Focus on The Fringe
The Fringe at Tramlines
Sheffield city centre
Friday 24 to Sunday 26 July 2026
Additional information on the Welcome to Sheffield website.
Nick Simmonite still remembers the moment Catfish and The Bottlemen first played at his Sheffield city centre pub during the buzz of Tramlines.
And those intimate performances, during the early days of their music career, remain a highlight many years later as the pub gears up for this year’s free The Fringe at Tramlines programme from 24 to 26 July 2026.
Nick, manager of The Frog and Parrot on Devonshire Street, said: “They (Catfish) were the stand out ones in terms of raw, edgy rock and roll. We knew they were going to make it big.”
The Frog and Parrot has been part of The Fringe since it launched in 2018, as well as playing a part in the original urban Tramlines Festival held at Devonshire Green.
A team plans the pub’s programme from almost a year in advance, working closely with bands and record labels.
This year there will be 23 live acts performing, as well as six DJs, over the weekend. On Saturday 25 July, there are 15 acts, half of which have a single out.
Nick - also the chairman of UNIGHT Sheffield, which represents the city’s night time economy - added: “Give it a couple of years and the bands you first see at The Fringe will be on the main stage and the wider circuit.
“It’s great when you look down the festival lineup and check who has played the Frog, it’s band after band after band.”
This year the pub’s celebrations start with a mellower evening on Thursday, ramp up on Friday and Saturday and ease down with northern soul DJs on Sunday.
Bands performing include The Kellows, The One Twenty and Fairly Well.
Nick said: “There’s a real resurgence in the Sheffield music scene. The likes of Milburn are all coming back and having their 20th anniversaries, but we’ve got young bands where they are all in. They study music at university, they’ve spent hours rehearsing and thousands on gear, they are very serious about it. We are really chuffed we can put them on for free.”
The Fringe at Tramlines brings hundreds of live performances to venues right across the city centre, and with them an incomparable excitement in the air.
It is one of the UK's largest free urban music festivals, turns the whole city centre into a stage and runs alongside the main Tramlines event now at Hillsborough Park.
The most recent Fringe generated an estimated £1.86 million for the city centre economy and attracted some 40,000 visitors.
Nick added: “It saves summer. The students have disappeared, people are on holiday, so from a commercial perspective it is expensive to put on but it gives people an opportunity to see what our pubs, bars and restaurants are all about.
“We all make the effort across the city centre and put on great acts for free, they play in humble venues but often go on to great things.”
At this year’s Fringe, the family-friendly Devonshire Green main stage has been extended to run all weekend.
For the first time it will open on Friday evening, with a new DJ session aiming to ‘warm up Sheffield city centre.”
Open Decks FC is presenting a packed lineup, featuring award-winning international DJ and lawyer Kavita Varu plus headliner and headline host DJ Dixie of radio fame.
The event runs from 5-9pm and will feature music across Britpop, soul, pop, R&B, Ibiza classics and club bangers.
“The idea is to get the city warmed up for The Fringe”, said Tonij Decks, of Open Decks FC.
"At the start of the evening we will have an indie hour, we’ll definitely be playing some Pulp, Arctic Monkeys and maybe Milburn. The Fringe is fantastic. It is so important for new bands to have that space and platform, it’s really difficult for them to get weekend gigs.
“Having so much footfall in the city centre means the bands get great exposure and the bars get more people in - it’s an absolute lifeblood.”
Open Decks FC, which runs a weekly session in Farsley, Leeds, previously performed at the Tramlines Fringe in 2021 and 2022.
The full Friday lineup for this year includes opening act Jesus Hairdo and Lulu Mermaid.
Jesus Hairdo has played after show parties for Shed Seven and Kaiser Chiefs and also closed Record Store Day for Record Plant in Leeds.
Tonij plans to donate ten per cent of Open Decks FC’s fee to the Pride of Yorkshire lion sculpture trail, which is raising money for Sheffield Children’s Hospital. It will be a busy month, as their event in Leeds takes place on the same night.
Tonij added: “We’re really hoping we get some good weather. The first part of The Fringe programme to be revealed was the Devonshire Green main stage lineup.
Curated by legendary Sheffield promoter Papa Al of The JuJu Club, it features artists spanning brass, soul, folk, ska, reggae, dance, world music and community performances.
Sheffield favourites Kiziah and the Kings and Malachite, genre bending collective Solar Love Society, festival regulars Jungle Lion and folk punk favourites Shanghai Treason are all included.
The main stage brings an injection of visitors to boost independent businesses based along Devonshire and Division Street, as well as West Street.
At vintage fashion store Vulgar, the team go all out for The Fringe.
“It’s a whole vibe”, smiled Lucy Lockwood, owner of the vibrant store on Devonshire Street.
She added: “For The Fringe, we get lots of extra stock in, we try to make all of our displays very festival themed. Last year we got one of our friends to DJ in the store and we will do the same this year. We open the doors and play music into the street so there is a party atmosphere.
“All our sunglasses go outside and we have street chalk so people can draw on the street. There’s even a bubble machine.”
In the build-up to The Fringe, the independent store has extra footfall from shoppers coming to pick up a one-off outfit to stand out from the crowd. And during the event itself, sunglasses, hats and last-minute accessories all prove popular.
Lucy added: “The last three years of The Fringe have felt really family friendly. Summer is a bit of a quieter period when the students go back so the build up to The Fringe makes a difference. It is worth it.
“I would say our biggest sellers during The Fringe are sunglasses, people also often buy earrings or hats. It’s the little things they’ve forgotten to bring along!”
The Fringe at Tramlines is supported by Sheffield BID and Sheffield City Council.
Also new for this year is a clash finder, aimed at helping visitors to navigate the staggering number of performances taking place.
Diane Jarvis, Chief Executive Officer at Sheffield BID, said: “The Fringe at Tramlines brings people into the city centre at scale, drives footfall for our pubs, bars, and venues, and creates the kind of trading conditions businesses depend on. It’s a signature event for the BID, and one we’ve helped shape from the start with our partners.
“For us, the focus is always on making the city centre work well for businesses trading here. Extending the Devonshire Green Main Stage across the full weekend strengthens a festival that delivers clear economic value for the city centre. This partnership continues to deliver for local businesses, and we’re focused on ensuring The Fringe brings another strong weekend for Sheffield’s economy this July.”
For full programme details for The Fringe at Tramlines visit the Welcome to Sheffield website.
