Maximo Park rounded off the opening day of Ramsbottom’s Head for the Hills Festival with a hit-filled set on Friday.

The Newcastle band attracted the largest crowd of the evening to the Hills Stage, and treated festival-goers to an energetic 70-minute set, which included crowd pleasers Books From Boxes, Our Velocity, and Apply Some Pressure.

The former Mercury Prize nominated band’s set also drew heavily on material from their latest album, Risk to Exist, which was released earlier this year.

Before the set, guitarist Duncan Lloyd told the Bury Times that he felt the new material was “political but full of empathy,” and said that it was “great for the band to be able to explore a different part of the world.”

In between songs, talkative frontman Paul Smith roused the crowd with a series of witty quips and anecdotes, joking that earlier in the day he had travelled north on the East Lancashire Railway ‘to a town I can’t pronounce."

Despite the rain which fell throughout the set, the crowd refused to have their spirits dampened, singing and dancing along to the indefatigable Smith’s every word. 

Headlining the Hills Stage tomorrow night is Norfolk-born singer Beth Orton.

Tickets are available on the gate. More information can be found at www.headforthehills.org.uk.