FUTURE NOW 2025

The fifth instalment of Future Now returns to Future Yard on August Bank Holiday 2025. On Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th August this year we’ll be channelling the spirit of new music, discovery, and having a boss time enjoying incredible musicians playing live in Birkenhead.

Find information on the full line-up below.

🎟 Full Future Now Weekend Tickets available here

LOS BITCHOS

SATURDAY 23.08

Made up of lead guitarist Serra, who carries both Australian and Turkish heritage, Uruguayan synth and keytar player Agustina Ruiz, Swedish bassist Josefine Jonsson and British drummer Nic Crawshaw, Los Bitchos are united by a commitment to having fun. It’s a contagious energy they’ve had no problem transmitting to the world since the band officially arrived in 2019.

If electrifying 2022 debut album Let the Festivities Begin! was the rowdy build up to the big night out, then 2024’s follow-up ‘Talkie Talkie’ is the Technicolor explosion of the dancefloor. The London-based quartet’s most recent album is glistening with charisma, sonic experimentation and a puckish spirit. Named after a fictional club of the same name Talkie Talkie is a late-night paradise brimming with freedom and possibility; a place where partygoers can escape reality in the dance or daydream along to the invigorating soundscapes.

🎟 They headline the Future Yard Garden Stage on Saturday 23rd August.

 

PUSSY RIOT: RIOT DAYS

SUNDAY 24.08

PUSSY RIOT: RIOT DAYS headlines the outdoor FY Garden stage on Sunday 24th August, with a multimedia performance featuring Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina, based on her memoir of the same name. The project blends live music, spoken word, video, and performance art to tell the story of the group’s activism and her experience in a Russian prison following their infamous 2012 protest. After touring internationally Riot Days is back with a new show in 2025 including topics such as the oppression and violence against the LGBTQ+ community, the story of Alexey Navalny and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

🎟 Riot Days is the headline act on the Future Yard Garden Stage on Sunday 24 August

 

---

Friday 22.08.25

🎟  Future Now ’25 Opening Party Tickets available here

ADULT DVD

Over their brief time as Adult DVD, the Leeds based 6-piece have become known for their relentless output of infectious hooks and grooves with a euphoric live show that could be mistaken for a club night. Their first single ‘Do Something’ taken from self-released, self- produced EP ‘Next Day Shipping’ landed straight onto the BBC6 Music B list earning widespread support from Dork, Line of Best Fit, Clash, Farout and more. The group ended 2024 with a packed out show at the iconic 100 Club show and 2025 kicked off with a sold out headline for Line Of Best Fit’s ‘5 Day Forecast’ a showcase for the essential new artists of the year.

Whether tapping into their love for chorus-centric indie or the influence of acid-house floor- fillers, their core appeal remains consistent: undeniable humour; bold, danceable instrumentals; and instantly memorable songwriting.

FFO: Working Men’s Club, Chalk, Chemical Brothers

ANNA ERHARD

The Berlin-based, Swiss-born singer released her highly anticipated third album Botanical Garden in September 2024 and was celebrated by the press throughout Europe. In the UK, BBC 6Music supported the singer with heavy rotation airplay.

Her songs, somewhere between the spirit of Kurt Vile and early Beck, are an eclectic mix of distorted guitars and lo-fi keyboards. With characteristic nonchalance, Anna Erhard performs mischievous lyrics, setting her everyday life and her wanderings to music.

FFO – Katy J Pearson, Crywank, B.C Camplight

HOME COUNTIES 

Exactly what do Home Counties provide on their debut album 2024’s, Exactly As It Seems? A newly-purchased synthesiser, a fresh outlook, and a steady diet of early 2000s pop kicked open a world of melodic possibility for the band, resulting in an album that’s upbeat from start to finish: swapping wry social commentary for personal experience and big tunes.

Home Counties always manage to balance the duality of lyrical frankness and musical buoyancy with gusto. With an eye for the day-to-day, all-too-relatable details of crap modern living, yet – coupled with an ear for hook-filled, grin-inducing melodies – the pay-off is one riddled in joy rather than despair.

FFO – W.H. LUNG, Lynks

---

Saturday 23.08.25

LIME GARDEN

Named as one of NME’s top 100 artists for 2022, Brighton’s wonky indie quartet Lime Garden blends pop sensibilities with post-punk noise. They finally make their long-awaited FY debut now with 2024’s successful debut album ‘One More Thing‘ under their belt.

FFO – Warpaint, Sorry, Goat Girl.

“The spiritual successors to Britpop’s finest females” – DIY

 

MANDRAKE HANDSHAKE

 

YUMI AND THE WEATHER

Since first emerging in 2013 with her critically acclaimed ‘All We Can’ EP, Brighton based musician and producer Yumi And The Weather has spent the past few years perfecting her unique blend of electrifying technicolour Psych-Pop and combining it with Garage Rock, Shoegaze, Indie and Electronic under currents.

