Aitch announced as keynote speaker at Manchester’s Beyond The Music Festival

Aitch has been announced as a keynote speaker for Manchester’s Beyond The Music Festival.

Beyond The Music, which takes place in Manchester City Centre, is set to arrive from October 9-12 this year for its second edition. Dedicated to spotlighting the UK’s freshest talent, over 200 artists are due to play at the festival, a quarter of whom hail from the North West themselves.

Alongside performances from up-and-comers like Chiedu Oraka, Charlieeeee, Coach Party, OneDa, Human Interest, YAANG, Moreish Idols, Britizen Kane and more, the festival will also conferences throughout the day. Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham is due to reappear as a speaker.

Aitch will open the festival in conversation with Apple Music’s Dotty, where he is due to speak on October 9. The Moston rapper will reportedly touch on topics including “the importance of Manchester’s musical legacy for today’s generation of artists, Aitch’s personal experiences and challenges within the industry, to the idea of decentralising London as the home of UK rap”.

A three-day festival pass (excluding delegate access) starts at £45, whilst delegate passes are available to purchase here. Festival day passes are of varying prices – check out the full list of prices here and see below for the full lineup.

In other Aitch news, the musician was recently announced as a performer for the Paralympics GB team homecoming event. Taking to the stage on September 12 alongside Sugababes, Jonas Blue and Caity Baser, he performed his 2022 Ed Sheeran collaboration, ‘My G’.

We spoke to the man himself last year, where he opened up about his EP ‘Lost Files’: “The amount of DMs I get saying, ‘You’re not a rapper anymore, you need to start dropping music again’ is too much,” he told NME, “so the EP is for them people there.”

He continued: “[‘Lost Files’] is especially for my old-school fans. I don’t always want to get caught up in doing more mainstream stuff, but I also don’t want to get caught up in just being a local rapper, so sometimes I just try to find the balance.”

Since ‘Lost Files’, Aitch has released a string of songs including ‘Maybach Wallet’, which dropped earlier this month.