AFRODEUTCHE (6-8am), Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie (8-10am), Cerys Matthews (10am-1pm) reflect on the festival, broadcasting from MediaCItyUK
BBC Radio Manchester will bring listeners highlights from BBC Introducing at Band on the Wall as part of a special Introducing in Manchester programme on Thursday 26 March at 8pm. Breakfast with Joe McGrath will continue to celebrate local talent featured at the festival on Friday 27 March from 6am.
All 6 Music and BBC Radio Manchester programmes will be available on BBC Sounds for 30 days after broadcast. Performances and DJ sets will be added to BBC Sounds during the festival. Available now is Indie at the 6 Music Festival - a compilation of highlight tracks performed at the event over the years.
In the lead up to the festival, Bloc Party (9-12 Feb), Courtney Barnett (16-19 Feb), Kelly Lee Owens (2-5 Mar), The Horrors (9-12 Mar), Jacob Alon (16-19 Mar) and Yard Act (23-26 Mar) will each present a four-part series of Artist in Residence each Monday - Thursday (11pm-midnight). Artist in Residence sees musicians invite listeners on a journey into their musical soul, with each episode based around a different theme or mood.
In addition, a new eight-part BBC Sounds podcast, The Rise and Fall of Madchester, presented by Steve Lamacq and Music & Cultural PR Creative, Alison Bell, will be available on BBC Sounds from 8am on Monday 16 March. The series captures the iconic Manchester music movement of the 80s and early 90s, following the rise of Factory Records and the Haçienda, the emergence of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and New Order, and the moment guitar music and club culture collided. Drawing on the BBC's extensive archive and featuring new interviews with artists, DJs and journalists, The Rise and Fall of Madchester celebrates the music of a city that reshaped British culture and still defines it.
Highlights from Band on the Wall and selected performances from YES will be available to watch on demand across the weekend and for 30 days after broadcast on BBC iPlayer and BBC Music's YouTube channel.
Tickets to each event are sold separately and will be available from www.bbc.co.uk/6musicfestival at 10am on Thursday 12 February.
Kele Okereke of Bloc Party said: "We can't wait to return to 6 Music Festival in March. We so rarely get to play these intimate shows anymore and we'll be dropping a few surprises on the night too..."
Moving from hooky post-punk to ambitious genre mashing, and back again, Bloc Party's artistic restlessness has served them well since the early 2000s. Led by impassioned frontman Kele Okereke, the band's initial EPs played a pivotal role in shaping British indie rock for years to come. Their groundbreaking debut album Silent Alarm (2005) was followed by more albums and innovation - A Weekend in the City (2007), Intimacy (2008), Four (2011), Hymns (2016) and most recent record Alpha Games (2022). The band were awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection in 2025.
Courtney Barnett said: "I'm really excited to play some new music at the 6 Music Festival!"
Grammy-nominated Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett is known for albums including Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015), Tell Me How You Really Feel (2018) and Things Take Time, Take Time (2021). She will release her highly anticipated, fourth studio album, Creature of Habit, in March which features the recently released single, Site Unseen, featuring Waxahatchee.
The Horrors said: "The Horrors are super excited to play the 6 Music Festival in March. 6 Music is one of the last big radio stations championing underground music, and we appreciate their ongoing support. Get ready Manchester!"
After nearly 20 years making music, there are few bands who've created a canon as determinedly innovative and consistently critically acclaimed as The Horrors. The band emerged as zeitgeist-shaking garage-goths with their 2007 debut album, Strange House and have since roamed freely between genres, with albums including their Mercury Prize-nominated Primary Colours (2009), their NME Award-winning Skying (2011) and more. Their sixth studio album Night Life was released last year via Fiction Records and saw them shapeshift into a new form with a new sonic outlook.
Jacob Alon said: "I'm so gassed to be playing 6 Music Festival! It means so much after all of the support 6 has given my music. I really believe in this station and all it does for alternative music. Can't wait to give back some love through concert with yous."
Scottish singer-songwriter Jacob Alon released their debut album In Limerence in May 2025, which was subsequently nominated for the Mercury Prize and the Scottish Album of the Year. A 6 Music Artist of the Year 2025, they also received the BRITs Critic's Choice award in January this year.
Kelly Lee Owens said: "Playing the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival in Manchester feels like a full-circle moment. Both 6 Music and the city have been fundamental to my journey, so celebrating that connection there will be beautiful."
