Hardwick Festival 2025 Review + Exclusive Live Mix from Tony Hutchinson, Kev Cannon & Simon Gibb

The roar of ten thousand people in a field in the north east town of Sedgefield could only mean one thing.. Hardwick Festival was in town!

For the eleventh edition of the Hardwick festival, the team behind this once ‘small’ festival took a hammer to the rule book and brought in Glastonbury headliners, Grammy nominated artists and Brit Award nominees, and we were there to witness it!

It’s been a difficult year for UK festivals, with dozens of events cancelled or postponed as organisers battle rising costs, dwindling headline options and audiences stretched by soaring ticket prices. While the biggest names and stadium-sized shows continue to draw huge crowds, many independent and mid-sized festivals are struggling to survive in this climate of financial pressure, unpredictable weather and local resistance to large scale events. Against this backdrop, Hardwick Festival feels all the more vital, a celebration of live music and community spirit that cuts through the uncertainty surrounding the wider festival scene.

Sedgefield may not be a town of notoriety, but its sprawling country fields has become somewhat of a pilgrimage for the KOTT team with this being our fifth year in a row attending. John Adamson and his team have created a near perfect blend of MainStage action juxtaposed with electronic music stages, and with the addition of the Shanti Bee Healing Field this year, the festival felt connected more than ever.

We arrived on site Thursday afternoon, earlier this year to get a prime spot. After an exchange of emails and opinions of were we could park up our camper van, we found ourselves in the main camping area. A large field with spacey marked out plots, with toilet and shower facilities, cooking areas and food vendors, was set to be our home for the next four nights. It’s a great mix of people Hardwick Festival, from aged ravers to quaint countryside folk to young families, everyone has a home at the festival.  Eventually everyone was set, ready for Friday and the official opening day of the proceedings.

Friday 14.30pm we were through security and picked up our press passes swiftly and on our way. There seemed more venders lining the entrance this year than last. From bucket hat stands, glitter paint tents, sweatshirt stands, thrift shops, vape shops and more, we could see an early upscale in offerings. This was bolstered by a quick walk around the site that had more bar and food options available than 2024. We grabbed a couple of pints of Amstel for around £6-7 and headed to see Lee Roberts open the Treehouse Arena. The first of many Geordie DJ’s on offer, Lee has always impressed us at previous shows around the north east. A fine mix of soulful, deep house was showcased and although the crowds hadn’t arrived yet, Lee was not phased. Tracks from Kerri Chandler and Sebb Junior had our juices flowing, we were ready to party! Next up was Pilgrim resident Duncan Sheehan, again providing a nice soulful undertone that was perfectly complementing the soaring temperatures.

After being chased around the field by what felt like a million wasps we sought refuge in the plush area of the Colonel Porter’s bar. Comfy chairs, shade and a few Estrella pints were on the menu. We headed back over to the Treehouse for Newcastle DJ/producer ABEL, who was leading the now gathering crowd on a hypnotic jazz-infused cuts. Tracks like ‘Physical Education’ one of ABEL’s own production alongside Willing was a particular highlight.

8pm and the Treehouse Arena had become packed, signalling the readiness for Friday headliners The Brand New Heavies. Bringing their iconic acid jazz sound to the stage with classics like ‘Back To Love’ and ‘You Are the Universe’, their live show is a guaranteed feel-good highlight, blending irresistible basslines, brass and vocals that kept the dancefloor moving and singing along. We got to meet Simon from the Heavies backstage and he was a sound guy, very down to earth and was happy to chat too us about the bands history and even gave us his number for an interview (fanboy moment).

With the crowds dissipating into the main arena for Scissor Sisters, we were shoehorned by our good mate Kev Cannon to go watch him play the VIP room in the hotel. One thing we will always preach is our love for Kev’s chunky, jackin’ grooves. We played together in Café Del Mar last summer so we know first hand, what this lads capable of. A great couple of hours of dancing to Kev and Ben Douthwaite, led to us falling over, getting lost and heading home, slightly disheveled albeit jovial of a great first day.

Saturday saw the opening of The Courtyard, probably our favourite arena. But first we had the 12pm appointment with a juggernaut of a B2B2B (yes that’s a thing apparently) when toon legend Tony Hutchinson was sharing the booth with none other than everyones favourite Middlesbrough legend Simon Gibb and our good mate Kev Cannon. This was going to be something! There is something special about watching three DJ’s meet and match tracks played by one another. As an exclusive bonus bit of content we have the full mix below available to listen back, thanks to Tony, Kev and Gibbo for allowing us to share.

