One Saturday in Cheshire That You Will Not Forget

Daresbury Festival is not trying to be a festival. It is just quietly being the best one. No camping trauma. No 45 minute queue for a warm beer next to a stage playing music you do not recognise. Just a beautiful garden in Cheshire, a crowd that actually knows the words, and a lineup that went to school at the Haçienda. One Saturday. June 20th. Get in.

It has quickly become one of the North West's most-loved festivals, shortlisted for Best Event or Festival at the Visit Cheshire Tourism Awards.

The event runs from 12pm to 11pm at Walton Hall and Gardens, which is a Victorian estate with parkland that looks like it was designed specifically for this day. There are two stages, with Stage 2 hosted by La Discoteque. No wristband safari. No getting lost between fields. Just the music, the trees, and eleven hours that will feel like two.

The people who built the dancefloor you grew up on

808 State are headlining. If that name does not make something in your chest do a thing, please go listen to Pacific State immediately and come back. Manchester, 1987. Acid house before acid house had a name. Haçienda anthems.

The group that inspired Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin and Orbital before any of those names meant anything. AllMusic called them one of the most important dance music acts of all time and they were not wrong. This is not a heritage act. This is the receipts.

K-Klass are also on the bill. They met on the Haçienda dancefloor in 1988 with a single goal: get a track played there. Rhythm Is a Mystery hit number three in the UK charts. Then five top 40s followed. Then a Grammy nomination. They have remixed Janet Jackson, New Order, Whitney Houston and Rihanna, and somehow found time to do orchestral shows with Cream Classical at Liverpool Cathedral. The piano line alone is responsible for more euphoric crowd moments than most DJs will see in a lifetime.

New York sent its finest

Roger Sanchez is a four time Best House DJ winner with a radio show reaching 15 million people every week. He started out selling mixtapes on the streets of Broadway, then remixed Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and No Doubt, then won a Grammy for the No Doubt one. He was one of the first DJs to move from turntables to CDJs, which at the time was the equivalent of switching from a sword to a gun mid-battle. His Release Yourself show has been running since 2004 and hit its 1000th episode in 2020. The man does not stop. When he plays, you will feel it before you hear it. Stay near the front.

Annie Mac spent 17 years on BBC Radio 1 making every Friday feel like it had somewhere to be. She left in 2021, which everyone thought was the end of something. It was not. She launched Before Midnight, a club night that starts at 7pm and ends at midnight so you can actually function the next day. It sells out in seconds. She is not slowing down. She is rewriting the terms. Queen's University Belfast gave her an honorary doctorate. Hillary Clinton presented it. Normal Annie Mac behaviour.

DJ Paulette was the first woman to hold a residency at the Haçienda, running the Flesh night from 1991 when Section 28 was still law and a queer club night was an act of defiance as much as a party. She has since played the Ministry of Sound, Ibiza and Paris, won the DJ Mag Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, and wrote a book about all of it.

Barbara Tucker's Beautiful People came out in 1994 on Strictly Rhythm, hit number one on the US dance chart and landed on both the Mixmag and Pitchfork all time lists. Pitchfork said her voice is enough to draw the most introverted wallflower onto the floor. Her voice is the kind that makes a crowd of strangers feel like they have known each other for years. June 20th is going to be a lot.

The rest of the card

Horsemeat Disco for the queer disco house energy that honestly every event should have. Craig Charles doing what Craig Charles does, which is make funk and soul feel like a personality trait.

Melvo Baptiste going deep in the way that makes you realise you have been standing in the same spot for an hour and do not care. Loéca worth watching closely.

Smudged Soul B2B Antonio Vendone closing it out like two people finishing each other's sentences in a language made entirely of bass.

The Official Special Guest for Daresbury Festival 2026

Sam Divine is the special guest, and its proven through two decades into a career built entirely on quality control. Defected Records. Fabric. Ibiza. The kind of DJ who does not chase trends because she has been setting them since before most of the current festival circuit knew what house music was. Her sets do not have a gear change because they never drop out of gear. The special guest billing is accurate. The only thing special about it is that you get to be in the room.

Information on the tickets

Tickets start from £44 plus booking fee, with VIP options also available. One Saturday in June. A garden that does not know how lucky it is about to be. Buy the ticket before someone else makes the decision for you.