Summer Night City: Wanderlust 2026 recap
For two scorching days, Southampton brought the biggest, baddest and best of the emerging live music scene, with sets from Dead Dads Club, Squid and The Horrors.
Photo: Jacob Wingate-Bishop
The May bank holiday weekend was the perfect stage for the third instalment of Southampton’s vibrant Wanderlust Festival, a pilgrimage to all things live music. Across the iconic port city, three of its grassroots venues — Heartbreakers, The Joiners and The 1865 — would play non-stop live sets, back to back. The headliners? Squid and The Horrors; two unrivalled names in the annals of performative indie rock. Dozens of artists. Three venues. Two days. As a Southampton local — and a humble writer of this e-zine — I had to go. Let’s see where my pilgrimage took me.
As ever, Wanderlust boasted an incredible wealth of emerging and established talent across just two days. Like with any festival, there simply wasn’t the time nor inter-dimensional world-bending to see every band we (me and my partner-in-pop) wanted to. I’ve no doubt we missed some awesome sets in intimate settings. All the same, I think we did a pretty good job considering, and I definitely discovered some insane new bands that are already heavy in my rotation.
The weekend began in earnest at the festival’s smallest venue, The Heartbreakers, to see Divorce Attorney. Their mixture of indie rock and something richer made for a thrilling start to events. Within the first three tracks, the place was sweaty, the room was cramped, and you could feel each chord linger like static in the air. Everything a good small gig should be. The headliner-themed cocktails from the bar were a nice touch.
A fantastic set from South London art-pop artist RY-GUY later, and we were off to The 1865 to see World News. They gave without doubt one of the best performances of the weekend, weaving thoughtful, Knopfler-esque melodies with Simple Minds pop and big, airy choruses. Sidestep, their latest single, was the perfect start to the set. If you have the chance, catch these guys on tour.
We popped back briefly to the Heartbreakers, to see Common Goldfish, whose sunny onstage disposition fuelled Britpop riffs and alt-rock anthems. Then we were in for a three-set delight, with Friedberg (Austrian dance-pop for the hip and ravy), mary in the junkyard (stripped-back indie that promised raw, raucous riffs) and Saturday headliner Squid, who performed a slew of deep cuts and fan faves from across their catalogue (Cripsy Skin, Swing (In a Dream), Match Bet). Before we knew it, it was the end of day one and already a titanic display of the up-and-coming. I was gutted we missed Lynnie Snow and The Family Battenberg; still, there’s always next year, eh?
Sunday promised an earlier start with Philippe Nash at the Heartbreakers, taking over the hotly anticipated slot from ashnymph. They did an excellent job, swapping esoteric rave for something slower, more powerful, blending the lines between gig and live art. Then arrived Dead Dads Club, for a special guest early set, who offered some of the noisiest, punkiest powerhouses of the weekend. There’s never a dull moment with those guys around.
It was time for a brief return to the 1865 for Lemonsuckr, a Brighton four-piece whose dancefloor vibes and punk rock fervour made for one of the standout sets of the festival. H.E.A.T., Instant Kinks and as-yet-unreleased Grandaddy were personal favourites; a surprise that smashed expectations with every suck of the citrus.
Experimental trio Voka Gentle made for our next detour, and they, too, were an instant add to the playlist. At times their songs made little sense, devolving into spoken word streams of consciousness, distorted vocals and endless reverb. The stage was like the home of some mad scientist, laden with dials, pedals, buttons and instruments. The result? Half an hour of pure fun.
Then it was back to the ‘65 for another triple terror. Up first was Chalk, the industrial dance-rock duo whose recent debut, Crystalpunk, made for a thrashing and thrilling live set. The semi-fictitious Moonlandingz were probably the best surprise of the night, bringing clubnight and pop-rock numbers from both their LPs to life. Neuf de Pape, The Sign of a Man and The Strangle of Anna made for a bucket list gig checked off.
And thus, Wanderlust 2026 drew to a close with goth-rock resurrectionists The Horrors performing a wealth of their material, from 2011’s poppier Still Life and deliciously ‘80s Sea Within a Sea to more recent The Silence That Remains, from Night Life. Though some of the group’s newer material was hit-or-miss, there wasn’t a soul in the room unmoved by closer Something to Remember Me By.
The bank holiday promised some of the hottest days in recent history for the UK, but it didn’t deter the locals and pilgrims alike from seeing some of their favourite acts and a whole lot of new ones. There was a real buzz in the air for those two days, from the food tent and DJ sets outside Heartbreakers, to the bar at the Joiners and the barrier at Brunswick Square. That little part of Southampton was changed, transformed for the weekend, as dozens of slack-jawed indie acts, experimental art-poppers and hardcore headbangers descended upon the city. Wanderlust, true to the name, offered a tonic universal, sating the wandering spirit in all of us. It nourished just as much as it exhausted — and got us riled up to do it all again next year.
