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The original plans were to hold a two-day festival to commemorate the tenth anniversary of D:Percussion, but the limited funding means that organisers Ear To The Ground have decided to concentrate on, as they put it, "transforming the Castlefield basin into a psychadelic playground of music and art for just one extra special day."

In a statement, Ear To The Ground’s director, Steve Smith, said that the reason was because of the festival’s commitment to being a non-profit making free festival:

D:Percussion last year

"In the years since D:Percussion began, a vast number of festivals have sprung up throughout the UK, which is fantastic news for the music industry.

"Unfortunately for D:Percussion, this has meant competition for commercial sponsorship is now fierce and last year the festival almost didn’t happen.

"Although our original plan was to spread the festival over two days, we now have decided to use our limited funding wisely and put together just one amazing day of music, arts and creativity; a befitting celebration of the 10 years of D:Percussion."

Bigger, better, more!

Rather than being a setback, what that means is that the one-dayer will now be bigger and better than ever, with an extra 10,000 being added to the capacity via more space being allocated to the Main Stage, Dance Arena and Sketch City areas.

That means that there’ll be around 80,000 revellers cramming into Castlefield for a day of music, art, dance and general creativity. There’ll be around 200 acts, and already confirmed to play are The Whip, Sunshine Underground, Belle and Sebastian, Norman Jay and David Holmes.

The history

D:Percussion began in 1997, when it was organised by a group of mates from Manchester as a non-political response to the devastation of the IRA bombing. It in its first year, an impressive 15,000 turned up to join in with the festvities.

Since then, it’s been a staple of Manchester’s summer, providing top talent, big names and the freshest music for one (hopefully) sunny day a year to a growing number of revellers. In 2002, the D turned to a G in tribute to the Commonwealth Games and last year, over 50,000 dropped in for a dance.

Along the way, there’s been performances from Badly Drawn Boy, The Fall, Black Twang, Nine Black Alps, Snow Patrol, Mr Scruff, 808 State, Simian, Stanton Warriors and Elbow amongst many others.

D:Percussion is held in Castlefield Basin on Saturday 4 August. Entry is by £2 donation.