Radar Festival announces a new location for July 2023

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Radar Festival moves from Guildford to Manchester for 2023's progressive metal event

A crowd surfer during Dirty Loops set at Radar Festival in 2022
(Image credit: Charlie Bluck Photography)

Radar Festival – which has played host to Leprous, Haken and Plini – will be moving from Guildford to Manchester's BEC Arena in 2023. The progressive metal event will bring guitar-led music to the 4,500-capacity venue in July 28-30 – a limited number of early-bird tickets are on sale now.

Organisers say the move will give them "a substantial capacity increase and the potential to create a truly amazing event. This bigger space means bigger bands, bigger production, and a bigger experience for everyone that supports us. We’re beyond excited.

"In our two events, we have welcomed customers from America to Australia and everywhere in between, creating a truly international event. The BEC Arena is a hub of large-scale live events and we can’t wait to bring our vibrant, eclectic event to the north west."

Radar Festival launched in Guildford in 2019 but was forced to take a two-year break due to the pandemic. The second event, held in July 2022, was topped off with the UK debut performance of Swedish fusion band Dirty Loops. 

Get a taste of the 2019 festival below. Discounted early-bird tickets for 2023 are now available.

Natasha Scharf
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.