Just over a week ago, ArcTanGent Festival and its revellers said goodbye to Fernhill Farm for the last time. This time last week I was dragging my tired body through the field, a trolley with a neat camping Tetris behind me, saying goodbye to what has become my spiritual home since its conception. I was one of the ATG day-one fans. I remember the first edition, back in 2013, when it truly felt like a friends fest – it was as if the whole post-, math-, prog- noise- and anything in between UK scene came together – and as it grew to incorporate more experimental and heavy sounds, it never lost its ethos: it has always been the festival for proud music nerds.
However I also remember some conversations with friends during the very early years, that could be summed up by a simple phrase ‘where are the women?’ Many a heated argument were had about the inclusion within that scene and I always believed it had to come through the grassroots – the few women at the beginning would plant seeds that would eventually bloom. And in 2026 this couldn’t have been more true – as a representative of LOUD WOMEN at ArcTanGent, I was busy. The nature of the festival means it is also a lot to take in, as the music tends to be either introspective or really confrontational, so it can take a while to process. You can come with a precise plan of who you want to see, many sporting neat spreadsheets, or you can wander from tent to tent, confident that every new artist will become a notable discovery. I do a mix of both: I know my must-sees, but I also go in for the discovery. This is why I will break up the review into 3 parts, because I want to tell you about everything.
Wednesday at ArcTanGent is ‘the best of the previous editions’ day – stripped back to only two stages (out of the usual four), featuring bands that stole the show in previous years. My first ‘catch of the day’ was Sans Froid, a band that sits somewhere on the intersection of art rock and prog, with a touch of cosmic lullaby. Fresh from releasing their sophomore album Back To The Womb in June 2026, the Bristol 5-piece were the perfect opener for my ATG 2026 experience. Aisling Rhiannon Trafford on keys and vocals is an absolute force of nature, and since I last saw them live, the band gained Ellie Godwin (Peach, No Violet) on additional vocals, providing extra grit and rage. I went out of the photo pit and straight back into the tent with a friend who said, mesmerised “I don’t know what I just saw – but I loved it!”. They have been touring the new album across the UK and they still have a few dates in September, so make sure to catch them!
ArcTanGent is often the place where bands come back to life, but some have been choosing it as the setting to say goodbye to their fans (like Ithaca last year). This year, we sent off Bristol post-hardcore outfit Svalbard. With a packed tent, the spirits were high and the vibes immaculate as we celebrated Svalbard’s career, with crowd surfers wasting no time to start coming over the barrier, even during the slower songs, like the hard hitting animal liberation anthem ‘For The Sake of The Breed’. Serena Cherry was delivering hew growling vocals in between smiles and emanated warmth, and the crowd were loving every moment. Closing with ‘Eternal Spirits’, the band delivered a spectacular set, ending their run on their own terms. The band members already have new projects cooking, including Serena Cherry’s Noctule, so this won’t be the last we hear from them.
Thursday had an early start in store for me as the pre-lunch line up was simply stacked. I arrived at the main stage promptly for 11am to catch the east London post rock outfit IAN, who released their debut album Come On Everybody, Let’s Do Nothing! on Human Worth, one of my personal favourite labels behind heavy sounds in the country. As someone who is a self-proclaimed post rock fangirl, and who often complains how stale the scene has become over the years, IAN had me swallowing my words as they delivered a tremendous set and converted me into a fan in an instant. Hannah Asprey’s cello, front and centre of the stage, stole my heart as I love string instruments in heavy music, and the way IAN seamlessly go from a Godspeed You! Black Emperor-esque contemplative post rock to a crushing wall of noise was just what the doctor ordered to set me up for the day ahead. They are touring with Kulk, who will feature on these pages when I get to Friday, and I highly recommend going to see them live.
KLÄMP, a super-group featuring members of IDLES, Sex Swing, Tall Ships, Manatees, Do Me Bad Things, Pulled Apart By Horses, Petbrick and Mugstar, was a tasty snack at the Yohkai stage. At the same time bleak, harsh and euphoric, they were a force to be reckoned with, and when Rachael Morrison on keys added her vocals to the party, the earth could shatter. They were another one of my ‘let’s judge a book by its cover’ discoveries at ArcTanGent, and because I trust the librarian implicitly, I didn’t leave disappointed.
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” said William Congreve in “The Mourning Bride” – and the multi-dispciplinary artist otay:onii (stage name of Lane Shi, a Chinese artist currently based in Berlin and the first triennium artist in residence of the cult experimental festival Roadburn) drew on that trope and delivered one of the most powerful and memorable performances of this year’s edition when she took her recent album Love Is In The Shit to ArcTanGent’s main stage. She left the stage during the opening ‘Have You Ever?’ to ask the audience very directly:
Have you ever lost it cry out at night dawn?
Then you know what’s like to lose it all
Have you ever fallen in love when the owl sang?
Then you know what’s like to have a good mourning
Have you ever looked down and found out the shoes’ gone?
Then you know what it takes to move on
Have you ever looked up and blinded by moonlight?
Then you know what it gives to die away
From then on the whole tent went on a collective journey towards catharsis. Comparisons to Björk are inevitable – but they only serve as a frame of reference. otay:onii built a whole world on that stage, with every single element playing a crucial part: stunning lights and projections that made me feel like I was floating in space, a keytar that she rocked with passion, an actual pliable… shit acting as a modulator in her trumpet horn, which she would squeeze to transform the sound into an otherworldly wall of noise. It was one of those experiences that will stay with me forever, and words cannot do it justice. ArcTanGent was the perfect setting to discover Love Is In The Shit – I marched from the main stage straight to the merch tent and walked out with the vinyl.
This might have been the most ‘out there’ performance of the day – if not the festival – but the French outfit Igorrr said ‘hold my chalice’ and delivered their blend of baroque and black metal, with unexpected sprinkles of break core and a pinch of rave. What started as a one-man project of Gautier Serre, Igorrr evolved into a mind blowing spectacle. After the recent departure of their soprano Marthe Alexandre, Gerda Iguchi stepped in and her operatic vocal parts and magnetic stage presence fitted in seamlessly. Igorrr’s stage show is a perfectly choreographed and spectacularly lit otherworldly experience that evades any attempts of genre box-ticking. The audience were left spellbound.
But the crown of the evening belonged to Chelsea Wolfe, whose sorrowful, ethereal goth folk / Americana took my breath away – which was predictable. I have been a huge fan for over a decade and to see her in my spiritual home felt monumental. She arrived at Fernhill Farm fresh from launching her new album The Dark at an intimate show at The Dome in London, and while I love the new sound, I was equally thrilled to hear my personal favourites like ‘Carrion Flowers’ from 2016’s Abyss and ‘Feral Love’ from Pain Is Beauty, my Chelsea Wolfe awakening. During the performance of ‘Cold’ from The Dark, fans lit up electric candles handed to them ahead of the show, adding to the intimate feel of the performance.
She was slated to headline ArcTanGent back in 2020, but the world had other plans – ATG fans patience was rewarded in 2026. Theatrical, beautifully lit and spanning her whole career, her set was the perfect end to a spectacular day of music on Fernhill Farm. Straight afterwards, she added a headline show at O2 Forum Kentish Town to her world tour, with the EU dates featuring A.A. Williams, which was instantly added to my gig diary.
