No Bounds Festival – No Bounds returns to Sheffield in 2024 after a year off with its most adventurous program yet

After taking a year off in 2023, electronic music and experimental arts festival No Bounds will return to South Yorkshire in October with what organizers are describing as their “most adventurous festival yet”.

The theme of this year’s festival, which covers venues in Sheffield and Rotherham, is “Agency and Revelation”, which No Bounds says “explores and shines a light on transitional and hidden spaces, places, connections and stories”.

Headlining shows include a live set from trailblazer MC Flowdan, a set from legendary drum’n’bass DJ Storm and a special appearance from bassline legend and former Niche resident Big Ang.

Other acts in the first announcement include Bristol jazz-folk band Tara Clerkin Trio, Mancunian rapper Iceboy Violet in collaboration with Spanish producer Nueen and innovative selector and Timedance head of house Batu.

“Since 2017, No Bounds has been breaking down barriers and building new bridges through music, art and technology,” say the curators.

“With Sheffield as its backdrop, a city steeped in groundbreaking musical breakthroughs, the festival continues to write this narrative by showcasing both established and emerging local artists and collectives alongside internationally acclaimed acts to grace the stages the city. with disturbing discoveries.”

Long known as a dance music festival, this year there is a greater emphasis on other genres of music, epitomized by an appearance from Lord Spikeheart, figurehead of Kenya’s burgeoning metal scene and former frontman of grindcore group DUMA.

This year’s festival also includes several multidisciplinary plays and performances, some specially commissioned for No Bounds. This includes Microplastics, a new project from Hope Works resident 96 Back, which sees the Sheffield-born DJ collaborate with Jennifer Walton and aya.

NTS radio host Lupini has been invited to host a new pop-up radio project throughout the festival which will “reflect on the transitory nature of warehouse culture” and which will include live interviews with performers and attendees to create a snapshot of No limits 2024.

Venues for this year’s No Bounds include the festival’s long-standing base at the Hope Works warehouse, which contrasts with the opening and closing concerts in the gothic surroundings of Sheffield Cathedral. Other spaces include Site Gallery, Exchange Place Studios, SADACCA and a to-be-announced ‘intervention’ at the Chapel of Our Lady on Rotherham Bridge.

Rotherham-based experimental artist Mark Fell will also take over what is described as an “iconic Sheffield location” for an installation piece involving light, sound, video projection and objects that refer to the city’s lesser-known musical histories.

Sheffield-based artist Ashley Holmes is set to present new experimental audio and video work that will explore the city’s musical, cultural and creative communities, while Sheffield Hallam’s Amy Gordon Carter curates a section of the program dedicated to the climate crisis through lensing. of John Ruskin.

Other collectives and artists overseeing parts of this year’s festival include The Beatriarchy, which supports the work of BIPOC, queer, trans, non-binary and women-identifying artists in the music industry, and archivists Memory Dance, who want a series of AV “activations” reflecting on 40 years of miners’ strike.

In a nod to South Yorkshire’s sound system culture, Sinai Sound System will provide the audio firepower in the Hope Works main space, with Raze Sound System handling the other stages. Other acts include live programmers Algorave working with Pattern Club and upstart party veterans Off Me Nut Records.