Grammy award winning Clean Bandit to headline festival in Accrington

International stars including Clean Bandit, Marvin Humes, Sam Ryder, B*witched and Chesney Hawkes will all perform as part of an incredible line-up at the iMEP Music Festival, which returns to Lancashire this September.

The two-day festival, organised by iMEP International Music Event Production, will take place on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th September 2025 at the iMEP Arena, home of Accrington Cricket Club.

Tickets are now on sale via Ticketmaster. 

Excitement is building for the festival, which will be headlined by Clean Bandit, an English Grammy-winning electronic music group formed in Cambridge in 2008.

Clean Bandit has achieved four number 1 hits and ten top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart. They direct and produce their own music videos, with three — 'Symphony’, ‘Rockabye’ and ‘Solo’ — each surpassing 1 billion views on YouTube. ‘Rockabye’ has over 3 billion YouTube views and the song is one of the four Clean Bandit tracks to hit over a billion Spotify streams, placing them in Spotify’s Billions Club four times. The only other UK bands to reach this milestone are Queen, Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, and One Direction.

The group consists of classically trained cellist Grace Chatto and brothers Jack and Luke Patterson. Jack, the principal songwriter, has won two Ivor Novellos for ‘Rather Be’, and he has penned several number 1 hits for other artists.

Clean Bandit’s music blends strings and electronic elements and features guest vocalists like Demi Lovato, Sean Paul, Zara Larsson, Julia Michaels, Luis Fonsi, Ellie Goulding, Iann Dior, Mabel, and Rema. The band’s recent return with smash ‘Cry Baby’, created alongside Anne-Marie and David Guetta, promises more explosive tracks and exciting collaborations to follow.

They will be joined on day two of the festival by DJ, producer and broadcaster Marvin Humes, who will be performing his extremely popular DJ set.

A regular host on KISS, Marvin’s remarkable DJ and production talents have already propelled him to numerous global stages, performing in London, Dubai and Ibiza, as well as working with some of the biggest names in the industry including interviewing the likes of David Guetta and Martin Garrix, plus performing b2b sets with Jonas Blue, Sigma and Sigala.

Saturday night at the iMEP Music Festival will also welcome singer, songwriter and newly anointed household name in the UK, Sam Ryder.

Having performed in front of roughly 161 million viewers in May 2022 at the Eurovision Song Contest, which gave the UK its best Eurovision result since 1998 and the highest charting UK Eurovision entry in over a quarter of a century, it has been a whirlwind couple of years of immense triumph for Sam.

His debut album 'There's Nothing But Space, Man!’ soared to the number 1 spot in 2022, becoming the first solo artist to debut at number 1 with their debut record since Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour. In recent years, the Emmy-nominated artist has also performed at the Queen’s Jubilee, Wembley Stadium, the National Television Awards, the F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone and many more.

Further artist announcements will be made for Saturday at the iMEP Music Festival in the coming weeks and months.

Friday night will be headlined by hugely successful Irish girl group B*witched, who shot to fame in the 90s and enjoyed success in the UK and throughout Europe and North America, releasing two albums and eight singles, all of which made the UK Top 20 including four singles which topped the UK charts, securing them a place in the record books.

They went on to sell a remarkable six million records worldwide, touring the USA with N*Sync and Britney Spears. After a break, the original band members reunited in 2013 for hit ITV2 series, The Big Reunion, and followed that with two sell out arena tours and have since been busy recording and playing live across the world.

B*witched will be joined on the Friday night by one of the biggest pop stars of the ‘90s, Chesney Hawkes. With his era-defining smash hit ‘The One and Only’ making him a household name, Chesney is back three decades on with a new upcoming album and some exciting new singles including ‘Get A Hold Of Yourself’ and ‘Live Forever’.

BBC Radio Lancashire’s Graham Liver will also get the party started in Accrington on Friday 19th September, with a very special DJ set of his own, ‘Big G’s Lancashire Cheese’.

A full line-up of artists will be announced in the coming weeks and months for day one of the iMEP Music Festival.

Tickets are now on sale via Ticketmaster, with weekend pass and individual day general admission tickets available. Friday tickets are priced at £40, Saturday tickets at £65 and a weekend pass for just £95.

Accessible tickets are also available for the same prices and include one free companion ticket.

A limited number of VIP tickets (200) are on offer for the event, priced at £85 (Friday), £120 (Saturday) and £190 (weekend pass). VIP tickets will include an exclusive viewing platform located 50 yards from the main stage, which is new to the event for 2025, a private bar, welcome drinks and canapés on arrival, a special lanyard, an undercover outdoor area and much more.

All tickets can be purchased here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/imep-arena-accrington-cricket-club-tickets-accrington/venue/436017

Fans are also being encouraged to visit the iMEP website, www.imep.co.uk, and follow their social media channels for further updates: https://www.facebook.com/iMEPGlobal, https://x.com/imepuk and https://www.instagram.com/imep_uk.

Eddy O’Brien, CEO of iMEP, said: “We wanted to deliver an even bigger and better iMEP Music Festival than last year and we have done just that.

“Not only have we announced that we are bringing even more incredible international artists to Accrington, but plans are also being finalised to enhance the experience for all those attending.

“Tickets are going to sell extremely fast for this event and to celebrate the launch we have introduced a special discount code, which is available for the first 200 people to redeem it on Blue Monday.”

Accrington based iMEP, are specialists in “International Music Event Production”, and are also arena and front of shirt sponsors at Accrington Cricket Club. They hosted the inaugural iMEP Music Festival in September 2024, which was headlined by global icon Jess Glynne.

Offering everything from lighting, sound, staging and special effects, to fully managed music and theatre event production, iMEP regularly work with stars around the world.

Murray Dawson, Chair of #AmazingAccrington and Managing Director of Scott Dawson Advertising who brokered the iMEP sponsorship at Accrington Cricket Club, said: “This will be another fabulous event for Accrington and we are excited to see so many big name stars coming to the town.

“We are expecting people from all around Lancashire and further afield to attend the event, which will be fantastic for the local economy.

“We are proud to be supporting the event on logistics and marketing.”

To learn more about iMEP, head to their website: https://imep.co.uk