FFO – Hinds, Plastic Mermaids, Super Furry Animals

 

DBA!

Leading figures in Liverpool’s emerging music scene over the last twelve months, DBA! have fast become known for their unique chemistry and strong influences from the likes of Eels, Beck and Elastica. Having already showcased three lead singles (‘sinkorswim’, ‘D.P.D.’ and ‘Whisky’) from their debut extended release, the band have seen significant traction on the BBC 6 Music airwaves, with widespread support from key tastemakers including Huw Stephens, Craig Charles, Abbie McCarthy and Emily Pilbeam.

“A raucous landscape of unruly riffs, overlaid by vocoder-splashed vocals and existentially questioning lyricism” – DIY MAGAZINE

NIKI KAND

Liverpool-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Niki Kand creates music that soothes the soul. A lifelong fine arts student, music was once a quiet passion, kept private due to cultural expectations and her introverted nature. Originally from Tehran, Niki grew up immersed in western pop culture thanks to her parents, but it wasn’t until moving to the UK that she found the freedom to explore her own voice.

Now leaning into a fusion of jazz and pop, her work continues to evolve, shifting toward creating a therapeutic space filled with emotional depth, offering listeners a moment to both unwind and connect.

---

Sunday 24.08.25

CLT DRP

Dynamic and extroverted, Brighton electro-punk noisemakers deal with feminist themes in a wry fashion. And if you’re wondering, it’s pronounced ‘CLIT DRIP.’

FFO – Peaches, The Prodigy.

SHELF LIVES

Pairing hardcore punk’s brief bursts of energy with electroclash’s minimal and sleazy sonics, Shelf Lives raise themes of societal collapse and hyper-consumerism with a warped smile.

ALIEN CHICKS

Thunderous punk rhythms meet with rapid-fire rap verses, intricate jazz-inspired bass riffs. With larger audiences on the horizon, now is the perfect time to catch the Brixton power trio in their rise.

FFO – Maruja, Black midi.

BATHING SUITS

Hull’s Jodie Langford has quickly become a festival showstopper and has dominated stages across the UK with her unique blend of Electro Party Punk. Always by her side is her trusted producer/DJ, Endoflevelbaddie, who channels her raw energy into a mix of post-punk, techno, and drum & bass.

Listen to all the artists announced so far below…

Previous artists

2019’s festival across Birkenhead was the catalyst for the Future Yard you know and love today, and saw a storming headline set in the Birkenhead town hall from Anna Calvi one night, plus a homecoming of the Wirral’s favourite son Bill Ryder Jones (aka the guy from that billboard) another. Established local, national and international acts and rising stars alike fit the bill across that very first festival, and we are ecstatic to have played a little part in the rise of now world-renowned artists like Black Country, New Road, Dry Cleaning and Squid.

2021 was the year the world emerged out of lockdown, and a new, more condensed version of Future Now emerged on Argyle Street. Taking the impetus of 2019’s festival of showcasing the best emerging talent alongside a select number of incredible, established artists, the name ‘Future Now’ was born and Future Yard as a venue hosted it for the very first time. Gruff Rhys became Future Yard’s very first festival headliner, maintaining the long-seated connection between the Wirral and Wales through the power of a punchy set packed with Super Furry Animals, New Gods Sought and a lot of accompanying placards.

Utter absurdity was the name of the game for the opening day of Future Now 2022 as the likes of Fat Dog and MADMADMAD made their Future Yard debut with sets of pure chaotic brilliance, topped off by a closing performance from the art-house gilly-suit cladded Friday headliners Snapped Ankles, providing an aural onslaught of motorik rhythms the likes of which we’re pretty sure Birkenhead has never seen before. A Saturday indoor triple punch of Dehd–Cola–Bdrmm that will long live on in the annals of Future Yard folklore in the years to come was a particular highlight from the second day of 2022, before the building was shaken to its very foundations as that year’s second headliner, PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS made sure they closed their show with a ferocity and volume we still remember to this day.

The stakes rose even higher in 2023 as we hosted our busiest in-venue Future Now to-date. Familiars and new futures ran through the entirety of the weekend, as true Future Yard favourites and (at this point) venue regulars The Bug Club and Bodega returned to headline in their biggest Birkenhead shows to date. The second coming of Seal Club Clubbing Club in the heart of their homeland on the leftbank and a tour de force performance from debutants Personal Trainer (which may have just birthed our new favourite frontman) were highlights from a sun-drenched opening day, before Christian Lee Hutson took to the outdoor stage just as the heavens opened. Crowd and performers became one on the safety of the stage as Christian delivered a beyond intimate set in the dampest of conditions that was a totally once-in-a-lifetime experience. Until it happened again the next night. Throbbing guitars from the likes of Butch Kassidy and Bo Ningen turned the live room into a sonic boom during 2023’s second day, and as the crowd sought some outdoor respite rain once again started to fall, meaning an up-close-and-personal alt-dance party thrown by Baba Ali closed the show on Future Now. Until now…