Liverpool Sound City is quite possibly the highlight festival of Liverpool each year it happens and every year it seems to get bigger and better, so how good is 2016? Okay, so it’s very good.

This year’s line-up is stunning, in-fact it’s the best it’s ever been. Mixing up-and-coming bands with current stars and (sorta) classic bands, it’s a varied festival but that’s not all what Sound City is. If you like music, you can go see all the best bands there from headliners Catfish and The Bottlemen to an undercard act like the awesome Pink Kink, but if you *love* music then you can grab a delegate pass and also attend Sound City+.

Let’s talk about Sound City+ real quick, Sound City+ is “The UK’s Premier International Music & Digital Business Conference” and it surly is what it’s meant to be. Sound City+ includes innovative panels such as Skiddle’s Ticket To Ride, which will explore 21st century ticket marketing, War Stories From The Mailroom, which will feature a panel of industry veterns talking about their “war stories”, influences etc, the panels are extremely interesting and always a great-point of Sound City+.

This year will also include the first ever Indie Label Market: Liverpool event which is already sounding amazing, right? Indie Label Market and Sound City have selected a wide range of record labels and label talent to explore and showcase new and veteran labels including Sire Records (who’s catalogue over the years has included artists like Madonna, The Cure, The Ramones and even Maghull band Echo & The Bunnymen), Domino Records (we guarantee you know some of Domino’s talent, such as Arctic Monkeys, FFS, Animal Collective and even The Last Shadow Puppets) but aside from those league teams, they’ve also got labels such as Bella Union, Louder Than War Records, 4AD, Blak Hand Records and many more.

TED-Style Talks is back this year also, these feature industry people giving talks from the heart and giving insight that should be unmissable, this year Nathalie Du Bois (from 6 Degrees Entertainment), Matt Parsons (of Ditto Music), Simon Parkes and more are on the schedule.

All this along with Sync, 1-2-1 Meetings, DJ Workshops, Sofa Sessions, and even the Delegate Party which will take place at Constellations after the conference is done,  features Clean Cut Kid, Samm Henshaw, Mahalia, Blick Bassy and a MailChimp Drinks Reception.

You can only get into Sound City+ with a special pass, which we’ll link below!

Okay, so that’s Sound City+ done and no matter how fantastic and fascinating that sounds (and it does), Sound City is also a standard music festival with a great line-up. The festival is over two days, and features numerous acts across a few stages so we’re gonna break this down.

 

The Main Stage this year has a super cool line-up of older favourites and well, current favourites. Main feature Catfish and The Bottlemen is a insanly popular band at the moment and they deserve it all, they had a great 2015 and are already on track for a good 2016, just two days before they’re set to take the Sound City stage they’ll release their second album “The Ride”. Also on the stage, we have Merseyside indie band The Coral, who should have a great set after just releasing their seventh album Distance Inbetween. Minamlist alt-hip hop duo Sleaford Mods, another Liverpool darling Circa Waves, Band of Skulls, classic-yet-still-awesome The Dandy Warhols, Palma Violets, Shura, Georgia, InHeaven, a tribute to Viola Beach and Neon Waltz are also included.

The Baltic Warehouse will host FREEZE headlined by 2ManyDJs DJ set/Hot Chip DJ Set, Leftfield and also features Ame, DJ Koze, Motor City Drum Ensemble, and more.

The North Stage has a great bill, headlined by troubadour Pete Doherty (of The Libertines), Young Fathers, Novelist, Dilly Dally, The Big Moon, Seramic and much much more.

You can grab your standard Sound City tickets by following this link and pick up your Sound City+ package tickets with this one!