This month, Nottingham city’s biggest independent arts and music festival, the brilliant Hockley Hustle, is celebrating twenty years of bringing sound and colour to our streets. Showcasing an eye-watering array of genres and talent, the festival is more than just a good time – it’s raised over £250K for 27 local charities, as well as providing stages for thousands of artists from Nottingham and beyond.
This year, the Hustle is back on Sunday 25 October, bringing 500 acts to fifty stages. You’ll be able to catch the carnival, chill to some acoustic sounds, dance at the silent disco, enjoy punk, soul, Hip-Hop, and more.
To celebrate, here’s what the Hustle’s massive team of promoters, mainstay artists, and central organisers remember most fondly about the last twenty years of music and mayhem…
Adam Pickering
Memory? What memory? Twenty years of Hustling has all blended into one ecstatic mess – countless moments of musical joy, a lot of day drinking, and many long days and nights getting it ready by many people. Thanks to the thousands of volunteers over the years and core Hustlers, you wild beasts. Two memories stand out: 2024, walking into the incredible Vibe City house band with Jessie Mae on vocals upstairs at Faradays. It’s just so deep – what surprises you can stumble across. For the other, just look up ‘Royal Gala Hockley Hustle 2010’. The Broadway Cinema Cafe-Bar has never been as packed and sweaty before or since.
Christine Katerere
I love an intimate setting, so for me it’s easily Acoustickle at Bar Eleven, 2022. Stepping into a botanical paradise and catching Kamar’s set – bliss. On Heathcoat Street, Jamal Sterrett was brukking up, and Laura Decorum was making beautiful art, just before Can Sambaaaaa performed on the Broadway steps. What a day, what a Hustle!
Carys Jones
So many memories from the archive but I’m going to say the indoor pandemic Hustle where the crew brought together so much talent for a full day of entertainment online when everything was bleak. It was a beautiful celebration of what creativity brings to communities in times of darkness when things might feel really difficult.
Roz Colborne
It must have been 2018; I watched the UFO Orchestra at Metronome perform an Ibiza classics medley with Rob Green, Natalie Duncan, Motormouf and Nina Smith. It was such an incredible vibe. I was right in front of the mics so it felt like a really immersive moment of pure nostalgic joy! Rob Green had already given me goosebumps (not just because it was cold in there! haha) with his performance of Cry Me A River earlier that night, and I was brought to tears by Nina singing her song Time. The talent that the Hustle showcases year after year just blows my mind.
Tommy Farmyard
There are too many standout moments from over the years – the list is hugggeeeee, and I don’t remember 90% of it. Natalie Duncan with a string quartet in 2015, wow. Duct taping four way adaptors down Carlton Street to power food vendors in the pouring rain whilst borrowing the electricity from a bar that short circuited shortly after, never happened… PeteBox collabing with Mr Switch, dirty. Jah Digga playing with a full band, EPIC. Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Nina Smith jamming backstage in 2017, more than special. The UFO Orchestra in St Mary’s Church in 2025 was an absolute beauty and something we’d been trying to do for years. When 400 people started singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody, in that beautiful space… wow, goosebumps.
LJ Doohan
Bloomin’ eck, my memories merge into one. Years, people and places I can't seperate. Musically, Adam Pickering and Hamish closing one year – I'm pretty sure in Broadway – was wild. Table dancing, cackling, big cheesy grin vibes. The showing of House of Life last year made my heart soar with all the shiny goodness and eternally the B E A UUUUUTIFUL carnage of the 8am hustle set up with our stellar volunteers. Every year is golden but asking for me to remember specifics is a bonkers request. Sorry guys!
Danny Donnelly
Around 2023, I remember the UFO Orchestra rehearsing at Pitcher & Piano, private rehearsals with some of Nottingham’s best soul singers, and Liam Bailey rehearsing with a Notts-made band – one of my favourite artists since I was a kid. On festival day there were orchestras, secret hip-hop sets from icons who couldn’t be named, BassLayerz skanking out to soundsystems, then house and techno at GOAT with queer DJ line-ups. I danced my socks off to DJ Trium before finishing with Liam, surrounded by Notts community singing every word, with my friend Jay joining him as a last-minute surprise.