Welsh electronic musician and producer Kelly Lee Owens released her self-titled, debut album in 2017 to critical acclaim. This was followed by Inner Song (2020), LP.8 (2022) and Dreamstate (2024). She won the Welsh Music Prize in 2021.
Lynks said: "So excited to be playing the 6 Music Festival this March! The only things I consume more regularly than 6 Music are London tap water and MAYBE hot chicken flavour instant noodles. But as far as I’m aware, there isn’t yet a London Tap Water Festival or a Hot Chicken Flavour Instant Noodle Festival. And if there is they haven’t booked me. So, yeah - basically what I’m trying to say is there is not a single place I’m more excited to be than the 6 Music Festival this March in Manchester."
Lynks is a cult sensation from London's underground scene who has built a reputation as one of the UK's most electrifying, genre-smashing performers whose riotous live shows have become the stuff of legend. Following their debut album Abomination (2024) they stepped into a bold new chapter with the release of their single, I Didn't Come Here For Art in November last year.
Mandy, Indiana said: "We can't wait to play material from our new album at the 6 Music Festival. 6 Music have supported us since early on and it's great to be involved in this awesome event."
Manchester/Berlin-based Mandy, Indiana formed in 2018 and are known for their raw, disruptive energy and performances that thrive on tension, catharsis, and physicality. They released their debut album, I've Seen a Way in 2023, and have just released their second, URGH (on Sacred Bones Records) which sees them push their vision to new extremes in a vital collision of rebellion, release and dancefloor transcendence.
SILVERWINGKILLER said: "We are absolutely delighted to be included on the lineup for BBC Radio 6 Music Festival. It's an honour to be part of such an admirable festival, presented by the UK's best hub to listen to and discover alternative music."
Emerging from Manchester's underground, SILVERWINGKILLER are a high-energy electronic two-piece carving out their own uncompromising corner of the UK music scene. They released their debut EP, TRIAD FUNDED in November last year.
Sorry said: "We first played 6 Music festival back in 2020 on the BBC Introducing stage in Camden. Three albums later, it’s great to be back on a bigger stage! Looking forward to seeing everyone in Manchester."
London rock band Sorry are known for their critically acclaimed albums, 925 (2020) and Anywhere but Here (2022). They returned last year with their third album, COSPLAY - a bold reinvention that redraws the rules of what a rock band can be, and which blends pop culture references, self-sampling and fearless experimentation to create a surreal world.
Tiberius b said: "I'm looking forward to the 6 Music Festival. Performing is a holy and cathartic exercise for me. My inner monologue can be quite violent during the process, but ever since I was a kid I have yearned to communicate in this way."
London-born, Cortes Island-raised artist Tiberius b (Frank Belcourt) crafts emotionally raw alt-pop that blends dreamy guitars with electronic textures. They've become known for their diaristic songwriting and genre-blurring sound - equal parts intimacy and experimentation. A unique and promising voice in the new alt-pop vanguard, Tiberius b released their debut album NEVERYTHING in 2025，to critical acclaim.
Wesley Joseph
Since his emergence with debut project ULTRAMARINE，Wesley Joseph has built a reputation as one of the UK's most forward-thinking new artists。The release earned critical acclaim across music and fashion。Follow-up GLOW only further cemented his reputation，hailed as a bold，world-building record that blurred boundaries between alternative R&B，rap and soul，包括Ivor Novello提名单曲“COLD SUMMER”。Joseph与A.K.Paul、Dave Okumu、Leon Vynehall、Joy Orbison、童年好友Jorja Smith及Loyle Carner等人合作过（他出现在Mercury Prize提名作品“hugo”中，并在其英国巡演中担任支持）。除此之外，他还将引人入胜的现场表演带向全球，曾开展自己的售罄英国及北美巡演。他将于4月通过Secretly Canadian发行首张专辑《Forever Ends Someday》。
Yard Act said: "We can't wait to play the 6 Music Festival in one of Manchester's finest independent venues, YES, the scene of some of our earliest shows way back in 2021."
Since first steering their golden rover into swift public acclaim back in 2020，Leeds quartet Yard Act have become one of great indie success stories of decade so far.With two top five albums，a Mercury Prize nomination，and countless shows and festival appearances spanning globe，they've grown from minimal post-punk roots into truly muscular expansive outfit.Currently working studio producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen（known work Beck，Nine Inch Nails，Wolf Alice）with album three horizon，Yard Act look set make 2026 own。