Midlands’ Supersonic Festival announces first wave of bands for 2023

Supersonic Festival, Birmingham's annual celebration of the most weird and wonderful that music and art has to offer, has announced the first wave of bands for its 2023 edition. Legendary Midlands industrial outfit Godflesh and Irish avant-garde folk quartet Lankum will head up this year's event, taking place in Digbeth on September 1 – 3, alongside Big|Brave, Ashenspire, Divide And Dissolve, Ex Easter Island Head, Hey Colossus and many more.

This year also mark's the event's 20th birthday, a milestone for any festival, but especially one so dedicated to showcasing music and art that so wilfully doesn't often fit in.

Reflecting on the milestone, festival co-founder and Artistic Director Lisa Meyer says, “In 2003 we naively created our first edition of Supersonic Festival, a one day event that reflected our own curiosity as music fans. This line-up included LCD SoundSystem, Coil and The Bug with the Warrior Queen, set in the warehouse spaces of post industrial Birmingham. The last 20 years have been a right old rollercoaster but we’ve held on with determination.

"The weight of the pandemic, the political situation locally, nationally and globally and another financial crisis could have done us in for good," she continues. "Instead we’ve channelled that heavy energy into the festival and look forward to celebrating 20 years, gathering as a global community for one weekend, and joyfully embracing adventurous music.“

It's a sentiment echoed by Godflesh's Justin K. Broadrick. "Supersonic is a unifying experience of this culture I exist within, and us as a band, Godflesh, but all in my/our hometown/birthplace, Birmingham," he says. "Besides that fact, it's run by a stellar collective and feels warm and homely."

For more info, visit the Supersonic website.