Tracks

🚂 Darlington's much loved Tracks Last Train Home Festival is back for 2026 and again kicks off here at Hopetown!

Last Train Home Express is an evening of live music featuring George Boomsma, Before Close and The Mist Calls.

📆 Thursday 3rd September
🕖 Doors at 7pm
🎟 £10+ booking fee
ℹ https://www.tracksdarlington.co.uk/

We've teamed up with Sonic Futures to deliver a delicious couple of development opportunities for artists as part of

BBC INTRODUCING LISTENING PANEL
Led by Shakk from BBC Music Introducing in the North East, the panel will feature Jenny Dean from Spark Sunderland’s The New Music Show and Baker Lillivick from CVFM Radio, giving artists the chance to hear directly from the people behind local radio and new music programming.
More info / book your free spot: sonicfutures.org/events/last-train-home-bbc-introducing-listening-panel

LYRIC LAB WITH JODIE NICHOLSON
Drawing on her experience as both a songwriter and performer, as well as writing for other musicians and producers, Jodie Nicholson will share practical tools and techniques to help you develop ideas, strengthen your lyrics and find your own voice as a writer.
More info / book your free spot: sonicfutures.org/events/last-train-home-lyric-lab-with-jodie-nicholson

Both first class opportunities to work on your music and build some new connections in the industry. Bonus points if you head to the festival as well to really immerse yourself in the scene for the weekend 🚂

And we are off! The rain has tailed off, the music, glitter face painting and kids crafts have begun and Caitlin Morrow Music Honeylight have started and are sounding 🤩🌞 Just need a little more sunshine and we’ll have a real rainbow for Darlington Pride Weekender Pride Picnic 🌈

We are so looking forward to Darlington Pride Weekender and bringing some lush acoustic music to Hopetown Darlington for the Pride Picnic on Sunday. Live music from 12pm, FREE entry, bring your blanket, picnic and catch the brilliant Josh Atkinson Music Honeylight Jade Mia Broadhead Music and stebee 🏳️‍🌈🩷❤️💛💚🩵💙 Enjoy Darlington

Great to bring some more live music to the community. Anna Karila playing some gorgeous tunes Hopetown Darlington this morning as part of our Last Train Home Festival fringe activities

Facebook has kindly generated some alternative versions of our festival poster for this year, which one should we go with?

If you try to run an ad nowadays, no matter how basic, Meta will guide you through an exhausting series of screens suggesting all the ways AI can enhance your campaign. Whether it's rewriting what you've written, adding ridiculously inappropriate music and animations, or its crown jewel with which it generates alternative images which will help you "reach different audiences".

I don't know what audiences Meta wants us to target, but I'm not sure they live on this planet. These pictures are obviously hilarious, but also a chilling and grotesque indictment of the misguided and unchecked manner in which AI operates; purely to appease at the cost of all sanity.

AI can have its uses, but one of them is absolutely not replacing genuine creativity, and understanding and communicating the human experience - such is the essential purpose of art, and one of the many reasons we're in the music biz.
We want Last Train Home Festival to be a place artists and audiences connect with each other, experience human creativity and performance live on stage, then take all that energy and inspiration away with them alongside some damn good memories. AI can't do that, and it certainly doesn't know how to advertise it either.

Anyways we'll see you in the newly refurbished Hippodrome Grand Central Circus to see JlioH BeatuUERj, with Beefeats headlining over at the Fhelam Mistid Centre, get your tickets now: lasttrainhomefest.co.uk