Dan Hancox
Dan Hancox is a writer and editor covering music, politics and cities. His latest book, Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World, is available from Guardian bookshop
October 2026
August 2026
July 2026
June 2026
From burning bogs to boutique bonanzas: how did Britain become a nation of festival obsessives?
They used to mean crusties, hippies, all-male lineups, near riots and burning toilets. Now, from Dorset to Inverness, there’s a festival – and a costume – for everyone. What caused this boom? And is there a dark side?
April 2026
Wireless festival’s backing for Kanye West is all about money. Don’t pretend it’s about the art
Dan HancoxThe event has signed up Ye, who has a penchant for antisemitic and sexist outbursts, to be its headline act. It’s not even as if his music is any good any more, says Dan Hancox, a freelance writer focusing on music, politics, cities and culture
February 2026
The Audio Long ReadFrom the archive: ‘Who remembers proper binmen?’ The nostalgia memes that help explain Britain today – podcastThis week, from 2022: Idealising the past is nothing new, but there is something peculiarly revealing about the way a certain generation of Facebook users look back fondly on tougher times
By Dan Hancox. Read by Dermot Daly
June 2025
‘Youths everywhere were spitting over tinny beats playing off a Nokia’: great grime photographer Simon Wheatley
He was young and broke when he became grime’s first documentarian. Then his book Don’t Call Me Urban captured the energy of the grittier first wave – and an expanded edition is finally here
Fancy some iconic celeriac? New Nordic cuisine, now a blockbuster exhibition
Twenty years ago, a group of Scandinavian chefs announced a culinary revolution. But as Norway’s National museum celebrates the New Nordic manifesto’s impact on dining and the arts, has the movement betrayed its own ambitious ideals?
May 2025
October 2024
July 2024
‘People of all ages get very emotional at our gigs’: how ‘trad punk’ folk band the Mary Wallopers became a live sensation
Their punked-up versions of traditional Irish songs have wowed audiences. Ahead of recording a third album, the Dundalk band talk about their journey from playing for beer and whisky to this year’s Glastonbury
May 2024
The Audio Long ReadFrom the archive: The secret deportations: how Britain betrayed the Chinese men who served the country in the war – podcastThis week, from 2021: During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth. By Dan Hancox
