs best festivals at the moment and brought that momentum to The Leadmill tent a sharp set. Something of a throwback to the 2000s indie heyday, but with a modern edge, the band recall the likes of Interpol in their music with that distinctive drone-like sound to their vocals and instrumentation. It was gritty and exciting, just what you'd expect from a Leadmill gig. They were swiftly followed on the Main Stage by another festival main stay in Kaiser Chiefs. There isn't much to say about a Kaiser Chiefs gig that hasn't already been said these days, we will say though that the energy they brought was incredible. You may have seen videos circulating of Ricky Wilson literally climbing the side of the Main Stage, that gives you something of an idea of how madcap this performance was, and it was brilliantly fun to watch.

Finally, closing out the opening day, Fatboy Slim took to The Sarah Nulty Main Stage for on of the most anticipated performances of recent memory at the festival. There were high expectations across the festival, but there was never any worry that they wouldn't be met. The next hour and a half was a feast for all the senses, from the incredible song choices and mixing, to the visual spectacle to the energy that Norman Cook brought throughout the performance, it was truly unforgettable.

Saturday

Saturday was a much more lowkey for us than Friday (and Sunday would prove to be in fact). First up for us was The Guest List back under The Leadmill tent. It kicked off a heavily Manchester focused evening looking back. But The Guest List are one of the more exciting bands to emerge from over the Peaks in recent years. The five piece are gearing up for the release of their debut album in just under a month's time and they treated another packed tent to a tour de force of their weighty, yet dreamy catalogue to date. These are really ones to watch.

Another Manchester band was up next, but one much further along in their journey. Indie legends Blossoms delivered one of our favourite sets of the weekend. For us, at this point as we'll elaborate on later, Blossoms should be headlining whichever day they're on, and this show just confirmed that. Backed by their now iconic 8 foot tall fibreglass hearted friend Gary, they delivered a set full of classic indie disco hits, alongside some of their more adventurous new releases.

Highlights for us included opening the set with the aforementioned 'Gary', an incredible opener that really forces energy into the crowd, 'Joke About Divorce, the lead single from upcoming album Songs From The Wedding Cake, was also a real stand out. Despite it only being out for a few months, everyone new all the words, and it of course featured Rick Astley appearing for his part in the closing of the song. There was also a lovely shout out for Sheffield favourite boozer Fagan's. Frontman Tom was on incredible form and has to be one of the best frontmen in the circuit at the minute. And of course they brought the house down by closing with 'Charlemagne' as mosh pits popped up absolutey everywhere.

Finally on Saturday, we saw the return of Courteeners to headline the Main Stage as they did in 2023 in that infamous torrential downpour. Now, we have to caveat this by saying that when we learned they were headlining the festival for a third time, we were disappointed. Not that Courteeners are a bad band in our eyes, we just knew what they were going to deliver, and our predictions were pretty spot on. They of course drew a massive crowd as expected and played many a festival favourite like 'Not Nineteen Forever', 'Are You In Love With A Notion?' and 'What Took You So Long' that generated huge singalongs. However, despite trying to weave in some of their newer songs from 2024 LP Pink Cactus Café, the majority of the set fell really flat whenever they strayed from those aforementioned favourites.

Sunday

We kicked off a stellar final day with an absolute bang. Bleech 9:3 are another of the most talked about bands in indie music currently. We arrived slightly later than intended and the tent was absolutely heaving long before they took to the stage. Once they did take the stage they treated us to an unbelievable show of promise. Considering they only have 5 songs officially released, they feel like such a seasoned band with near perfect chemistry. The tent was just one big mosh pit for 30 minutes.

A bit of a change of pace followed on the Main Stage with Sheffield legends Reverend and the Makers. Considering frontman John McClure had broken 2 ribs a couple of days before, this was a really impressive performance. He said it was his dream to headline the festival one day and in our opinion, he should. Especially on the basis of how electric their headline slot at last year's Rock N Roll Circus was.

As they alluded to, they're riding a big high at the minute thanks to their recent LP, the success of John's brother Chris as Steve Bracknall and their classic track 'Silence Is Talking' forming part of the soundtrack to England's world cup journey. It's easy to forget how strong their catalogue truly is at times, but John was ably assisted with his singing by a huge crowd. We were even treated to appearances from other Sheffield legends in Bob The Bucket, and Richard Hawley on guitar for the aforementioned 'Silence Is Talking'. If this was an audition for a future headline slot, we'd say they passed with flying colours.

Another local band followed them quickly with Femur back on The Leadmill Stage. This group of lads has gone from strength to strength in the past year, from an early slot on the Main Stage at Tramlines last year to a packed Leadmill tent this year, we're delighted to see them pulling the crowds their talent deserves.

Next up was our first and only trip over to T'Other Stage of 2026. When this year's lineup was first announced, our instant two most anticipated artists were The Royston Club and Wolf Alice. When the two were announced as performing on the same day our hearts sank as we assumed the two would clash as Wolf Alice headlined the Main Stage and The Royston Club headlined T'Other, such is the esteem that we (and many others) hold the Welsh indie rockers. Imagine our relief when the stage splits appeared. We're so happy they didn't clash, The Royston Club were unbelievable under yet another packed out tent. From the first minute right to the end of their 45 minute set, the four piece had every word of every song belted back to them, culminating in one of the emotional and cathartic moments of the weekend with their performance of 'Cariad'. Many people I've seen since are convinced they will be Main Stage headliners very soon, and we would find it hard to disagree.

With that, we finally came to our final set of the weekend. Wolf Alice are the first female fronted artist to headline Tramlines since it's move to Hillsborough and it could have been considered a bit of a risk to book them as Main Stage headliners. Not for us though, we were delighted as soon as we saw it, and they delivered in the biggest way. Just incredible and it shows what can happen when festivals take those risks. From the outset with 'Bloom Baby Bloom' to the close with 'Giant Peach' Wolf Alice proved why they are arguably the band of the year for 2026. They just do everything so well, from indie disco classics like 'Bros', to heavier rock and mosh pits with 'Yuk Foo' and 'Play The Greatest Hits', to lovestruck ballads like 'Don't Delete The Kisses' (which in our eyes is one of the best love songs ever written).

The energy in the crowd was incredible throughout, it is amazing to see bands that you've grown up with through your formative years finally make it to platforms like this. There were moments throughout that will stay with us forever, singing and dancing and seeing so many people doing the same as confetti rained down on us all. They even threw in a cover 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' for their encore. The performance was a magical way to close the weekend.

For your chance to see some of your favourite bands at Sheffield's biggest and best entertainment festival in 2027, you can now sign up for pre-sale access and learn more about next year's event at Tramlines' website here.