The sun is out, the armed forces are out in full effect for the annual Blackpool airshow and we relax in the sun ahead of the final day of this year’s Rebellion Festival, we can’t face anymore alcohol and after the dietary offerings of the last few days we’re craving something that isn’t fried, but regardless we’re going back in for the final day for another stacked line up, one which has thrown up some truly infuriating clashes. 

We are kicking the final day off on the Introducing Stage, which is has been taken over by the Loud Women team. This stage has thrown up surprise after surprise, and today’s first unexpected treat is Blagged who are full of tuneful fire and energy. The four piece from Yorkshire have bags of charm and melody and gave drawn a very acceptable early doors crowd. Fun with a sharp edge and a touch of politics. We like. Meanwhile lurking down in the Arena Stage are The Papashangos, after years of self depreciatingly posting about not getting to play Rebellion they are finally here, and we are here for their sweaty hyperactive lunacy, although it is restricted as frontman Lol Shango broke a rib in their soundcheck, eternally cursed but carrying on regardless is their way. Lol steadily transforming into the punk rocky horror picture show during their set and this may count as the most disturbing moment of the weekend. Lol makes a good point that maybe the broken rib has saved a lot of trauma for the crowd as he is typically off the stage and into the crowd by this point. 

Actual punk OGs from Manchester, The Distractions have pulled an Opera House crowd of punk-curious and their particular brand of tuneful and accomplished pop punk is well received and harks back to their glory days. Not fulfilling the promise of their early critical acclaim, the band remain well-regarded and can still pull a crowd. From the vintage tones of The Distractions we return to the Introducing Stage. We catch the totally in your face loud as hell brilliant 50 Foot Woman, this Irish outfit know why they are here, its to bring us all a vocal treat from lead singer Sophie, she has all the roar of a metal singer, but can turn this to melodic wonder in an instant, Millie Manders you have a challenger. The songs are socially aware and full to the brim with energy and angst, another of our finds of the weekend.

Quick Romance were the next band up on the Loud Women takeover of the Introducing Stage, which will be attended very often today, just as every other day before it. This was a moment when a band walk on stage and you actually have no real idea how this is gonna go down, a new band to us with tonnes of cred behind them, but fresh to the ears. they have a sound with X-Ray Spex undertones, and a vocal that soars and screams in all the right places, well what more do you want! We said this stage was gonna be great today. Meanwhile there is turbocharged ska punk straight outta Glasgow from The Guillotines who get the Club Casbah moving from the outset. Fierce stuff from the experienced Scottish outfit who have just released their new album, Parcel Of Rogues, and only seem to have one setting – 11. There’s a lot of ska punk on offer this festival but for polish and sheer unadulterated energy, you’ll struggle to top this. 

When does a stage become a place for carnage and mayhem, when its populated by the band that call themselves Bruise Control, but this is the special kind of bedlam that you always look forward to seeing at what after all is a Punk festival. It’s really difficult to describe a Bruise Control gig to someone who may not have witnessed it in full blown technicolour, but let’s just say, can you imagine a house party where the music makes the walls shake, the beer flows like is a waterfall, and people dance until they fall over. This is 70’s glam meets 90’s hardcore and everything in-between, its coordinated chaos, so when frontman Jim joins the mosh pit, it actually comes as no surprise at all, in fact if he didn’t, it would feel odd.

Redeemon are a band that have worked their way through the ranks at Rebellion, like many others they cut their teeth on the Introducing stage. But now they bring metallic Ska to the Empress Ballroom main stage, this might just be the first time this mix of styles has been on such a big stage, and looking around the room it’s going down really well. From roooaaar to skank in a heartbeat, this is to start off with difficult for your brain to compute, but by a few songs in, it all clicks and off go those dancing feet and the tell tale nod of the head. Gaudalupes The Bolokos were in the queue in front of us this morning which feels like a long long time ago, but was in fact just four short hours. There sartorial style caught our attention, so we’re back in the cavernous Casbah Stage for what is apparently Guadelupe’s first and only punk band, they make a strong impression and prove that the language barrier can be vaulted over with a heady dose of punk tunes.