Ash Dilks
The Creative Quarter had promised there’d be power at Lace Market Square for the wristband exchange and card payments. There wasn’t. Thankfully, the guys at the Pelican Club came to the rescue. They were away on holiday, so before leaving they’d gaffer-taped an extension lead to the inside of their letterbox, meaning the entire operation was now basically dependent on a two-inch strip of tape. My first job of the festival was reaching through the letterbox to grab it, knowing that if I knocked it loose and dropped the lead inside, we were done for. A slightly sketchy start.
Alfie Eyden
Ten years in and it's mostly a blur... In 2018, we had a huge Spiegeltent on Old Market Square, watching Hackney Colliery Band get the whole place jumping, then march everyone out the doors and straight into the Hustle parade was something special. In 2024 we filled every square inch of Pitcher & Piano – I was perched up in the rafters with a camera crew listening to the UFO Orchestra and watching Alfie Sharp sing from the spiral staircase. And one very wet 2019: soaked to the skin, trying to cram hundreds of balloons into a tiny garage off Broad Street that was not going to fit.
Laurie Illingworth
Nine years of hustling makes it tough to pinpoint a singular memory. It’s all a beautiful blur. On-the-day social media duties leads to an uncountable number of artists I experienced, but there are a few sets that will live with me forever. Eyre Llew with the UFO Orchestra in St Mary’s Church in 2025, Jalle the same year ripping 31K a new one, Cappo and JayaHadADream with Rob Rosa’s string quartet in 2024, Liam Bailey headlining the Broadway stage in 2023 with an acoustic guitar swinging around his head, LYVIA and Joel Baker collaborating for the Sofar Sounds stage at Oscar and Rosie’s in 2022, Sunflower Thieves in a packed out Jamcafe in 2019 and playing my first Hustle set at Wired Cafe back in 2017. Here’s to many, many, many more.
Rastarella
2009: my first ever Cultural Vibrations line up (and also my first event as a promoter) was held at Cape Bar (now Faradays) upstairs in their function room. It was the first year global and music of black origin had a dedicated stage at HH. My headliner was Jamaican dub-poet and ambassador for the Rastafarian Livity at the time, Yasus Afari, who happened to be in the country for a short tour. I managed to get a direct link to him and he agreed to perform. It was a fantastic night and totally rammed. As my first ever event as a promoter it’s a stand out memory because it changed the trajectory of my life career wise. One love.
Siân Caulfield
I'm taking it back to Hockley Hustle 2009, in the days when Oh My Gosh records, Royal Gala and 25 Past the Skank were on the scene. We’d had an HH warm up at Oh My Gosh on Mansfield Road a couple of weeks before with records playing in the early autumn sunshine and Simeon Bantum doing a wicked run of printed t-shirts. Every time the community police officers popped over to see what was happening, Squigz dropped KRS One Sound Of Da Police. The festival was getting such a buzz year after year and I distinctly remember 25 Past the Skank and Royal Gala bringing the house down in Dogma. It was a very sweaty and raucous dance floor! Before I stopped volunteering at the festival in 2015, we'd started to bring in the family friendly events and have more focus on the street performances. It's amazing to see how the festival has developed and thrived.
Bridie Squires
One year we had our Poetry is Dead Good stage in the charity shop Sue Ryder, so our host Stephen Thomas invited everyone to pick out a silly outfit to perform in. Poets came in their droves to the stage with massive straw hats, furry jackets and leg warmers. Any earnest verse was sliced right through, to be honest. Then, a couple of years ago, it was a bit of a trip to recite my poetry alongside the Rob Rosa String Quartet at Antenna. With me having never done anything of the sort, and with freshly composed music by Rob and Dave Fry, we had a half-hour rehearsal and still to this day I have no idea how we pulled it off.
