Sausage and Cider Festival tour over 30 locations across the UK each year with a range of tribute bands and big name acts. Following on from their very successful visit to Aberdeen last year with headliners Scouting For Girls, the festival made its return to Hazlehead Park promising punters an exciting day of food, drink and music.
I arrived later in the afternoon to catch the headliners of the day: The Hoosiers. The crowd were already in good form and were enjoying the emo anthems playing over the sound system before the band. With it being quite the casual audience, it was very easy to get a superb spot to watch the action to unfold.
The Hoosiers arrived onstage to an enthusiastic crowd, opening with 2014 Top 20 hit Choices. Playing for around 50 minutes, their set included tracks from 2026 album ‘Compassion’ released in May, as well as everyone’s favourites from their 2007 debut ‘The Trick To Life’. The band were on top form, with frontman Irwin Sparkes continuing to show off his impressive vocal range almost two decades after they burst into the UK charts. The band’s overall musicality was top tier with touring members displaying a range of instrumental talent.
To keep the festival atmosphere going, their set was also sprinkled with a few crowd pleasing covers, with Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club being a stand out moment. They also performed Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Crazy and their very own version of We Didn’t Start the Fire. They gave everything to their performance to ensure everyone was having a great time and Irwin even made his way down from the stage to the front barrier for Confidence (Is Easy). It’s safe to say the whole place erupted when they closed their set with Goodbye Mr A which provided the ultimate singalong.
Overall this was a super fun set, well worth my flying visit into the festival to see. Scottish fans can seem them on tour in October when they play Glasgow’s Classic Grand.
Enjoy their set in the playlist below!