On Sunday May 26th, the third and final day of the festival, Lewis Capaldi’s set was already in full swing as I was arriving. Having never heard his tunes before, I stayed until the end, and then quickly made my way to the Richard Hamilton stage where The LaFontaines had already been playing for a quarter of an hour. The Scottish quartet had massive amounts of energy, with frontman, Kerr Okan energetically making his way across the stage. A couple of times he even jumped over the guardrail to make his way through the delighted crowd, handing out high-fives left and right. Okan, who bears a slight resemblance to LANY’s Paul Klein, made a playful quip on how there were more photographers than crowd - perhaps, The LaFontaines expected more from This is Tomorrow’s attendees.
After their set was finished, I made my way to the smallest stage, “BBC Music Introducing North East”, where Dylan Cartlidge was preparing to start. I listened to most of his set whilst waiting in line for my overpriced Pimm’s. His performance made my wait a little more bearable, although he was far more subdued than the previous festival offering. The rapper and multi-instrumentalist, who started to write raps only aged 13, seemed to be quite nervous, and the small crowd probably didn’t help matters. However, at one point he announced he would start freestyling, and even rhymed “baldy” with one of the day’s biggest names - no hints as to who it was. This improvised bit was definitely the most crowd-pleasing part of his whole set. Cartlidge is surely a very talented guy, he just needs to learn to get over his stage fright.
Afterwards I went back to the main stage where Johnny Marr was beginning to perform, but I didn’t stay longer than five minutes and returned to the medium-sized stage (Richard Hamilton). Here, Dirty Laces, a Mancunian rock five-piece, was amping up its crowd with effervescent songs such as Contagious. However, despite their best efforts, they were no match for Marr who had attracted nearly all the attendees. But despite the minute crowd, their enthusiasm was admirable. Next up, I moved back to the smallest stage where the last artists were set to perform. Plaza’s general vibe was moody and melancholic, a stark difference from the previous performances of the day. The frontman in particular had a commanding stage presence punctuated with much headbanging, but his fellow band members were entertaining the crowd too, with the guitarist joking, “you know when the wind gets up your nose and you get snot bubbles...that’s me right now”, which received more than a few laughs.
The last act on the Richard Hamilton stage were Marsicans hailing from Leeds, with a cheery “upbeat indie meets dirty pop” (in their words) sound. Songs such as Suburbs and Little Things made for a wonderfully energetic way to finish off my time soaking up the talent of the smaller stages. While the artists I saw aren’t normally my cup of tea when it comes to gig preferences, I still had a fab time and the third day of the festival succeeded in taking my mind off my upcoming exams.