Ceremony Festival
Bedford Esquires, Bedford
6thJune 2026
We’re back in Bedford at Esquires for another day of non stop music. Keith Goldhanger reports, Robyn Skinner takes the photos and the music is provided by a selection of bands that are currently gaining momentum and will no doubt be appearing inside many of the other venues many of us enjoy visiting around the UK.
Before the first note is played by what some will call the ‘Ceremony Festival house band’ (Enjoyable Listens), we note that there will actually be a short ten minute break in proceedings in five hours’ time. Five hours of non-stop entertainment with a ten minute break followed by another two and a half hours… That’s twelve bands in two rooms, one after the other, with very little time for any fresh air or street food from the small covered courtyard at the front of the venue (plenty of elbow room at the bars spread around the building, though).
Nobody said this was going to be easy, however it’s imagined that, thanks to previous Ceremony Festivals, we may leave tired but won’t leave disappointed. Some of the bands playing inside Bedford Esquires today we have seen before and will no doubt see again sometime; there are one or two new names to look out for during the day, and there’s another enthusiastic sell out crowd for what is the second Ceremony Festival of 2026 (Ceremony 5.5 reviewed here)
Enjoyable Listens have certainly upped their game this year. No longer reliant on the spacebar of a laptop to start each song, the five-piece tear into a dozen or so familiar songs faultlessly. Flamboyant frontman Luke once again holds the Bedford crowd in the palm of his hand, even while recycling his classic International Space Station joke for the fourth or fifth time in three years at the same venue.
The first descent of the day down the narrow stairs follows and somehow everyone inside the large venue manages to squeeze inside the smaller room for Bugbear, whose fuzzy guitars and layered vocal harmonies keep the early arrivals entertained before we’re introduced to Vehicle‘s jangly guitars and Fall/Strokes riffs back inside the main room.
Back downstairs and it’s party time as Manchester duo Your Mate’s Ex raise the tempo and party hard with their ’80s-inspired dance music that have us dreaming of Glastonbury 2027 and how great it would be to witness this on the Glade stage in the mid-day sun. A band to listen to alongside Confidence Man if you need persuading.
Five piece Tanzana‘s dark indie sounds provide an impressive introduction for those of us witnessing the quintet for the first time, whilst, back downstairs, Canned Pineapple continue to gather even more fans with their tongue in cheek, instantly lovable, catchy songs that will certainly keep audiences enthralled across the country during the months ahead in anticipation of what one expects will be quite an impressive debut album. A band to file under the heading ‘fun for all the family’.
Little Grandad are pulling in the punters during 2026, thanks to the continued support of a certain 6Music presenter, and, on today’s performance, you can hear why. Although it’s difficult not to mention the words Goldheart Assembly when looking for comparisons, today’s half an hour is certainly one to cherish and hopefully one to repeat again before the year is over. Alt-country songs with superb harmonies and the occasional trumpet are not what one comes to expect from a band that have been seen cutting their teeth down in South London’s Windmill pub over recent months. That’s obviously a good thing and keeps us on our toes. We certainly haven’t heard the last from these yet.
Trading names between Disgusting Sisters and The Lambrini Girls is a amusing thought, but only for those who still believe a band’s sound must match the words on the T-shirts being sold. Disgusting Sisters (who really are sisters) appear to be a duo that may have once worn out the needles from their stereo’s listening to The Spice Girls and realised that with some equally catchy pop songs, the right amount of irony and some cool, synchronised dance moves, they could match their childhood heroes. It’s a playful, humorous performance that provides some much needed respite from today’s standard indie/post punk world (is this a sign that someone’s getting old or feeling younger?). Another band we’re pretty sure we’ll cross paths with again sometime. Thoroughly entertaining.
Belfast’s Makeshift Art Bar make an enjoyable, chaotic, noisy, Post-Punk racket. Each song seems to glide slowly from uneasy, sinister and menacing sound bites into an intense and angry climax every three or four minutes. Definitely a band to spend time listening to at home until another chance to see them again becomes a possibility.
Lemonsuckr need little introduction for many people here today. Ceremony Festival is another regular event that attracts the likes of us who simply love cramming as many of our favourite bands into a single day before they play individual shows that get busier and more expensive. The Brighton band look more like a band of brothers than The Osmonds ever did, and their collective appearance, akin to a day out for a gang of low paid office workers adhering to their employers strict dress code, is a good look and one that complements their music well. Blank stares, casual wandering amongst the audience and the passing around of a cowbell for enthusiastic punters is already normal behavior for these chaps, however it’s the strength of their songs that audiences seem to immediately connect with that should not be overlooked. Their journey is already matching that of tonight’s headliners Deadletter, their songs match those of Adult DVD, and they’ll be attracting similar audiences, of course. Therefore, expect more shows, more releases and a much larger environment to dance around in shortly. Yet another hugely impressive performance is witnessed today by what surely must be one of the best bands many of us have discovered this year (Bathing Suits were last year, before you start sending letters).
Home Counties are singing about walking down Hackney road with polite toe tapping ease before headliners Deadletter pick their groove and stick with it for the next hour. Deadletter don’t seem to have stood still since our first introduction in Cardiff at the 2021 Sŵn Festival. Audiences are increasing, venue sizes are increasing and the band’s second album came out earlier this year, an album even more refined than the debut, meaning that fan favourites (Fit For Work, Binge) seem to be toned down slightly to complement the new material that now sit alongside these ‘hits’. Constant gigging and song writing have made Deadletter an even tighter unit than we could have ever expected. The rhythmic intros, saxophone breaks, driving bass and screeching guitars continue to sit as a perfect background to Zac Lawrence’s story-telling narrative, and the sporadic audience sing-a-longs that appear naturally at every Deadletter show still seem to maintain an integral part of the bands live show.
And as quick as that it’s all over for another few months and we head back to the capital on a slow train. Home just after midnight on a cheap day return ticket, after visiting one of the countries most beloved grassroots venues with walls boasting posters of forthcoming shows that highlight how many great bands we have available in this country at the current time, and how lucky the locals of Bedford is to have such a great venue on its doorstep.
These all-day events are becoming very popular at the current time. Just by spending a day at one such as this will give you an excuse to revisit some of these acts again in the future, watch them grow and follow their adventures.
Deadletter will make their debut appearance in South Korea this month. Unfortunately our discounted rail tickets won’t reach that far.
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