We quickstepped over to The Courtyard to catch our mate Ben Douthwaite who was opening the arena, and all the usual suspects were there cheering on the big lad. Ben’s rise over the last couple of years has been impressive and a testament to how hardwork and good networking can open doors for DJ’s. Energetic, hands in the air, Ben plays for the people, something we all should probably do a little more. We caught Mr Restoration himself next, Mr Mark Hutchinson. Marks imprint on the Newcastle club scene right now is clear for everyone to see. From Colonel Porters to Frate, the veteran DJ is behind some of the best gigs in the city right now. Mixing Ninetoes’ ‘Finder’ with Shakedown’s ‘At Night’, Mark was ready to set the floor alight. Next, Café Mambo resident Ryan McDermott. One of the most polished ‘younger’ DJ’s from the north east area, Ryan is a really good DJ  and has done fantastic playing all over the world and it’s always a buzz to see him playing. At this point our camera died and with us being proper novices we didn’t have our spare battery so we headed to check out the food vendors before heading back to the van. Big shout to the returning German Sausage fella and his incredible dare we say Hot Dogs for £8. Beautiful.

You know your getting old when you think, I’m just going to have a lay down, rest my head for ten minutes and three hours pass. Apologies at this point to Jo Mills, K-Klass, DJ Pippi and Jeremy Healy who apparently we missed completely whist snoring our little northern heads off. But we did quick step back up the long and winding country path to catch our hero Kenny Dope. We tried to charge our camera in the press tent for this but Pet Shop Boys were being all diva-like and refusing to allow anyone within 30 feet of them. So without our trusty click machine we just went unarmed, to face the now massive crowd that was arms in the air, jacking and moving to half of the Masters At Work duo. Kenny is unapologetic in his style, proper serious jackin’ house music that has disco/jazz/funk laden undertones. He asked for the volume to go up, and boy did it belt out! The crowd started to slightly thin out which meant one thing, the Pet Shop Boys were due on in the MainStage.

Now we are fans we guess you could say of the boys from the pet shop. But I have to say, they were incredible! So many hits you probably have forgotten over the decades. The production was great with giant screens showing marching robots and strange dream like imagery, but yeah hats off to the duo and a mystery female singer who was insanely talented. A definite highlight of the weekend and we even caught a certain Simon Gibb electro boogaloo-ing to ‘Rent’. Saturday at this point was done, stick a fork in us.

Sunday was another early start as the wonderful Sista Paula (big shout to her partner Ryan, top bloke) also from the toon was getting the Courtyard up and running. Paula’s love of all things music is clear to see. From tribal rhythms to jazz to hip-hop, there was a lovely early vibe to her set. Flying solo next Tony Hutchinson was next providing a extra dimension to the sounds played by dropping Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ and Balearic Café Del Mar classic we can’t remember the name of but think of Electribe 101 or José Padilla. We then headed down the road to catch Tony’s brother Mark again, this time at ‘Into The Woods’. We walked into the tall trees to a crescendo of ‘Don’t You Want Me’ by Thomas Gold and Fran Diaz, the younger crowd were lapping up them classic synth loops!

At this point maybe roller skates maybe an idea for next year, we headed back up the road to The Courtyard for Ibiza legend and the man who upstaged The Brits, Brandon Block. We’ve had the pleasure of meeting Brandon several times and he is a wonderful character who has always made time for a chat. Easing himself into the set with ‘The Vision’ by DJ Rae & DJ Spen, Brandon looked relaxed. Later, the energy dial was set to a 100% with Josh Wink’s ‘Higher State of Consciouness’ and Sandy B’s ‘Make The World Go Around’.

Down at ‘Into The Trees’, the next generation of clubbers were taking over. Led by their Ibizan starlet Holly Hutch. With a constant stream of bookings at the likes of Hí Ibiza, Chinois, Ibiza and even Glastonbury, Holly is taking the dancefloors under her control. By the time we got there it was rammed. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen the arena as busy as this. The age average has significantly dropped but you know what, they were up for it! Tech-house groovers were being dropped left right and centre. There was RnB samples dropping in and out from the likes of ‘Thong Song’ by Sisqo, as well as ‘Spin, Spin Sugar’ sampled bangers and tracks like Anil Aras’ ‘Feel Free’ and the Tmblv Dub of ‘Let It Go’ by Louie Vega and The Martinez Brothers. Holly came, played and conquered, everyone we spoke to were in awe of another show stopping performance.

We got a call from the man Kev Cannon to go play with him at the VIP Room B2B at this point, no headphones or USB but hey that’s what friends are for right? Sharing is caring! Best set of the weekend? Well that’s not for us to decide… haha but for two hours we played some absolute heaters, from Joey Negro to Marc Cotterell to De La Soul, we kept things moving. We headed back to The Courtyard after a couple of free beverages and a couple of people trying to book us for a gig and headed back to for Horse Meat Disco and Dan Shake who were closing the proceedings. We didn’t goto the Closing Afterparty but we heard it was epic, maybe next year.

If you’ve made it this far, well done, seriously. It’s hard to capture music in words, expression in verse but we hope you get a small taste of what we enjoyed. Don’t get us wrong there is oodles more going on all over the festival but we know what we like and like what we know. Hardwick Festival 2025, thanks for having us!

Big shout to John Adamson, Emma, Tor, Jon and Jonathan at Hardwick for looking after us yet again. Vamos 2026! And to all you wasps we hope you find your way to a vinegar trap! If your looking to book a motorhome in the north east we highly recommend Steve at Motorhome Hire North East and thanks to Sarah at The Luxe Passport for all the booking/travel arrangements.