Day fes­ti­vals are becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar – they give you the fes­ti­val expe­ri­ence with­out the need to take a whole week­end out of your sched­ule. There are lots of new­bies pop­ping up this year cov­er­ing a mul­ti­tude of gen­res, so you can get your fes­ti­val fix and col­lapse into your own cozy bed at the end of the night.

But… if you’re still han­ker­ing for the full-on camp­ing expe­ri­ence, it’s not too late to book! Check out our Ulti­mate Guide as there are still some won­der­ful 3- or 4‑day events to choose from, although many are close to sell­ing out.

Focus Wales 7–9 May

Start your fes­ti­val sea­son ear­ly with this music-packed indus­try event that takes place in Wrex­ham. It is burst­ing with artists show­cas­ing their tal­ent at venues across the town. Mil­i­tary pre­ci­sion is rec­om­mend­ed to get your­self around some of the 250 artists; there’s also screen­ings, talks, films and a con­fer­ence. Fat Dog, Bad Blood Reunion, Shame, Gwen­no, Slate, Bruna Gar­cia, Lime Gar­den, Aneiri Jones, Holy Coves, Inter­net Fatigue and more all star. Focus Wales

The Great Escape 13–16 May

Buzzy Brighton comes alive dur­ing this annu­al indus­try event that sees over 450 up and com­ing artists per­form at over 30 venues includ­ing a pop-up site on the beach. Amanzi, Alice Costel­loe, Bert, Casu­al Smart, Comasta­t­ic, Gen­tly Ten­der, The Slates, Truth­paste, Oslo Twins and Office Dog plus hun­dreds more will play for your lis­ten­ing plea­sure over four days. No camp­ing but there’s plen­ty of accom­mo­da­tion in and around Brighton (it’s get­ting expen­sive though so act fast). Pus there’s the annu­al con­fer­ence: Melanie C and Ian Mur­ray MP, Min­is­ter of State at the Depart­ment for Cul­ture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as the first two keynote speak­ers. The Great Escape

Footsteps 18–22 May

Foot­steps is a very wel­come new Lon­don-based event, cel­e­brat­ing music, art and com­mu­ni­ty at inde­pen­dent venues and grass­roots com­mu­ni­ties. Preen, Rat­boys, War­m­dusch­er, Office Dog, Milo Kor­ben­s­ki, Alex Amor plus more will per­form at a range of grass­roots venues: St Matthias Church, The Wind­mill, The Garage, Paper Dress Vin­tage and more. Foot­steps festival

Field Day 23 May

Lon­don’s long-run­ning day fes­ti­val is back this year in Brock­well Park, south Lon­don, with head­lin­er Float­ing Points. Join­ing him is a world-exclu­sive jun­gle set from RAM Records co-founder Andy C, plus DJ Hon­ey Dijon and pro­duc­er Joy Orbi­son. Also Inter­plan­e­tary Crim­i­nal, KI/KI, Eliza Rose, Ewan McVicar going B2B with Spe­cial Request, FOLD,  a DJ set from Gabriels, Horse Meat Dis­co, and Juicy Romance. Field Day

Cross The Tracks 24 May

Cel­e­brat­ing every­thing jazz, funk and soul, Cross The Tracks is an unmiss­able part of the Brock­well Park bank hol­i­day fes­tiv­i­ties. On the line­up are Fabio & Grooverid­er and The Out­look Orches­tra, Lit­tle Simz, Joy Crookes, KOKOROKO, Obong­ja­yar, Lady Wray. Also new to the line­up is the leader of UK rap’s new wave, Knucks. And there’s an arti­san mar­ket fea­tur­ing local traders, plus work­shops and pan­el talks. Cross The Tracks

Lovebox in Dreamland 29–30 May

Love­box Pre­sent­ed by Dream­land (for­mer­ly Lon­don-based Love­box) is a brand new event con­cept mas­ter­mind­ed by the orig­i­nal crew, tak­ing place at Dream­land in Mar­gate. Span­ning drum and bass, garage, dis­co, pop, soul and club sounds – it’s an eclec­tic selec­tion. Look for­ward to see­ing famil­iar faces plus fresh names: Rudi­men­tal, Soul II Soul, Jay­da G, 4AM KRU, Girls Don’t Sync, Goldie b2b Spe­cial Request, Scis­sor Sis­ters, Friend­ly Fires, Horse Meat Dis­co and more across the week­end. https://loveboxfestival.com

Mighty Hoopla 30–31 May

Mighty Hoopla is the bril­liant, exu­ber­ant pop event with a strong focus on LGBTQ+ per­form­ers, women, and non-bina­ry artists. It takes place every year on the final week­end of May. Lily Allen, Jessie J, Horse­meat Dis­co, Scis­sor Sis­ters, Lucy Sprag­gan, Heather Small and many more are on the line­up. Grab your glit­ter and head to Brock­well Park for the ten-stage, two-day extrav­a­gan­za. Mighty Hoopla