Anarchistwood are not a terrible children’s programme about foxes smashing the system but a supremely colourful and eccentric ensemble. True to their name, they eschew the formal song structure and let loose a barrage of thundering brass-led discord that pulses and throbs. A kind of anti-music and pure to the spirit of punk. If there’s structure here, it’s buried in the discord. Even the sound man struggles to contain the sonic mayhem. Possibly an acquired taste but we applaud the band – if that is the right term, and their determined cacophony. Keeping the left field feel of this part of the afternoon going we head over to the Opera House to catch Eve Libertine, known for her work as part of the Dial House commune, and obviously for her work with Crass, she is a towering figure in the Anarcho-Punk world. Accompanied by Brighton-based instrumentalist Eva LeBlanc and a catalogue of soundscapes, Eve presents a powerful and evocative performance to a rapt audience.

We follow this with a moment of tranquility in the Arts & Crafts Market, we stop and talk to the Amnesty International representative and sign everything available, and we meet the legendary UK Subs frontman Charlie Harper who is signing copies of his autobiography, An Anarchy Of Demons, and Phinky finally got a Charlie Harper cat portrait, there was a moment after he signed it of mutual cat appreciation due to Phinky‘s numerous cat tattoos, which was a moment to treasure. In the interests of balance we must also mention our other furry friends, the most lovable characters present at Rebellion this year were the wonderful Blackpool Working Newfoundlands. The gentle giants are once again fundraising and making their mellow furry presence felt, there’s nowhere better for your drunk change to be donated to as I can’t imagine how much food these magnificent animals consume.

Scotland’s The Twistettes make their Rebellion debut as they hit the Loud Women takeover of the Introducing Stage with a fuzzed out bass driven hit of energy with the irrepressible duo of Bounce Baby and Big Boned from their new album, Red Door Open, being our personal highlights. we also owe them a thank you for the advice in dealing with fatigued festival feet that they provided when we were exchanging emails over their new album. We then descend into the Arena Stage to tune into VooDoo Radio. Drum kit at the forefront of the stage, guitar ready for action and this father & daughter duo are off and running with some top Pop-Punk tunes. The drums hit out beats like they are going out of fashion, these are pop songs, but with a difference, these are stories from working-class childhood and are grounded in real life.  This is a band that will always have a place at Rebellion we think, and so it seemed did the crowd.

Robert Lloyd cuts a commanding if dapper figure as The Nightingales take  to the Opera House stage. It has been an odd day so far, this Rebellion Sunday and Lloyd, we’re sure, is not going to make things any less mainstream. It’s a curiously uplifting performance, underscored with a thread of strangeness, full of understated drama. You get a feeling that for Lloyd, the audience is as much of a curiosity as he is for us. His tics and mannerisms, the distant gaze, all add to spectacle. Consummately odd and a highlight of the day so far. Its heading toward twilight at the festival and as you look around people that have been here from the beginning are one step away from falling over, what they need now is some powerful fast paced punk music that’s gonna invigorate and send them hurtling toward midnight, enter Grade 2. As a three piece you always imagine it difficult to feel at home on such a huge stage, but this is a band that moves around so much it’s difficult to not feel the energy even at the rear of the hall. Once they get into their set and the songs flow, you can see the crowd know this is going to be special. They hit you straight away with songs about their home the Isle Of Wight, although Graveyard Island and Murder Town probably aren’t going to be adopted by the Isle’s tourist board anytime soon!

One of our many wanders to cool down takes us past the Scream & Shake Horror Bar where Salford’s The Complaint That Creeps are playing a high octane set of dirty rock n roll. Having arisen from the ashes of Thee Windom Earles they have hit their stride and playing to frenzied crowd in the cramped confines of the the creepiest bar in Blackpool, which of course means they are in their element. Back at the Loud Women Stage things are still going amazingly and a band that have travelled all the way from Mexico to show us just how hardcore can be just as hard hitting when there’s no macho intervention Las Fockin Biches did this with ease. This was a set that gave everyone something to think about, this was their moment and they held themselves so well, even with the gremlins in the machine pitching in now and then, will they be back? We hope so.

We return to the Winter Gardens for a brace of old school North American hardcore, we catch the end of D.I.‘s pummelling ahead of Canadian stalwarts D.O.A.‘s long overdue return to Rebellion. The passing of almost five decades seem to have had little impact on D.O.A., this is still old Canadian hardcore delivered with the same conviction and intensity, despite the almost obligatory echoing sound in the Casbah Stage. D.O.A. are still taking no prisoners with a career spanning set that draws from across their back catalogue. There is of course a fuck you to Donald Trump from North of the border, delivered from one politician to another as Joey ‘Shithead’ Keithley is now a Councillor in Burnaby, Canada, strange but true.

