Festival Review Destination Forge Sheffield, UK 12th September 2026

The last time I was down this way it was an HRH AOR / Prog combo at Magna in Rotherham in 2013. The highlight of that one for me was future Jesus and Eurovision guy Sam Ryder singing ‘Into the Fire’ with his band The Morning After to me and about 14 other people in a tiny room. Top bloke though.



The Forge is another ‘rescue’ venue in a re-purposed industrial site. It was easy to find and to reach on the Sheffield tram network. We all got a big friendly welcome as we entered the outdoor bit where we found Jimi Handtrix, the fun puppeteer, rocking out and the first of the bars.

The festival got off to truly memorable start with Adam & The Hellcats at 12:30. They are a great band at any time but they are an especially good choice to get a festival going at lunchtime when I’ve only had one pint. They are a six-piece father and son combo – Adam Feasey sings and dad Tony plays the drums, and The Hellcats feature two female co-lead singers (not actual cats but they have cat ears and whiskers), one with a keytar, and there’s a bass player and a drummer too.

They are a fun band and have a lot of good songs like ‘She’s a Vampire’ and the triple threat vocals give everyone a chance to perform. Adam did most of the talking and dedicated the mental health song ‘F*ck You, Brain’ to Andy’s Man Club, who had a tent on site and were always available for a chat throughout the day.

To make it even more special, Adam brought on a couple of his famous friends to jam at the end, starting with Jackie Chambers out of Syteria and Girlschool. With Jax, they performed two Hellcats songs ‘What the Cat Dragged In’ and ‘Peace, Love (& Rock ‘n’ Roll), before Paul Quinn of Saxon came onboard for ‘Princess of the Night’ – who knew Saxon songs sounded better with two female co-lead vocalists. The crowd certainly enjoyed it and so did Adam, who called it “the best day of my life”. So far, Adam – there is a lot of good stuff still to happen for this band.

It’s never too early for a bit of pagan Viking metal is it? Certainly not if it’s LN, who had a lot of fans in the audience judging by the number of t-shirts with ‘Peasant’ on the back. The band were a combo of furries, chain mail and face paint and set the musical scene for singer LN, a sprightly witch / Viking queen in corpse paint, dread extensions and smock.

Their set is very theatrical and LN is not a lady to take lightly. When she says “I want you to bounce and I won’t be asking you twice’ in the most menacing Geordie accent since Oz in ‘Auf Wiedersehen Pet’ got angry, the peasants tended to do what they were told. They have some great tracks like ‘The Slaughter’ and a head on a stick called Donny appeared at one stage. It’s a hell of a show. LN have had a great summer festival season and have really made a name for themselves this year so I think they’ll kick on from here.

The first two acts really caught the attention but the rest of the afternoon was also filled with some really solid rock. The Rattlebacks from Brighton were next with some top-quality modern rock, followed by a revitalised JOANovARC and Stevie Stoker’s Juliet’s Not Dead (formerly Twister) who were all reliably good.

Swiss band Dobermann added some glam and were an engaging presence on site all day. They certainly got everyone clapping along and went down well. Less glam but equally popular were Black Lakes, who had strong appeal to the folks in black clothing with their more alternative angsty sounds and they had a good connection with a loyal band of fans.

By this stage, it was about time for a very filling toastie from RNR Toasties – I went for the Meatallica with the ham, pepperoni and red onion. Tasty. It was my second favourite purchase of the day after the ‘Tosser’ Xmas bauble which I bought from Pirate Cat Creations, who had an excellent stall selling all sorts of crafted gifts and goodies.

With a tight curfew, the business end of the gig came round pretty quickly and it was a riot of colourful, feel-good, get your body rocking melodic rock with a bit of oomph. After the sad passing of Bonnie Tyler, Chez Kane must now be the undisputed queen of 80’s retro Welsh rock chicks and she has the swagger, charisma and voice to back it up.

Apparently, some of Chez’s more gynaecological outfits in her promo shots have put some folks off her, which is a shame as she’s a really nice lass and a great live performer, but there are plenty lads and lassies down the front that like what she does. On this night, Chez was very stylish in a white t-shirt, faux leather leggings and a denim jacket ensemble – practically a burqa in comparison to some of her other kit, and there was also the good looking, high-kicking ‘boy totty’ Harry and James on guitar to savour too.

Anyway, there is plenty in the music to concentrate on. With three albums and some additional songs, there is more than enough in Chez’s repertoire for a cracking set of melodic rockers. Chez was really strong vocally and the band smashed it despite some of them being barely audible at times. With the guys competing for attention and the lady throwing shapes, it was a very entertaining show.

Swedish stars H.e.a.t. are prime purveyors of Scandi-AOR and melodic rock and right on top of their game. Kenny Leckremo commands the stage and he’s very much a more melodic Bruce Dickinson with his spandex-clad thunder thighs, long hair and especially the thunderous lung-busting vocals.

This was the band’s last show of the year, so Kenny was in playful mood and full of love for Deep Purple, Europe and his bandmates, especially his band mate crush Jimmy Jay on the bass, who he serenaded with ‘Faithfully by Journey.

With a big discography to choose from, they had plenty of great tunes to share, including ‘Hollywood’, ‘Nationwide’ and the evergreen ‘Living on the Run’. September feels a bit early to be shutting it down, but hopefully they’ll be back next year with more good stuff.

And that was it from what we knew was the final Destination as it was well known in advance that Steve and Zhany were shutting it down after several years of hard work putting on Rocking the Bowl and other shows in Sheffield. I hope they have enjoyed it and had a great day to finish with. It was a very friendly event with a lot of thoughtful extra touches and a personal touch. Everyone seemed to have a great time and that’s the main thing isn’t it?