The UK’s biggest celebration of African and Caribbean music and culture returns this summer following a fallow year in 2025 due to rising infrastructure costs, changing legislation, and the increasingly difficult challenge of keeping the event free.

The jewel in Liverpool’s festival crown will return as a ticketed event in 2026 with organisers committed to making it as affordable as possible for its audience. Earlybird prices see local resident tickets start at £6 with general admission beginning at £11.

Find out more here.

Kavus Torabi. Member of Gong, The Utopia Strong, Cardiacs; a solo artiste AND ATB author (check his Why I Love on Magma). Artist too. What you might call a polymath. The Da Vinci of Psychedelic Rock.

He’s got a busy year with all these projects and it’s out mission to catch them all at one stage or another. Possibly even all in the first few months of the year. Album is imminent from Gong and he has solo work in the can (soon to be road tested) and with The Utopia Strong’s Dopamine and especially Cardiacs’ LSD doing well by the critics and fans, the first part of 2026 is a good time to don the tight pants, pointy boots, adopt a manic stare and get on the Torabi train.

Find out more here.

The 2026 Manchester Folk Festival is shaping up to be one of the best ever with an amazing bill of artists in venues around the Northern Quarter of the city from the 19th-21st of March.

Everywhere you look from the Stoller to the New Century, from St Peter’s to St Michael’s and the Band On The Wall, Castle Hotel and Night & Day Cafe, the names leap out. See this! Go there! Watch that! Fairport, Seth Lakeman, the Young’uns, Blair Dunlop, Katie Spencer, Bella Hardy, The East Pointers, Fanny Lumsden, Skinny Lister and a DJ set from David Eagle. And that’s for starters before all the NQ pubs and networking.

It’s almost like someone has looked over the past decade of MFF programming and picked the finest names to bring together.

Find out more here.

Poppy knocked our socks off at Download Festival in 2025. She has a new album, Empty Hands, slated for January, and a UK tour in March 2026.

In addition to that, Poppy will play support to symphonic metal powerhouses, Evanescence, later in 2026. Her year kicks off with an Australian tour. You can bet your bottom dollar that Poppy will be front and centre in 2026.

Find out more here.

The Brit Awards 2026 are set to be held in Manchester in February. It is the first time since the awards began in 1977 that they will be held outside of the nations capital. With a ceremony to be held at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena on Saturday 28 February.

Expect Manchester to play host to the biggest pop stars on the planet as Co-op Live adds another feather to its cap.

Find out more here.

Halifax’s Piece Hall is always on our list for a handful of visits over the Spring and Summer. It’s a fantastic atmospheric outdoor venue and this year is no exception with an even greater list of attractions including another foray into a, ahem, ‘slightly’ heavier direction. Our highlight – and that’s alongside the prospect of Gary Numan (who plays three warm up dates at the intimate Tivoli in Buckley, North Wales – we’l be there…) is the appearance of Opeth in West Yorkshre. With Halifax’s own Paradise lost and Katatonia in support, its’ a dream bill.

The Sex Pistols, Hollywood Vampires, Skunk Anansie…the list goes on. Just pray for a fine Summer.

Find out more here.

Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales – more specifically, Dublin (twice), London (twice), Edinburgh and Cardiff all host huge outdoor shows.

Our ATB Metallica fan supreme, Andy Pountney will be on his travels and heading around the shows to report back his observations from the ground of the M72 World Tour In The Round. Armed with his trusty point-and-shoot, expect an informed alternative view of the latest Metallica extravaganza.

Find out more here.

A big year for fans of classic Prog Rock with the big names – Marillion, Big Big Train, Jethro Tull, Yes and Steve Hackett – all on tour. Oh, and that’s without mentioning the return of Rush in North America.

And maybe not so high profile but no less important, Gong, Rosalie Cunningham, Blackheart Orchestra, IQ and Mogwai

New albums are due too – Big Big Train’s Woodcut is due in a few weeks (we loved it) and there are albums in the pipeline foe The Blackheart Orchestra, another Yes album imminent (their third in the last six years), a Gong album and Steve Hackett has more solo work plus hopefully the results of his collaboration with Steve Rothery of Marillion. They too have new music on the go that ‘may’ see the light of day before the end of 2026. A return to a few Marillion Christmas dates would also be nice…

Since the ‘return’ in 2022 after splitting up in 2016, every second November is becoming time for a Bellowhead tour. Tinged with the desperately sad news of the loss of helicon player Ed Neuhauser just before Xmas 2025, a little like the tribute to Paul Sratin at the ’22 shows, expect a moment of refelction.

Otherwise, it’s a celebration of 20 years of their first full length album, Burlesque, on which the band look so young. Twenty years young(er) not surprisingly. Expect a run through of much of the album plus all those songs that make us want to stand up and jump about. The ATB plan will see us at several shows so watch out, come November, for in depth analysis and observation.

Find out more here.

Amazingly we’re already into festival season – sort of. Celitic Connections is in full swing as we write (and report back) while the whole year has festival events to look forward to. It wouldn;t be ATB without Cropredy, the Manchester Folk Festival is deserving of its own feature, and then there’s the likes of Folk east, Hartlepool, Shrewsbury, Beardy which we’ve covered in the past. Cambridge folk Festival returns in a slightly different form and we’ve also heard great things about Moseley.

Let’s not forget the various Metal events – Download, Damnation, RADAR, Bloodstock, Fortress and Reaper, plus maybe even things further afield such as Norway’s Inferno festival, will throw the spotlight on heavier and darker music.

2025 was a landmark year for Barbara. Shows with Kid Creole & The Coconuts were followed by an appearance at The Isle of Wight Festival. Then in early September, Barbara released the self-titled debut album that we’d all been waiting for, followed by a UK tour that, once again, showed the world how far – and how quickly – Barbara were progressing.

And 2026 already looks like it’ll be another exceptional year of Barbara bustle. On 14th March, Barbara support the reunited, re-energised Gene at Bristol Beacon (tickets for the show are available here) and, in May, John and Henry Tydeman reconvene with their mate Dean Friedman for an acoustic show at Rayleigh’s Mill Hall (tickets here).

Barbara’s 2026 REALLY slips into gear as they set off for their Spring 2026 – an 8-show tour that takes in many of the boroughs where Barbara Mania has bitten deepest. And – don’t forget that Barbara make their long-anticipated debut at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention on the afternoon of Saturday 15th August. Barbara at Cropredy! that’s a marriage made in Heaven, I reckon!!

The coming year will see At The Barrier continue to encounter and explore the exciting new music emerging from the world of jazz.  Reviews of new jazz releases has been a feature of At The Barrier over recent years, reflecting the increasing excitement around jazz and its impact across so many other genres of music. There are now a myriad of venues and festivals across the UK that host a vibrant live jazz music scene, alongside specialist jazz labels and magazines.

In 2025, the album All I Know, a superb set of original songs, featuring Louise Dodds’ stunning jazz infused voice, was deservedly included in At The Barrier’s Albums Of The Year feature. In 2026, we are particularly looking forward to reviewing Kevin Figes third instalment of his Wallpaper Music albums. On these albums he has worked with a fine ensemble of musicians, who effortlessly blend jazz and progressive rock, on his multilayered compositions.