“I can not wait to see Underground festival grow in the coming years as it has done over past years. Well planned, well executed and just so damn fun”

Words & photos by James Crisp (@james_taking_pictures) | April 03, 2025

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Just north of Bristol, on the outskirts of the beautiful Cotswolds countryside, you will find the city of Gloucester. Once a year this cathedral city plays host to the multi-venue festival by the name of Underground Festival.

The day-long event is organised/hosted by the good people of Gloucester Guildhall and local promoter audio junk food and works to not only showcase a lot of the smaller artists that the city has to offer in its thriving music scene, but also brings bands and artists into its line-up from all over the UK, from all genres, so it truly is a festival for all to enjoy.

Acts that have played the festival in the past include Holding Absence, Loathe, Lottery Winners, Mallory Knox and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes. This year is no different when it comes to adding a few bigger, well-known names to its stacked line-up and they come in the form of the up-and-coming indie artist Lexie Carroll, along with a couple of much heavier artists such as Lake Malice, punk legends 4ft Fingers and the headliners for the event the crazy energetic As Everything Unfolds.

But this festival really is about shining a light onto some well and truly talented local musicians and I am personally so proud of what is on offer in this town and surrounding towns.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to catch every artist on the line-up, as much as I wish I could have, but alas, I am just one man. The artists I did manage to catch though were just out of this world and they include the dark rolky tones of Saint Senera the grungey shoegazers Failstate alt-rockers Bottlemoth pop punksters Sweetmouth and 4ft Fingers one big personal highlight came in the form of Death is a Girl with their incredibly catchy style of music, with awe-inspiring powerful vocals and then on the heavier metal side we have headliners As Everything Unfolds who absolutely brought the chaos to the guild. So much energy from the moment the lights dimmed down to the moment they rose up, with each member of the band quite literally leaving no inch of that stage untouched by a jumping, spinning, running, dancing member of the band.

But like all things, it sadly had to come to an end, and I can not wait to see this festival grow and grow in the coming years as it has done over past years. Well planned, well executed and just so damn fun.