What is happening at Northern Grip?

Northern Grip festival kicks off this weekend

Rachael Wight

Jul 6 2017

Northern Grip starts tomorrow so we thought we'd remind you - and ourselves - what the heck is going on!

Northern Grip is a bike festival celebrating all things bike and northern! Last year’s inaugural event was amazing say the organisers, but in an effort not to just do the same thing again they have taken this years event to a new location. For 2017, Northern Grip will be over the hill at Lee Quarry and Stubbylee Park, Rossendale ready to discover a whole new side of Northern trails and culture. They are taking all the great stuff from last year’s festival and making it bigger, better and bolder, check out the itinerary below!

Final tickets on sale

There are still festival and camping tickets available here or you can buy them on the door (but it will be more expensive)

FRIDAY NIGHT

3pm onwards - Campsite opens

7pm to 11pm - Opening Party in the Courtyard.

Food by Out To Lunch, licensed bar provided by Northern Whisper Brewing Co. DJ Baz Kirkley on the decks. You're all invited. No ticket required.

SATURDAY

8am to 10am

Breakfast available in the Hub served by Out To Lunch.

10am to 7pm

Festival Hub Opens. On arrival please head to the wristband exchange in the Courtyard to pick up your wristband.

Demo Bikes & Loop

We’ll have bikes available from Specialized, Orange*, Yeti, Ison, Haibikes and Sonder. We recommend you come down early and make sure you bring ID and credit card if you do.

If you’re taking out a demo bike, we recommend you stick to the red or black Lee Quarry circuit. This is well signposted and should take about an hour to complete before you’re back to the Hub.

(*Sadly, Orange have had to pull out some of their bikes due to distribution problems but they’ll still have some belters for you to demo)

Exhibitor Stands

Throughout the day our exhibitors will be available in the hub and will be running competitions and exclusive special offers for you all. Leisure Lakes, Alpkit, Burgtec, Team JMC, TrailMaps.co.uk, Olfi, Shack Wrap, DB Sports & Leisure Vehicles, Dirt Factory, WeRide, Glower, Whoosh MTB and Spoke & Gears will all be on hand to chew the MTB fat.

Music & Stuff

1PM – Damien & Roberto in the Hub Sunken Garden – Damien Heakin returns from entertaining you all last year accompanied by the very special Roberto. Don’t miss this laid back set while you grab some beer and a bit to eat.

2PM Mr Wilson – at the Sawshed Quarry Pop Up– We highly recommend clipping in and heading up to the Quarry for some eye popping acid brass scenes J

3PM – in the Hub Sunken Garden - Like last year, we’ll be throwing in some Q&A sessions with industry heroes to give you a break from the riding. These will be in the Sunken Garden area.

4PM - Satyr Play – Back in the Hub Sunken Garden – “It’s the coolest kind of indie.”

5PM – Mr Wilsons in the Hub

Food & Drink

Out to Lunch and Kelly’s Kitchen will be serving all day long and Second City Coffee will be serving hot drinks. There will be a licensed bar provided by new Rossendale brewery, Northern Whisper and our Bunny Hop Ale makes a welcome return!

Happenings in the Quarry

You might have ridden Lee Quarry before, you might not – but we’ve a few surprises in store if you head up there today. Check out our Sawshed Pop Up to chill out after the first monster climb is done. We recommend being there for 2PM when Mr Wilsons will be strutting their funky stuff.

We’ll also have our man from Spokes and Gears on hand for any mid ride tweaks before you start the twisty bits.

Beyond the Quarries

Want to explore a bit further? Pick up one of our trail guides from the Wristband exchange in the Hub. We have a range of options marked out for you from a short flat cycle track run to some much more testing options!

These trails will also all be available as Strava Routes – follow our Northern Grip Strava account to find them.

Kids activities

Alongside Northern Grip there are various kids sessions throughout Saturday.

MTB Coaching - for capable youth riders:
12-3 in the quarry main bowl (don’t turn left on the Red route, follow the main track up to the spiral sculpture)

Learn to ride sessions – for the noobs:
1–4 in the area behind Futures Park Car Park

For very young kids we’re also hoping to have some balance bikes available at the Pump Track in the park to try out.

Watch the information boards on the day for more information on kids activities.

SATURDAY NIGHT

7PM to 11PM –Courtyard

Food & Drink will be available all evening and we’ll have Funkademia vibes from Graeme Hawley to keep us bouncing (and you might just recognise him from the telly…)

7PM - Manchester legend Mr Gareth Brooks (Funkademia, Hula, XFM)

8PM – Mr Wilsons – your last chance to catch them

9PM – Uke Punk – what can we say except do not miss them!

10PM – Graeme Hawley (the man off the telly, on the decks)

SUNDAY

8AM-10AM - Breakfast is available in the Hub

SUNDAY - 10am to 2pm

Our big group ride “Beyond the Quarries”

2PM – All meet back at the Quarry main bowl for our closing performance from the mighty Stacksteads Brass Band. In the Quarry. We can’t wait.

CLICK TO BUY YOUR FESTIVAL AND CAMPING TICKETS

For more details click here

Author block

Previously Editor here at off-road.cc, Rachael is happiest on two wheels. Partial to a race or two Rachael also likes getting out into the hills with a big bunch of mates. In the past Rachael has written for publications such as, Enduro Mountain Bike Magazine, Mountain Biking UK, Bike Radar, New Zealand Mountain Biker and was also the online editor for Spoke magazine in New Zealand too. For as long as she's been riding, she has been equally happy getting stuck into a kit review as she is creating stories or doing the site admin. When she's not busy with all the above she's roasting coffee or coaching mountain biking in the Forest of Dean.