City of Culture prompts music festival to move

A generic photo of an electronic music festival

A music festival's decision to move from Bradford to Manchester next year is due to concerns about the impact of City of Culture.

Infest, which started in 1998 at the University of Bradford, is an electronic music festival held each year over the August bank holiday weekend.

However, organisers have said that they will be moving the festival to the University of Manchester for 2025.

They said with Bradford being the UK City of Culture next year accommodation will be more expensive and harder to find.

"Next year Bradford is the UK City of Culture, and unfortunately we believe Infest simply won't work," a post on the festival's Facebook page read.

"We believe the main effect of City of Culture will be that accommodation will be unavailable, or unaffordable in sufficient quantity."

'Move on'

The festival has also gone down to just two days, while keeping the same number of acts.

The event, which usually takes place on August bank holiday weekend, will be held across the weekend before to avoid clashing with Manchester Pride.

Organisers posted: "The reduction of the event by a day will not mean a reduction in the quality or quantity of live acts.

"Infest 25 will be a multi-stage event, all under one roof

"We have had a great 24 live, plus one hybrid, years in Bradford, and we're not ruling out coming back one day, but it's time to move on.

"We hope you are excited by our news as much as we are, and we hope to see you all at Industrial Summer Camp 25 in Manchester."

Responding to the Facebook update, one fan of the festival Jonny Hall wrote: "Been looking for a good reason to check out Manchester.

"This is more than a good reason."

Another attendee Katy Watkiss said: "This is fantastic news.

"It will mean that it is far easier for us to get to and much better public transport links."

Infest will take place on 15 and 16 August in Manchester.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.