Waves Festival 2023

Date: Saturday 11/11/2023
Time: From 12:00pm
Location: The Fire Station, Pop Recs, Diegos, Independent, The Peacock, The Ship Isis, The Bunker
Tickets: From £25 (on sale from independentsunderland.com)

To find out about access in the venue, including how to book wheelchair spaces and how to claim a free carers ticket, please visit the Accessibility Information page

Sunderland's Waves festival is set to make a triumphant return for its highly anticipated third edition on Saturday, 11th November, featuring the eminent art-rock ensemble Everything Everything from Manchester as its headlining act.

The all day multi-venue festival takes place over a minimum of seven venues in the heart of the city bringing international, national and regional artists together for a day of music in Sunderland. Returning for a third year, Waves will once again utilise the city's flagship venue The Fire Station as the main stage whilst also welcoming fantastic community hubs Pop Recs and Diegos plus Port Of Call's Tipi space alongside Independent, The Peacock, The Ship Isis and The Bunker who have been involved since 2021. 

Already announced headliners Everything Everything are joined by an extended list of emerging and established talents from across the UK, fronted up by Newcastle's heavy riffers Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, who join Everything Everything in The Fire Station alongside Sunderland pop-punk favourites bigfatbig. Across the rest of the festival exciting fast-rising bands such as Deco, Trunky Juno, BLED will feature plus the triumphant return of Galaxians who stole the show at last year's festival.

Waves is set to partner with more local promoters and organisations to programme several stages at the festival. Sunderland's own Serial Bowl Records will look after the Diego's stage, esteemed regional promoters Portion For Foxes are to book for The Ship Isis whilst members of We Make Culture's Young Musicians Project have been working to programme artists for the Port of Call tipi. Across these stages expect to see bands from the North East and beyond including Battery Farm, Dead Wet Things, Tearjerker, Slalom D, Get Wrong, Pillow Fort and more still to be announced.

The line-up is complete with an extended showcase of local talent, from Sunderland and across our wider region. Camel Island, Club Paradise, Crowley, noyou, Post Rome, The Voyd will showcase the strong music scene we have right here in the North East with more locals still to be added.

Manchester's pop/art-rock outfit Everything Everythingare festival headliners for 2023. The band released their 6th studio album 'Raw Data Feel' in 2022, critically held as their most successful record yet which charted at Number 4 in the UK, their third Top 5 album. Everything Everything have been twice shortlisted for a Mercury Prize and five times nominated for Ivor Novello Awards all whilst constantly pushing boundaries with their music and playing live to ten of thousands on tour plus featuring on major festivals across the globe.