Review: This Is Tomorrow Festival

We collected our tickets and wristbands from the Box Office and were fast-tracked through the gates. Immediately I spotted artwork by Newcastle-based artist Mul Draws, and just had to get my photo taken posing in front of it.

There were stalls selling clothing and merchandise, although I refrained from getting glitter in my hair (but I do wish I’d bought a bucket hat). After spotting a bar selling pints of mojito (which I made a mental note of for later), we headed to the corporate area for a sit down to decide who we wanted to see and when (that’s the only downside to three stages showing such great acts at the same time). 

After a glass of wine, and unable to make a choice between Newcastle indie rock band Baltic and English-American rock band Airways, we watched half of one set and half of the other. Thankfully, timings meant we could watch Newcastle’s The Baltics (on the Tomorrow Stage) and Hector Gannet (on the Brewdog Stage) in full, pint in hand. Fellow locals knew their tracks word for word. It was a great feeling being part of a live audience again.  

After grabbing some food from the stalls lining the main stage (my chicken gyros were incredible), and after my partner treated himself to a Gerry Cinnamon t-shirt and made a quick change, we headed over to a growing crowd to get a good spot for Sea Girls who had already begun their performance. There wasn’t too much of a gap until Circa Waves were up on stage (but just enough for me to grab that pint of mojito I’d had my eye on) – a well-timed purchase as the queues for all the bars were starting to grow. 

Their song T-shirt Weather wasn’t wrong; the weather really had been in our favour. As the sky turned darker (but the rain thankfully stayed away) more and more people started to arrive and those queues for the bars seemed endless. Taking my chance, I joined a winding queue with just half an hour to spare until The Kooks were scheduled on the Richard Hamilton Stage. As I heard the crowd cheering, not wanting to miss their performance of Naive or She Moves In Her Own Way, I ditched the queue and joined the crowd. It was an amazing performance, but we were still without a drink so my partner rejoined the queue just before the end of their set, and 45 minutes later he disappeared to see the man he’d been waiting for, Gerry Cinnamon, leaving me in the queue. Juggling gin, rum and a pint, I found him dancing on the outskirts of the crowd and got to see the remainder of what was an incredible performance, and his most popular song Belter sent the crowd wild.