by Ed Biggs

This weekend sees Yorkshire’s own Embrace return with the third annual edition of The Secret Festival, staying at last year’s site of Lotherton Hall just west of Leeds once again on the weekend of the 3^rd-4^th September 2016.

Though still in its infancy, the idea behind The Secret Festival went down extremely well right from its first edition back in 2014, when it was held at Hertfordshire’s Knebworth House. It won Best New Festival at the UK Festival Awards that year, and was nominated for Best Small Festival and the Grass Roots Award in 2015.

Embrace’s lead singer Danny McNamara said that their inspiration for The Secret Festival came from a number of similarly low-key festival appearances in unconventional locations.

“It was always an ambition of ours. We knew the Secret Gig idea was something that our fans loved and we wanted to see if we could bring the excitement and magic of those shows to a festival format. Also a lot of our fans who have grown up with us now have children and we wanted an event that would be a great experience for all ages.”

Embrace’s story, of course, is one of industry-backed hype and phoenix-like revivals, with mysterious disappearances at least as numerous as their stirring comebacks, so it’s entirely in keeping with their career that the bill on their self-curated festival should be cloaked in secrecy.

Whoever is playing the festival will be kept quiet until the day of The Secret Festival itself, but those going can expect some pretty big names from years gone by, with the likes of The Magic Numbers, Starsailor, Gomez, Feeder, Dave McCabe from The Zutons and Leeds indie cult heroes Cud playing in the past.

To coincide with the festival, Embrace are releasing a new three-track EP, titled The Secret, exclusively on the day itself. It’s their first new material since their self-titled fifth studio album released just over two years ago.

Weekend camping and standard tickets are still available for the festival by clicking here.

Listen to our brief Introduction To Embrace playlist via Spotify here!