Young Fathers to headline their own all-day festival in the shadow of Stirling Castle

City Park to host Mercury Prize winners

Young Fathers will be staging their own festival in Stirling in the summer. Picture: Lloyd Smith

Young Fathers, one of Scotland's most groundbreaking bands of the last decade, have announced plans to headline their own all-day festival in the shadow of Stirling Castle.

The Mercury Prize winners, who have also won the Scottish Album of the Year Award three times, will be curating the line-up for the all-day event at Stirling’s City Park on 29 June.

It will be the biggest headline gig ever staged in Scotland by the Edinburgh trio, whose mix of soul, hip-hop, rap and post-punk has seen them become one of Scotland’s most acclaimed live acts.

Young Fathers won the Scottish Album of the Year Award for the third time in Stirling last year.

They returned with an acclaimed new album, Heavy Heavy, at the start of 2023 after a five-year hiatus since previous release Cocoa Sugar.

Their festival has been confirmed days after Young Fathers played at the Royal Albert Hall in London for the first time as part of a series of benefits for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The band have joined forces with promoters DF Concerts to stage the City Park event, which is expected to have a capacity of around 15,000.

DF have already confirmed a series of open-air concerts at the same venue after deciding to take their Summer Sessions concerts series to Stirling for the first time to coincide with the city’s 900th anniversary.

Shows by Tom Jones, Shania Twait, James Arthur and Busted have already been confirmed for City Park between 27 June and 2 July.

Tickets for the Young Fathers event will go on sale at 9am on Wednesday.

An official announcement from DF Concerts said: “Since the release of their now-legendary mixtapes, Tape One in 2011 and Tape Two in 2013, the latter of which gave Young Fathers their first of three Scottish Album of the Year gongs, the Edinburgh-based band have honed their categorically evasive hybrid sound.

“The latest album ‘Heavy Heavy’ not only won Scottish Album of the Year but saw the band receive their second Mercury Prize nomination. Known for their electrifying performances, their shows are a blur of ritualistic frenzy, making them one of the most must-see acts in the country.

"This past weekend saw Young Fathers headline the Royal Albert Hall in London in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.

"They strode onto the stage, flanked by a backing singer, instrument-hopping guitarist and keyboard player, free-standing drummer swinging at his skins like a jackhammer, and the multi-lunged wonder of Manchester’s all-female NIA community choir.“For 70 minutes, the band didn’t let up, a feast for eyes, ears, brain and feet.

“By only the third song they had the mostly seated Royal Albert Hall entirely up and dancing, with the rushing, powerful Get Up bringing the revolutionary party.

“Young Fathers aren’t like any other live band. Blessed by multiple voices, an eye-popping approach to performance and a four-album-and-two-mixtape-deep catalogue, the radical Afro-Scottish hip-hop group are true game-changers, tearing up the rulebook for what live music can be.

“Teeming with ideas, with influences from every corner of the musical – and actual – world, the most exciting thing is wondering what Young Fathers will do next on stage.”