Last weekend, Luke and I took a road trip to Rotherham to set up a synth showcase as part of the No Bounds festival. Our friends Mark Fell and Rian Treanor curated a full day of music, workshops, food and all-round good vibes at the town’s Hope Centre, and we took over the ground floor gallery space with a mixture of keyboards, drum machines, modular synths and assorted oddities while the likes of Beatrice Dillon and RP Boo DJed upstairs and Rashad Becker gave a workshop on music-making. The room was buzzing all day with families, synth heads and music lovers, and it was great to meet so many enthusiastic people.

We also got to check out some incredible music elsewhere at the festival, including a main-room masterclass from Joy Orbison at the Peddler in Sheffield on Saturday night, and the utterly unique spectacle of Rian’s Rotherham Sight & Sound project in Rotherham Minster - three visually impaired pensioners collaborating on a mind-melting electronic music performance complete with dazzling laser show. Certainly the most fun we’ve had in a church… well, ever. There’s so much great stuff to see at No Bounds that we barely scratched the surface, so we’re hoping to go back next year and soak up a bit more.

We’re big supporters of the work Rian and Mark do in Rotherham with their Electronic Music Club, which gives young people a chance to experience electronic music with world-class mentors. We spoke to them in depth recently about their community work, so check that out if you want to know more about it. In the meantime, here are some photos from the weekend. Roll on next year!

The stage is set... Sunday lunchtime ready to open

Some of the first arrivals get to grips with some synths. Photo: Peter Martin

The room was rammed all afternoon

Sequential's new Fourm was a hit with the kids. Photo: Peter Martin

Exploring a Joranalogue Eurorack modular system (Photo: Peter Martin)

Spring reverb fun for the whole family (Photo: Peter Martin)

Musician and mastering engineer Rashad Becker delivered a workshop in the space

Joy Orbison plus lasers = ravetastic

Rotherham Sight & Sound at the closing party

A well-earned matching meal deal on the journey (other brands of egg sandwich and maize-based snack are available)