Brighten The Corners’ Faith Hussain reflects on her experience as a Marketing and Communications assistant at this year’s festival.

Fuelled by a greggs sausage roll and a black coffee, I made my way to Ancient House on Friday, the BTC hub for the weekend, where I was met by the sun which came as a sigh of relief due to the forecasted storm.

After collecting my wristband and layering on a hefty amount of suncream, I met up with my videographer Tom Larsen-Wright, and behind the scenes photographer Alice Wilcox. We made our way down to the Cornhill free stage to start off the day. The Cornhill stage was run entirely by Tune Up, a free educational programme for young people to gain experience in live music events, and was already buzzing with energy by the time we arrived. Around 2pm, Sam Milne opened the festival which was the perfect way to ease the crowd into the weekend with his bright vocals and energetic presence.

We left the Cornhill stage after grabbing lunch from Otis Breading to run to the Corn Exchange where I was interviewing DEADLETTER. We snuck out to a private room downstairs in King Street Cinema with a fully stocked bar (which took all our strength to walk straight past) and a piano which DEADLETTER immediately started jamming out on. An oddly eerie film with no video, only distorted audio playing in the private screen room, set the ambience to my first interview of the weekend.

Photograph by Steven Spicer of DEADLETTER

After a hefty chat with the lovely DEADLETTER boys and grabbing a pizza for dinner, we made our way to St Stephen’s Church to interview Oreglo after catching a bit of Pencil's set from outside of the Church. Chatting to Oreglo was so nice and felt refreshingly more like a catch up than a scripted interview.

We had to sprint across town to catch DEADLETTER’S set at the Corn Exchange where we met up with some friends also working the festival. I think I can speak for myself and Alice when I say this was one of the standout sets of the weekend. I’ve never seen DEADLETTER live, only been a fan of their music, until now; their crowd interaction and overall energy was so mesmerising and explosive to be part of. Front man Zac Lawrence commanded the stage with a presence that bordered on performance art - his movements and intensity evoked a raw magnetism reminiscent of someone like Jim Morrison’s hypnotic charisma.

We stayed at the Corn Exchange to catch some of headliner Dry Cleaning’s set before heading to The Baths while the sun set to try and see as much of Corto Alto as possible. Despite only seeing the last few minutes of a genre blending marriage of dub, electronica, funk and jazz, his crowd (and us included) were left hyper after a good groove. A perfect predecessor to late night DJ Rebecca Vasmant.

The Baths felt like I’ve never felt them before, somehow feeling intimate yet also freshly unknown whilst bumping into staff and people I’ve never met, and probably will never again meet, persuading us to absolutely not take it easy for the first night as we were intending to. In the smoking area we bumped into Oreglo again, refreshed by the most dramatic thunder storm I've seen in a while, and we all decided to overtake the dancefloor and foolishly stay until the venue shut.

Saturday took all my utmost strength to rise from my bed and make my way to Ancient House again for round 2. No sausage roll today, only a lucozade and an iced americano my lovely colleague Caitlin bought for me to keep me awake. I met up with Alice, and feeling fragile we went to the Cornhill to bask in the sun and take some content for the initial hours of Saturday. The first act of the day we saw was Eve’s Delight opening St Stephen’s Church, whose slowcore and gorgeously ambient sound pervaded through the venue. It was a much needed gentle ease into Saturday with stage lighting reflecting the aura of the shadowy bass and dulcent lyricism.

After another coffee, we gradually made our way to the Baths to see Y. Y threw us into a heavy set accompanied by strobing lights that felt a bit too sharp for our hangover, so despite their undeniable musical precision we walked over to The Smokehouse where Westside Cowboy were playing. I’ve never seen the Smokehouse so heaving, with queues way out the door snaking onto the road. Needless to say we did not get in, so made our way back to The Baths where we would be interviewing Y. With half an hour spare, we walked into a set we didn’t know called Waldo’s Gift. One of my favourite things about festivals is finding artists you don't know, I think Waldo's Gift was one of my undiscovered gems of the weekend. Blending jazz with rock and metal, I’ve never quite heard a sound like them. We left their genius set, and headed upstairs to interview Y.

We had to reside in the sweaty green room to chat to Y, who were buzzed post set and didn’t seem to mind the heat as they spoke to me. Again starving, me and Alice grabbed dinner before rushing to St Stephen’s Church again to see some of The Orchestra (For Now), whose experimental / art rock sound was the second of my undiscovered favourite acts of the weekend. I hate to compare bands, but they reminded me of Black Country, New Road or Maruja with their honest lyrics enveloped by a brisk violin that danced with their words. My favourites include ‘The Strip’, and ‘Skins’.

We caught up with our mate from Cognito, a fellow Suffolk based artist, who was interviewing people on what the concept of ‘word’ means to them. We said our pieces and decided to head to Arcade Tavern pub, which had a DJ space outside in their courtyard for BTC weekend as a resting point which we definitely needed, and sat down for a long awaited pint. Revitalised we rushed to catch headliner Bob Vylan at the Corn Exchange. None of our party knew what to expect from Bob Vylan, but brilliantly shocked we were. Their passion was relentless with punk energy laced with a refreshing political and moral fire. I’d argue one doesn't need to be a diehard fan to enjoy Bob Vylan and feel their impact upon oneself as well as the crowd. Listening to Bob Vylan in person is a completely different experience from just streaming them. In the same vein that Deadletter’s stage presence felt like something bordering on performance art, Bob Vylan’s stage presence felt central to their lyricism. It is this fusion of message and physical embodiment that renders their performance so compelling and culturally potent.

Friday and Saturday night seemed to merge into one as we found ourselves running to The Baths again to see the rest of Another Taste, who were a refreshing assembly of funk, dance and obscure disco. After the intensity of Bob Vylan, their sound provided a much needed shift in pace. Everyone was on their best form as we piled up around the bar, excited for the late night DJ Flo Dill from NTS Radio, who we always throw on at work. Flo Dill pulled out a wild set that I was shazamming for the life of me whilst trying to balance my pint and camera in one hand. It suddenly hit 2am and everyone was kicked out of The Baths leaving us racking our brains as to where we could go next, but fail we did as we wandered the streets looking for Ubers home.

As for my first Brighten The Corners Festival ever, this completely exceeded my expectations. I’ve never had so much fun in Ipswich; simply put it felt happier. Everything from the crowds to the gorgeous curation and production carried a very tangible sense of joy. Brighten The Corners, indeed you did brighten the town into something so much more vibrant and exciting. Here’s to the next!

Written by Faith Hussain

Edited by Caitlin Whittaker

Cover courtesy of Steven Spicer

Brighten The Corners Festival 2025 live review

Interview: Y

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