Neotribe 4 – Hey! How Did We Get Here?!
Neotribe is a vision we wanted to bring to life after the Sunbird founder passed away, leaving the concept on line, as part of his work and now, legacy. It took a long time to get the feeling of it right, with three previous Neotribe events having already taken place. Inclusivity was key, so we were and are so grateful to the people who have attended and who continue to get on board with the growing concept. The audiences and the energy they bring actually form the vision of Neotribe in reality, and it’s an incredibly special, magical thing to be part of, and very much in its early stages.
As the Sunbird website describes, ‘Music is the ultimate unifier’ – this is the foundation of Neotribe.
We had been trying to book Adult DVD for the previous Neotribe, which took place in October of 2025. They hadn’t been available and we were looking to make sure we built the right atmosphere for the event.
We had hit a turning point with the success of Neotribe 3 – it had been exactly how we envisioned Sunbird’s founder had wanted it to feel. As Yaang and Gans took to the stage on the Friday, the room was absolutely fizzing with excitement. Texts were getting sent from the different members of the Sunbird team (a handful of about five volunteers!) about how it was going during the show … “This is it !! This is exactly what Sunbird was built for. Well done everyone!! We did it!!”… As volunteers with no funding and a budget of zero, booking had to be well researched as risks were really high.
We felt a massive wave of both excitement, relief, gratitude to the bands, and to be honest we felt justified congratulating ourselves for a well-earned success. It was exactly what we had wanted.. we pushed it further by doing a day two, with Silverwingkiller and AKDK among others and the room was fizzing again but attendance wasn’t high. The Friday had been massive and we seemed to have exhausted the Sunbird audiences!
Back at home on the Sunday our heads were still spinning from how great Neotribe 3 had been, and without resting we got straight on with trying again for booking more of the same bands who we knew would bring that cross-pollination of gig and rave to the Sunbird stage. Adult DVD were still top of the list, but they were about to go huge. We felt like we had to ask, it was now or never.
To our immense surprise, in late October 2025, the booking was made! We could not stop grinning for weeks, but we had to gather the rest of the line up and make the promotional plan before we announced it. So the Sunbird booking process went into overdrive, again we looked at bands we had on our list who we hadn’t managed to get previously. Up next were Formal Sppeedwear, a band who like Adult DVD had featured on our playlists that were being pumped into the venue in between live bands on our regular nights.
As was always our intention with Neotribe we wanted to have bands on the bill who meant something to us and were part of our musical ecosystem, and so this time we asked Sky Valley Mistress. A band close to our hearts who had played at the venue’s opening in 2016 and been massive supporters of us since we took over in 2023. The line up was really starting to take shape, with 3 out of the 9 slots we proposed now filled, and a real mix of styles and genres, creating that all important ‘Neotribe’ vibe.
Between November 25 January ’25, the line up really started to build.
Damp Matches played for us in November 25 – the female singer had captured our attention and we had really loved her unapologetic, confident stance. They were the perfect band to come and be part of things.
Currls from Brighton had been on our radar for a while with their fierce rallying cry and a chance meeting with their agent at a Music Venue Trust event led to them being bagged for the line up too.
We love listening to the thoughts and ideas of everyone who attends the gigs and a young previous Neotribe attendee had suggested we go and listen to Volk Soup. We had booked them to play in early 2026 having been blown away by what we had heard on line. More of the Sunbird regular audiences were in disbelief at how good they were when they witnessed their set. Shocked, stunned, amazed at their live show, it was obvious that the new audiences for Neotribe 4 needed to see them, and fortunately they too agreed to play.
For Independent Venue Week 2026 we held a panel about Grassroots Music, and Georgian played a showcase on behalf of Later@ on the night. Having never come across our radar before, we instantly knew these would be just right on our line up. As the panel started their Q and A, Georgian were adding their thoughts and feelings to the discussion about the UK’s grassroots music scene and they enhanced the event for us even further. They were brought close to Sunbird’s heart and we wanted to share their music live at Neotribe 4.
Hungry were our next addition, we had seen them live in Blackburn as part of ‘The Confessional Takeover’ at Blackburn Cathedral. They had catchy lyrics and a they were just a great live band and so now we could really pre-empt what Neotribe 2026 was going to feel like.
The final slot was left, and we knew who we wanted to fill it. Lemonsuckr had hit our radar late in 2025 and were another band we had been playing loud on our ‘between bands’ playlists when live events were running, and with a set described as hotblooded, chaotic and confident, the much celebrated addition of Lemonsuckr completed the full line up. Feeling super proud and full of excitement, were ready to announce.
We choose to announce our line up early, already feeling we had a great all dayer set up but we wanted to make sure we got word out to our supporters and music fans before the fanfare of festival announcements came, knowing that we had picked acts that would hopefully blow up this year, and all at a really affordable price.
Sure enough, before we even announced our own plans, Adult DVD released ‘Real Tree Lee’ in January 2026 and it did blow up. Radio Play on 6Music from Huw Stephens, Craig Charles and Emily Pilbeam, rave reviews from So Young, Clash, Line of Best Fit and God Is In TV plus further radio support from John Kennedy on Radio X. We knew that the choices we had made were the right ones.
So, here we are, from reading about these acts and hearing them via 6music and Radio X and searching the ‘best fit’ acts for a brand new Neotribe 4, we managed to get them booked for you, hoping to reach even more audiences this year and bringing more of the ‘tribes’ together. Ticket sales are already high – please don’t miss out – we’re 200 capacity, and a true purpose built grass roots venue so this is a very short opportunity to purchase.
It’s all taking place over one day this time (two days were a little too much, even for the most hardened party animals) on 3rd October 2026. To be honest we still can’t believe we managed this line up.
Adult DVD, Formal Sppeedwear, Lemonsuckr, Hungry, Sky Valley Mistress, Currls, Georgian, Volk Soup and Damp Matches. It’s a nine act event, for the price of one act, and all the acts are more than worthy of the high status we work hard to bring to Neotribe.
Be part of this one and build the vision