But when I think of Hustle, I mainly get these flashes of tiny moments: skanking in the silent disco on Broad Street in the rain; sitting on the curb with my mate Sheb drinking tinnies watching the chaos; Tommy riding through the crowd on his bike grinning from ear to ear.
Kristi Genovese
Hosting a sixty piece orchestra (The UFO Orchestra) at Metronome when the venue had only been open for a couple of weeks was memorable… and brave! Over the years I've written about the festival for LeftLion, I've booked bands at venues, I've programmed lineups at Metronome, and been a host venue for the last few years seeing all different promoters use the space. And it's always been my favourite event in Nottingham. As a punter my memories are about just how much is always going on at the same time, watching a band in Lee Rosy's (RIP), while people are dancing on Broad Street to a silent disco, cramming into tiny venues to watch 94 Gunships, watching bands at the Music Exchange, DJs playing on the mezzanine in Broadway… And watching so many great Notts bands over the years. There are too many to mention. Reaching twenty years is an incredible achievement and the team should be proud of what they have given to Nottingham.
Will Jeffery
I think I’ve played every Hockley Hustle since its birth, so as you can imagine there’s a lot of blurred memories. The UFO Orchestra in St Mary’s with Eyre Llew last year was awesome. Playing with 94 Gunships at Faradays a few years back and packing the place out was pretty special. Mostly it’s the bumping into people and catching up with friends that you haven’t seen for a while. It’s great for the kids too, now that I have family in tow. Lots of great memories for them at the Young Hustlers.
Parisa East
Of all the gorgeous Hustles, 2024 stands out. HH funded our Legacy Exhibition at FGP, where alongside programming two floors of music, we hosted sixteen years of Acoustickle memories. Photo, video, artefacts, artists and DJs all day in between performing myself at Broadway Cinema and Ruby Tuesdays in Pelican Club… Thank you for providing such special opportunities!
Nina Smith
My first time performing for Hockley Hustle was back in 2009, so it’s hard to pinpoint just one single memory after all these years. But for me, some of my most special memories have been performing with the UFO Orchestra, particularly when playing such an important song of mine, Time, which, without fail, makes me cry every single time. Having the opportunity to share your own music with so many other incredible musicians on one stage, in a completely silent room, is something I’ll always treasure. The community aspect and cause of HH is what makes this festival special. People sharing musicians, sharing instruments, running to another venue with a drum kit or piano... there’s nothing else like it! And finally I’d have to say that my favourite Hockley Hustle act of all time will always be Royal Gala.
Rob.Green
My favourite memory is playing Broadway in 2016 (I think?!), just after I’d released my second EP. I remember the room being crammed with people, right out into the foyer. There were families, kids pushed right to the front, and people of all ages singing and having a laugh. When we finished, everyone spilled out onto the street, where Charity Shop Sue was playing an absolutely killer DJ set, and we all danced together and got our faces painted.
That memory sums up Hockley Hustle for me: brilliant music, unexpected spaces and a whole city on a vibe together. It’s everything I love about live music in one festival – it gets better and better every year!
Ben Welch
Ooftie. Sooooooo many. Petebox vs Mr Switch battle at Bodega in 2018. Liam Bailey with the wonderful UFO (70 piece) Orchestra at the Nottingham Contemporary in 2017. The Street Ents from throughout the years, from Can Samba parades to Sax Off’s, to Dhol Drummers to the beautiful G.O.A choir. Many a sweaty afters at Suede. Ella Knight’s after party in 2024. JayaHadADream at Broadway in 2024. The Invisible Orchestra madness over the years. Yazmin Lacey DJing off Broadway Mezz 2023. Rainy silent discos a-plenty.
Jay Sandhu
There are so many! If not doing comedy and a rap show in a court at the National Justice Museum. Then definitely last year at our stage when Windowkid and Bru-C casually rocked up to 2Two’s set and shelled it! The best bit was that everyone was so in the moment – mostly, phones stayed in pockets… it went off!
Hockley Hustle takes place on Sunday 25 October 2026. For the full line up of acts and activities head to their website.
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