But, how many politicians can deliver a guitar solo with a beer can, neck the contents and throw the empty can out into the crowd without missing a beat, the answer is probably one. D.O.A. end with a faultless trio, the epic Full Metal Jackoff from the album they recorded with Jello Biafra, which pretty much makes our festival on it’s own, which is almost inevitably followed by Disco Sucks and a berserk Race Riot. Joey Keithley is exactly the kind of politician we need, as the adapted closing chant of Full Metal Jackoff went, “shithead for president, he’ll get things done”. This would be a fine end to the weekend, but there is a now whole raft of clashes, and difficult decisions need to be made as we just can’t be at all the stages where we want to be.

Bex was probably one of the most anticipated acts to see at Rebellion, she has already played Download, Boomtown Fair and Pride Rock this year, so to be on one of the smaller stages in Rebellion is by those standards a bit of a kick down, but does this really matter to an artist who’s main ethos is to fight that fight for female artists everywhere. I’d say that going on this performance alone, nothing will ever be too much for Bex. This set was filled with everything that’s great about Rebellion, youth, new music, inclusiveness, and most of all music that means so much to everyone. Having recently released the song Politix and We’ll Never Be Like You, the latter featuring the new mascot Big BeX who made her appearance and together they became a force to be reckoned with. The performance was another that underpins that Loud Women are marching towards bigger stage takeovers. 

We’re lucky enough to catch the end of The Stiffs set, walking in to their rendition of The Glitter Band‘s Goodbye My Love, the powerpop single they were forced by their label to record back in the day. The Stiffs were surely the unluckiest of bands, surfing the New Wave and creating almost universally-acclaimed melodic guitar pop, only to be just too late. Championed by Peelie himself and hot on the tail of The Undertones and others, the business side was too slow, the band foundered and sunk. But they’re here now, and just as bright and catchy as they ever were. Don’t consign them to the ‘nearly made it’ bin: they have made it, but the ‘it’ they have made was not the one they wanted, back in the day. This preceded a trip back to Stiff Little Fingers, Go For It tour back in 1981. That’s our last experience of the hugely underrated The Wall. At this end of Rebellion, the scheduling has stacked three brilliant bands in the same slot, but the Opera House is filling nicely and there’s a buzz of excitement for the band. Despite losing key personnel over the years, The Wall 2025 is as tight and as muscular as they ever were. Part anthemic punk, part menacing, coiling post-punk, The Wall are as vital today as they ever were.

As The Punk Site regulars scatter over the multitude of clashes we encounter Hunting Lions final song, Heart & Soul which is getting a rousing singalong and is added to my must catch next time list. But now the final act of another exhausting and incredible Rebellion Festival is Bite Me Bambi who are a must see following the release of their superb debut album, Eat This. It’s also their first foray into the UK, so obviously it’s their Rebellion debut. They emerge to Nerf Herder‘s Buffy The Vampire Slayer Theme and the upbeat socal ska is the perfect soundtrack to end our weekend. Livewire front woman Tahlena Chikami keeps the energy up throughout their all too short set and unbelievably on day four of Rebellion there is an energetic bounce to the crowd. This is only Bite Me Bambi‘s second uk gig and already they know they are amongst friends. A mad dash to try and catch the end of Millie Manders & The Shutup‘s set proves fruitless, possibly the only low point of the weekend is not catching them, we will be there next tour.

And that’s it for another year, thank you to the Rebellion team for having us back again and for delivering another extended weekend that celebrates the past, present and future of the punk scene like no other festival on earth, and of course to the Rebellion family who make this weekend what it is. For these four days there there else we’d rather be, see ya next year. 

This year The Punk Site representatives who were furiously taking notes and pictures at Rebellion Festival were Mark Cartwright, Peter Hough & Phinky. Our previous reviews of the 2025 Rebellion Festival can be read here (Thursday), here (Friday) and here (Saturday). The Rebellion Festival will return to Blackpool’s Winter Gardens between the 6th and 9th August 2026 and tickets can be purchased here.

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