Well – there’s no mess­ing about with Beard­ed The­o­ry. Their first announce­ment came out… eons ago and now they’ve pre­sent­ed us with the FULL 2026 line­up. Feast your eyes, it’s a goodie.

Join­ing Beard­ed The­o­ry are: Every­thing Every­thing, The Hor­rors, The Twi­light Sad, author Irvine Welsh, Ozric Ten­ta­cles, BCUC, Sir Chloe, A Guy called Ger­ald, Opus Kink, Big Spe­cial, HENGE, The Leisure Soci­ety, Rianne Downey, Bet­ter Joy, Basht, Black Water Coun­ty, DIY Soundsys­tem, The Bea­t­les Dub Club and many, many more. You can see them all list­ed below.

Beans on Toast, pic­tured above, returns with his Fool­hardy Takeover of the Wood­land stage. He curates a hand-picked selec­tion of acts to appear at Beard­ed’s more inti­mate stage, set in wood­land. Names join­ing pre­vi­ous­ly announced come­di­an Stew­art Lee and Beans on Toast include Kat­a­combs, K.O.G Soundsys­tem, Mr Bruce, Nuala & Tankus.

If you’re not quite up to tent life, there’s a lux­u­ri­ous new bou­tique offer­ing called The Junk­yard. These are icon­ic sil­ver trail­ers with plush beds and pri­vate show­ers. You can book your camp­ing options here.

Ded­i­cat­ed well­ness and craft­ing sec­tor, EARTH will help you unwind and recharge with eco-con­scious, hands-on cre­ativ­i­ty, from pot­tery paint­ing to bas­ket weav­ing, immer­sive work­shops and heal­ing expe­ri­ences. And last year’s Sauna Box – a wood-fired sauna and cold plunge expe­ri­ence – makes a wel­come return. 

Beard­ed The­o­ry is famous­ly known for the Fes­ti­val School (the UK’s first of its kind) which returns to the award-win­ning Children’s Area. It offers free places, a full cur­ricu­lum, and lessons rang­ing from maths to mind­ful­ness (and even DJ work­shops). For the first time, the Fes­ti­val School now offers a pre-school pro­vi­sion for 100 0–4 year olds, as well as the stan­dard school for 200 Recep­tion to Year 10 children.

Now you’ve just got to look out for the fan­cy dress theme, and we’re almost set … 

Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val, Cat­ton Hall, Der­byshire. 20–24 MAY 2026

FULL LINEUP:
Pix­ies
Garbage
Skunk Anan­sie
CMAT
The Damned
Kae Tem­pest
Every­thing Every­thing
Fat Dog
Bad­ly Drawn Boy
Bad Nerves
Big Spe­cial  (T)
Fero­cious Dog
Get­down Ser­vices
Idlewild
Kate Nash
Kid Kapichi
Lam­bri­ni Girls (T)
New­Dad
Pan­ic Shack
Peter Hook and the Light
Rev­erend and the Mak­ers
Sprints
The Hor­rors
The Twi­light Sad
A Cer­tain Ratio (T)
A Guy Called Ger­ald
Adult DVD
Au Pairs
Basht.
BCUC (T)
Beans on Toast
Bet­ter Joy
Bez
Chalk
Dub Pis­tols (DJ Set)
Eat Sta­t­ic (DJ Set)
EMF (W)
ANS (W)
Girl Scout
Goldie
Good Health Good Wealth
Graeme Park
Heart­worms
Henge
Irvine Welsh
jasmine.4.t
Jon Spencer
Kezia Gill
King Prawn
Leeroy Thorn­hill (ex Prodi­gy)
Neville Sta­ple – From The Spe­cials
Opus Kink
Ozric Ten­ta­cles
Phil Hart­noll (Orbital DJ set)
Pop Will Eat Itself
Rianne Downey
Senser
Sir Chloe
Stew­art Lee
Swim School
The Mag­ic Num­bers
The Molo­tovs
The Sabres of Par­adise (Live)
The Unthanks (T)
The Wed­ding Present
The Wild­hearts
Toots and the May­tals feat Leba Hib­bert
Utah Saints
Venus Grrrls (T)
West­side Cow­boy
3 Daft Mon­keys (T)
Amelia Coburn
An Dannsa Dub (T)
Andrea Ken­ny (T)
Black Water Coun­ty
Blood­worm (T)
Cara Means Friend (W)
Chris Hawkins BBC 6 Music DJ Set (T)
DIY Soundsys­tem
DJ Rap
Drum Machine
Grand­mas House
Jess Silk
Jools (W)
K.O.G Soundsys­tem
Kat­a­combs
La Sécu­rité
LIINES (T)
Meat­drip­per (T)
Meryl Streek (W)
Miki Berenyi Trio
Mr Bruce
Mud­dy Sum­mers and the DFWs (T)
Native James (T)
Nuala
She’s In Par­ties
Slay Duggee
Split Dogs (T)
Tankus
Tay­lor More Swift­ly
Teke::Teke
The Bar-Stew­ard Sons of Val Doon­i­can
The Bea­t­les Dub Club
The League of Rebelz
The Leisure Soci­ety
The Nightin­gales and Ted Chip­ping­ton
The Pale White
The Wran
this­tle. 
(W) play­ing Wednesday

(T) play­ing Thursday