FUTURE NOW

We’re incredibly excited to be hosting our August bank holiday weekender again, on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th August 2023. Future Now is our annual celebration of the best emerging new music, which also marks the anniversary of the festival that launched Future Yard in 2019.

Following on from headliners Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and Snapped Ankles shaking the foundations last year, we’re excited to share news of this year’s line-up with you. Returning heroes The Bug Club and BODEGA are our headliners for 2023, both having played packed out shows here on Argyle Street in 2022.

This year we’ll be expanding things a bit more using our outside space as we bring you the biggest Future Now Weekender yet! As usual it will see national and international artists sharing our indoor and outdoor stages with brilliant homegrown musicians, confirming that Birkenhead is the place to be to discover the best new sounds.

Tickets on sale now.

We’re over the moon to have two huge FY favourites headlining our flagship event this year. Both The Bug Club and BODEGA are no strangers to our Live Room, having made some incredible memories by playing here already. And both will also be performing for the third time live in Birkenhead, each a step up from the last time. The Bug Club’s previous two shows have been here in Future Yard with us, with the buzz building to epic proportions for last November’s headline show; while BODEGA started their Birkenhead journey by playing at Birkenhead Central Library on a sweltering afternoon in 2018 on the tour for previous LP Endless Scroll, and topping that with a sold-out headline show in Future Yard in March 2022.

The groovy garage twang and hook-laden songwriting on The Bug Club has hit on something round these here parts, with a growing fanbase unable to resist their charms. While Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries BODEGA ooze the kind of class that you expect from the Brooklyn to Liverpool’s Manhattan.

In 2021, we doubled up our first Future Now weekender as a moving in party for our new home at 75 Argyle Street. It was a glorious few days in Birkenhead for the August bank holiday, as we welcomed a huge crowd to see Gruff Rhys, James Righton, Nuha Ruby Ra, PVA, Folly Group and loads more in our new community venue. There was a great air of warmth around the place as loads of our favourite local performers also joined us for the party, turning the outside Garden space into a full-on party. The weekend was rounded off by a DJ set from Tom Ravenscroft, capturing the spirit of discovery of our original 2019 event.

And last year we took things into another realm, with Friday night headliners Snapped Ankles logjamming the crowds into a frenzy. Saturday’s headliners Pigs x7 were on mighty form, blasting a new sonic dimension in our Live Room as they tore through an incredible set. Elsewhere, Dehd and Cola oozed class and style; M(h)aol had the room eating out of the palm of their hand; Bdrmm proved why they’re one of the best acts on the circuit right now; Fat Dog stole a march with one of the most riotous sets we’ve seen; and MADMADMAD redefined the levels of groove that you can handle (not enough, it seems – MOREMOREMORE!).

Future Now is our annual celebration of the best emerging new music, our chance to celebrate the music makers who are on the rise and ready to break out. It’s the spirit of discovery that keeps us motivated, and we know that is shared by lots of you music lovers, too. Just like when Black Country, New Road, Squid, Dry Cleaning, Stella Donnelly, Willie J Healey, Pottery et al descended on our festival in 2019, Birkenhead is the place to be to discover the best new sounds.

Future Yard presents
Future Now
August bank holiday weekend celebration
The Bug Club Friday
BODEGA Saturday
Friday 25th + Saturday 26th August 2022
75 Argyle Street
Doors 5pm Friday / 3pm Saturday | open til 1am both days
Day + weekend tickets on sale now
#thefutureisbirkenhead

Tickets available online in advance or in person at the Future Yard Box Office. To have a physical ticket mailed out to you, buy here.
Future Yard is a cashless venue – all payments are taken by contactless or chip and pin. Kitchen open til 9pm both days.
If you have any specific access requests, please read all of the details about accessibility at Future Yard here.

To say that the exuberant appeal of The Bug Club’s live performances and songmanship has been spread by word of mouth is a bit of a contradiction, as you could never sum up the music produced by these three groovy peas in a far-out pod (musically and lyrically interesting, deliciously individual, stripped-back garage pop songs, which shimmy, bounce and slide from joyfully frenetic guitar riffs to melodious harmonies) in anything like one word.

Championed by Radio 6 (and Marc Riley in particular), Radio Wales and their growing, encore-insisting audiences, this three-piece pŵer trio has not seen their hometown of Caldicot, South Wales in some time due to their incessant touring and growing reputation. Last year’s Green Dream In F# (Bingo Records) was the most perfect distillation of their sound so far. Winning hearts and minds, The Bug Club will have you clapping, cheering and singing along with them at an independent venue in a town near you this autumn. Fun tiiiiiimes!

Friday 25 August 2023

Since BODEGA’s formation in 2016, Ben and Nikki have experienced a rare meteoric rise. The duo double as filmmakers, earning acclaim for their 2020 erotic drama PVT Chat starring Peter Vack and Julia Fox. When the pandemic forced them to hit pause, they used the opportunity to regroup with past collaborators. Broken Equipment was the result, produced by Ben himself with Bobby Lewis. It was released in March 2022 via What’s Your Rupture?, and was mixed by Bryce Goggin, whom the band sought out for his work with Pavement, and Adam Sachs (WIVES). This was followed by XTRA EQUIPMENT, a new collection of tracks from the same 2020-2021 Trout Studio sessions that spawned the album.

“In 2018 we found ourselves being lumped in with the third or fourth wave post-punk revival,” says Ben with a laugh. “Obviously we love that kind of music and draw inspiration from it on purpose, but this time we wanted to expand our palette with influences from hip-hop, indie-pop, and straight up classic rock. Millennials like us don’t really have genre alliances. We have allegiances towards groups and songs.”

Saturday 26 August 2023