Organisers of Macclesfield's biggest original music festival have shared an insight

Planning is well underway for the newly named No Ordinary Weekend festival, which replaces Macc in May from next year.

There are just 12 slots on the lineup up for grabs and with the festival having received more than 150 applications in previous years, it's fair to say competition for a space is fierce.

With this in mind, Jo Lowes from Choose Macc has explained what they look for in bands and how interested acts can apply.

She said: "The festival receives a huge amount of applications from amazing bands and we just can't book them all and from working in music for 20 years I know how frustrating it is for bands to try and get festival slots but we only have a limited amount of slots so can't book them all. One of the decisions to extend the festival to two days was to have more slots available to artists.

"I made the decision right at the start when planning Party in the Pews to make the festival a celebration of original music.

"There are plenty of hugely popular tribute festivals out there but I wanted the festival to be something different and celebrate originality and creativity.

"Also the average fee for a tribute band in the UK costs between £800 and £1,000 per event whereas grass roots original music acts the average is a small fee £50 to £200 if the venue has a reliable budget, so this was a way to redress that balance."

READ MORE: Macclesfield's biggest original live music festival to return in 2027 under a new name

Headliners?

Party in the Pews and Macc in May have managed to attract some huge headline acts over the years, including the Boo Radleys and Badly Drawn Boy at the most recent edition.

Jo added: "In terms of our headliners in 2027, the aim is to be bigger and better!

"The festival will again bring touring bands to Macclesfield that have never played before and wouldn't ordinarily be able to perform here due to available venues.

"I also want to give new and local talent a bigger platform to perform on. This year we had local band Locus from Fallibroome Academy opening the stage and they were just brilliant so I'm definitely looking for more school groups and young bands for 2027."

Equality and genres

The festival has been working with Keychange, a global network and movement working towards gender equality in the music industry.

Women make up roughly 13% to 20% of major music festival headliners and main stage line-ups, with industry-wide analyses consistently showing that around 80% of booked main stage and headline acts are male.

Jo added: "It has always been important for me to make sure women are represented on any line up I am involved with.

"A huge female act has already been secured for 2027 that I can't wait to announce!"

She continued: "In terms of genres there is no real rules apart from that it is is held in a public space so it does need to family friendly.

"Having said that, I'd like our stage to be filled with all genres of excellent music.

"Also, mainstream festivals lean toward indie and pop, while genres pioneered by black artists - like Reggae, rap, Afrobeats, and dancehall - are often over looked so I'm on the look out for more diverse artists and DJs for 2027.

"One the best DJ sets we had in 2026 was a DnB set with REME-D and MC Royce that had the whole of Market Place bouncing!"

No Ordinary Weekend takes place over the weekend of July 9 and 10, 2027.

Acts interested in taking to the stage can apply by emailing Jo at [email protected].

Those applying are asked to include links to their social media, Spotify and YouTube and not attach any MP3s.