Everywhere at Once 26–28 June

Music venues get side­lined in sum­mer while fes­ti­vals take all the glo­ry – so all cred­it to new endeav­our Every­where At Once which will bring­ing music back to our grass­roots spaces, main­ly in urban loca­tions. The UK-wide event is being spear­head­ed by Music Venue Trust, Save Our Scene , Asso­ci­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Pro­mot­ers, and the Nation­al Lot­tery to launch “the UK’s biggest fes­ti­val on your doorstep”, at hun­dreds of grass­roots music venues across the coun­try. We can’t wait to see the line­ups, which will be out soon. MVT

Run with Mo! and Move & Mind June 29, 30

Two events are hap­pen­ing in cen­tral Lon­don for fit­ness fans. Part of BST Hyde Park’s Open House mid­week series of events are Davina McCall – Move & Mind on Mon­day June 29th. Join Davina for a mar­tial-art inspired work­out ses­sion along­side train­er and X‑Fight poi­neer Daniel Duck­ett. And on Tues­day 30th, run­ners of all lev­els can join Sir Mo Farah CBE­for a unique 3km run­ning expe­ri­ence. start­ing and end­ing at the BST Hyde Park’s Great Oak Stage. All par­tic­i­pants who com­plete the run will be giv­en a com­mem­o­ra­tive Run With Mo! sou­venir medal. Sprint over to bst-hyd­park for fur­ther information.

Silverworks Island June 27 ‑12 July

DJ, pro­duc­er and mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary audio­vi­su­al mas­ter­mind Any­ma brings his lat­est audio­vi­su­al cre­ation – ÆDEN. Join­ing for this ground-break­ing week­end are elite acts from the elec­tron­ic world includ­ing Chris Avant­garde, Ben Böh­mer, Lay­la Ben­itez, Kevin de Vries b2b Kölsch, Mind Against, Kasia plus more. Sil­ver­works Island is a raw indus­tri­al out­door des­ti­na­tion in the heart of the Roy­al Docks and set along the water­side beneath Lon­don City Airport’s flight path. Sil­ver­works Island

Lost Oasis 10 June – 30 August

Trafal­gar Square in cen­tral Lon­don becomes a ‘lost oasis’ at this fab trans­for­ma­tion of the space into a lush urban gar­den in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Lost Gar­dens of Heli­gan (Eden Project) and Blue For­est. There will be plen­ty going on with Sofar Sounds live music ses­sions, chef res­i­den­cies, Cor­nish Orchards Kitchen fea­tur­ing acclaimed chefs Nathan Out­law, Simon Stal­lard, Jor­dan Bai­ley & Emi­ly Scott. Cock­tails by Por­tia Free­man. Sport show­ings include FIFA World Cup screen­ings, Wim­ble­don final screen­ings + For­mu­la 1 British Grand Prix screen­ings. Immer­sive bar con­cepts includ­ing the Mud Maid Bar and cider “pour-your-own” tree. Lost Oasis

Lytham Festival 1–5 July 

Five days of music in pic­turesque Lytham, at Lytham Fes­ti­val this year with some big names on the line­ups. Ted­dy Swims, Alan­nis Moris­sette, Pet Shop Boys and more. There are plen­ty of hotels in the area for those who wish to stay over. And this is a child-friend­ly event too. Lytham Fes­ti­val

Roundhay Festival 3–4 July

This sum­mer, Round­hay Park in Leeds will host live music as well as a mid­week pro­gramme of free arts, cul­ture and well­be­ing-cen­tred activ­i­ties. With head­lin­ers includ­ing Pit­bull with spe­cial guest Kesha (3 July), Lewis Capal­di with spe­cial guests Conan Gray and Jacob Alon (4 July), and more acts to be announced, Round­hay Fes­ti­val is set for a great debut. Round­hay Festival

Kaleidoscope 11 July 

Kalei­do­scope has become a favourite fam­i­ly fix­ture for north Lon­don­ers. The gor­geous set­ting of Alexan­dra Palace and its park­lands high on a hill in north Lon­don tru­ly comes into its own. The main stage is set on Ally Pal­ly’s slope so every­one gets a clear view of the action (plus Lon­don’s sky­line in the back­ground) so there’s no need to dodge about try­ing to avoid that 6‑footer in front of you. All the bet­ter then to expe­ri­ence Rudi­men­tal this year, along with Black Grape and Roni Size. Or dance at the Cloud 10 with Groove Arma­da. There’s plen­ty for younger fes­ti­val-goers too, all set in a grassy ded­i­cat­ed kids area. Kalei­do­scope festival 

