The event, on Saturday 2nd September, will see Manchester City Centre effectively transformed into a festival ground, with multiple live music venues, scattered up and down, being employed as stages. The Albert Hall, on Peter Street, will act as main stage, while other venues, such as YES, Gorilla, the 02 Ritz, Canvas, Manchester Academy 2 and Deaf Institute, will act as the other, smaller stages.

Headlining Manchester Psych Fest 2023 will be American psychedelic rock legends The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who will be the last band to perform on the night at the Albert Hall. Fans of the psychedelic rock genre will need no introduction to BJM and the great Anton Newcombe who fronts the group, a group who, to this day, continue to be an ever-evolving vehicle for musical experimentation, having released their 20th studio album, The Future Is Your Past, in February this year.

Another main act comes in the form of American singer-songwriter Ezra Furman, who has previously said this will be her last European tour for a while. As such, this will be one of the last chances British fans will get to see Furman live in the flesh for the time being, and will therefore be a show not to be missed. She will be playing at the 02 Ritz and will be the last act at that venue.

Other acts that will feature at this year’s Psych fest include The Kundalini Genie, Allah-Las, The Lovely Eggs and Flamingods, all of whom are psychedelic rock groups. English indie rock band Sorry will be in attendance, as will the predominantly instrumental Cumbia-inspired London group Los Bitchos. Noise punk outfit Benefits will raise pulses in the White Noise room at Canvas, while post-punk bands Deadletter and The Murder Capital will electrify elsewhere.

A rather late addition to the line-up are The Murlocs, an Australian rock band hailing from Melbourne. They will play at the 02 Ritz at 4.30pm. This will not be the only show, however, for Ambrose Kenny-Smith and Cook Craig, frontman and guitarist respectively, as the talented duo are also an integral part of fellow Australian group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, another group who needs no introduction to the fan of the psychedelic rock genre. The latter group will also be performing in Manchester on the same night, with a headline midnight gig at the Manchester Academy. The show, unfortunately, is not technically part of the festival and separate tickets are required to see the Aussie psych rock heavyweights.

There will also be several film screenings in addition to the multitude of music options, including a UK festival exclusive screening of Chunky Scrapnel, a road movie featuring King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Dig!, a documentary on the love/hate relationship between American groups The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols.

You can purchase tickets here.

Stages and set times below:

Albert Hall
Sorry – 14.00 – 14.45
The Lovely Eggs – 15.15 – 16.00
Allah-Las – 16.30 – 17.30
Los Bitchos – 18.15 – 19.15
Snail Mail – 20.00 – 21.00
The Brian Jonestown Massacre – 21.45 – 23.15

The 02 Ritz
The Mysterines – 13.00 – 14.00
Jeffrey Lewis – 14.45 – 15.45
The Murlocs – 16.30  – 17.30
Bodega – 18.15 – 19.15
Loose Articles – 20.00 – 20.45
The Murder Capital – 21.30 – 22.45
Ezra Furman – 23.30 – 00.45

Ritz Basement
Atmos Bloom – 14.00 – 14.30
Lei Hope – 15.45 – 16.15
No Windows – 17.30 – 18.00
Cruush – 19.15 – 19.45
The Kundalini Genie – 20.45 – 21.15

Manchester Academy 2
Teke :: Teke – 15.15 – 16.00
The Underground Youth – 16.45 – 17.45
Panic Shack – 18.30 – 19.15
Flamingods – 20.00 – 21.00
Kokoko! – 21.45 – 22.45

Canvas Room 1
Viji – 14.15 – 14.45
Pray For Mojo – 15.30 – 16.15
University – 17.00 – 17.45
Benefits – 18.30 – 19.15
Say She She – 20.00 – 20.45
BDRMM – 21.30 – 22.45
Maruja – 23.30 – 00.15
Stealing Sheep – 01.00 – 02.00

The time has come! We’ll be releasing our sixth album via @LNFGlasgow and it’s hands down the absolute best record we’ve ever made. You can preorder here:https://t.co/So5mvdUMqm pic.twitter.com/5mvRCzY7R9

— The Kundalini Genie (@KundaliniGenie) June 17, 2023

The latest release from the group that is keeping British psychedelic rock alive and well marks another chapter in The Kundalini Genie’s ascent into British psychedelic folklore, with the band claiming on the post that announced the album that the LP is “hands down the absolute best record we’ve ever made“. Exciting stuff, truly, for any fan that has witnessed the group’s stunning progression via their previous releases.

The Glasgow based experimental/psychedelic rock outfit released their debut album, Reverberation, in 2017, and have since released an impressively prolific total of five albums in the past seven years, with their latest making it six in seven.

Listen to “The Soul That Makes Me Yours“, the opening track of The Kundalini Genie’s debut album, below:

The band have been continually supported by a devout cult following and have been likened by fans and critics alike to fellow psychedelic rock group The Brian Jonestown Massacre, with both bands mixing reverb heavy drone-pysch numbers with more upbeat, 60’s psychedelia inspired, Rolling Stones-esque experimental wanderings. Another 60’s band the group has been compared to is the Velvet Underground, helped undoubtedly by the fact that the Kundalini Genie covered the Velvets’ track “Oh Sweet Nothin’” on Austrian record label Schore’s ‘the HillTone Sessions’ back in 2020.

You Are The Resurrection, the band’s second album, was released in 2018 and, like the first, was not attached to a label. The third, It’s All In Your Head (2019), was released by both Captain Beefart Records, which is also a Youtube channel that has continually supported the band by way of Youtube uploads, and Little Cloud Records, the latter also releasing their next two records, 1111 (2020), and Half In, Half Out (2021).

Watch the music video for “Half In, Half Out”, the title track from The Kundalini Genie’s fifth album, below:

You can pre-order False Highs, True Lows here.

See below for The Kundalini Genie summer tour dates:

27/07/2023 – Kendal Calling – Penrith
01/09 – The Old Blue Last – London
02/09 – Manchester Psych Fest – Manchester
03/09 – Edinburgh Psych Fest – Edinburgh

You can purchase tickets for these live shows here.