X-Fest 2025: Arkayla, Casino, Blackout The Arcade, The Wednesday Flowers

X-Fest is back for 2025! The festive celebration of original live music is KU’s last original gig of the year and it makes a long-awaited return featuring four top up-and-coming acts. The lineup includes two of our favourite acts from this year making a return to Stockton – Arkayla and Casino alongside two stars of the local scene – Blackout The Arcade and The Wednesday Flowers.

Tickets on sale from 10am, Wedsnesday 1st October.

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Arkayla

One of the brightest new acts coming out of Manchester, Arkayla played the KU stage at Stockton Calling and we were absolutely blown away. They’ve already got a catalogue full of catchy indie-rock bangers that you can’t help but sing along to and every new release is an instant hit. The 900 cap Academy 2 is the latest in a long line of hometown sell-outs and they join The Royston Club on tour this October. We reckon these lot are going to be massive.

Casino

Another of Stockton Calling’s standout acts, Casino played the main stage at ARC and were on of the acts of the day. Back home the Liverpool band most recently packed out the O2 Academy and had a busy 2024 supporting The Zutons and The Lightning Seeds. Inspired by a mix of Motown, Northern Soul and Rock ‘n’ Roll they’re one of the latest, greatest and most unique of what the Merseyside scene has to offer.

Blackout The Arcade

No strangers to a Stockton stage, Blackout The Arcade have been on the up for a while culminating in a busy headline show with us right here at KU at the end of last year. Influenced by the sound of Catfish and The Bottlemen and The Killers, they’re one of the North-East’s top indie-rock offerings and we couldn’t wait to bring them back.

The Wednesday Flowers

Making their KU debut, The Wednesday Flowers are one of Teesside newest and brightest acts with a shoegaze influenced indie-rock sound and a big future ahead of them. They released their first singles ‘Love Me’ and ‘I Want You’ this year and were hand-picked for the Roots stage at Kendall Calling by Generator and Sonic Futures to showcase the best of the North-East’s new talent.