Photography: Y Not Festival 2017

On a wind and rain-battered weekend in the Derbyshire countryside, the masses gathered for a musical spectacle that most had been looking forward to for a long time. Strewn across eleven stages, artists were set to entertain and dazzle throughout the four day festival.

Unlike all of the previous years, however, the festival had recently been sold and the new management company seemed to have been caught with their pants down when it came to running a festival in heavy rains. Consequently, many acts were cancelled, cut short, or moved to indoor stages and the festival was cancelled on Sunday morning.

Despite the chaos and outrage from many festival-goers; the majority of people, for many of whom this was their first festival experience, seemed to have a wonderful time and enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Heck performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Frank Turner performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Beans on Toast performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Strange Bones performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

The Most Ugly Child performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Sheafs performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Vukovi performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Heck performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Outlya performing at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Crowd at Y Not Festival, Derbyshire (Gunnar Mallon)

Y Not has grown considerably since it was sold to Global, pushing the local infrastructure to breaking point. It would be wise for the organisers to consider scaling it back a little and investing more heavily in security staff, who are up to the job, to make sure that Y Not bounces back from the unfortunate events this year and is restored as one of Britains best medium-sized festivals.

Photos by Gunnar Mallon of Y Not Festival, Derbyshire on 27-30 July 2017.