East London Block Party 25 July

A stack of bands are appear­ing at four venues for the fourth iter­a­tion of East Lon­don Block Par­ty – Colours, The Old Blue Last, Stron­groom, Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes. Artists Slum­ber, SILVERWINGKILLER, Dreamwave, and The Hor­rors’ Faris Bad­wan are among the new addi­tions to an already packed line­up. The pre­vi­ous three ELBPs sold out, so get your tick­ets quick­ly – East Lon­don Block Party 

Ealing Blues festival 1–2 August

Eal­ing Blues is part of the Eal­ing Fes­ti­vals series, along with the Com­e­dy and Jazz week­enders, set in love­ly Wal­pole Park. For 2026 there’s a new out­door main stage – the Hokum, named after Bob Hokum, the fes­ti­val’s founder. Sat­ur­day is pro­grammed with the Eal­ing Club, fea­tur­ing Gram­my-nom­i­nat­ed Louisiana blues­man Robert Fin­ley. The Big Top is curat­ed by PRB Presents, with Bob Log III. On Sun­day, the Lon­don Inter­na­tion­al Ska Fes­ti­val takes over both stages. Eal­ing Blues is always a chilled and fun fam­i­ly event with all the usu­al fes­ti­val add-ons: food out­lets, bar and sev­er­al craft and jew­ellery stalls. Eal­ing Blues 

Colchester Castle Summer Series 20–29 August

Now in its sec­ond year, the Colch­ester Cas­tle Sum­mer Series returns with sev­en nights of live music to the his­toric, and pret­ty spec­tac­u­lar set­ting of Low­er Cas­tle Park. It’s a tru­ly diverse line­up open­ing on Thurs­day 20 with Bil­ly Ocean; oth­er night sees head­lin­ers The Hol­ly­wood Vam­pires with The Damned as sup­port, Becky Hill, Bastille, Richard Ashcroft and JLS. The event final night is Sat­ur­day 29 August with Fat­boy Slim plus a fan­tas­tic sup­port line­up with Eats Every­thing, Erol Alkan, Horse Meat Dis­co and Sarah Sto­ry. Colch­ester Cas­tle Sum­mer Series

All Points East 22–30 August 

All Points East takes over Vic­to­ria Park in east Lon­don once more for a series of day events and there are some heavy-hit­ters on the head­line slots. Fri­day 21st sees Jor­ja Smith and Tems while on Sat­ur­day 22nd it’s the turn of Lorde. There’s a takeover on Sun­day: Out­break heavy rock all-day­er with the leg­endary Deftones plus Inter­pol, Ecca Van­dal and lots more. Tyler, The Cre­ator stars on the 28th and 29th for two UK exclu­sive dates. It all wraps nice­ly on Sun­day 30th with Twen­ty One Pilots mak­ing their debut, plus Wun­der­horse and Ren. All Points East

Hitchin Live at the Priory 27–30 August

This brand new week­end of con­certs takes place in Hitchin, Hert­ford­shire, over four nights. The Human League head­line the open­ing night on Thurs­day – Roland Gift and Toy­ah also are set to per­form. Fri­day sees Rudi­men­tal will Ella Eyre, Sat­ur­day it’s The Lib­ertines, along with Max­i­mo Park and Rev­erend and the Mak­ers. Sun­day fea­tures Min­istry of Sound Clas­si­cal with Rogers Sanchez, Sonique and more. The venue is well-con­nect­ed with the train sta­tions only 15 min­utes away. Hitchin Live at the Priory 

Victorious 28–30 August

Vic­to­ri­ous fes­ti­val, set in South­sea, Portsmouth, is the UK’s biggest met­ro­pol­i­tan fes­ti­val. Head along to see Richard Ashcroft on Fri­day, The Black Keys on Sat­ur­day and Kasabi­an on Sun­day. Oth­er artists include Scis­sor Sis­ters, Faith­less, Bastille, Nile Rogers and CHIC, The Streets, Pix­ie Lott, Base­ment Jaxx, Jessie J, The Vac­cines, Kate Nash and Kelis. Check out the com­e­dy stage too. It’s not a tra­di­tion­al camp­ing fes­ti­val but there are plen­ty of accom­mo­da­tion options near­by includ­ing hotels and B&Bs, a camp­ing field com­plete with shut­tle bus, bou­tique tents and more. Take a look at the web­site for all options. Vic­to­ri­ous

RALLY 29 August

Since it first set up shop four years ago you’ve been lov­ing Ral­ly… the one-day grass­roots music and arts fes­ti­val set in South­wark Park, south Lon­don. And it has already sold most of its tick­ets, so don’t hang about. The line­up is awe­some with Blood Orange head­lin­ing plus Daniel Avery (live), Har­ri Pep­per, Jon­ny Rock, Opti­mo, Par­ris, Smerz, and many oth­ers and the action goes from 11.30am to 10.30pm. Ral­ly festival

Found Festival 28–30 August

Head­ing into its sec­ond year, bou­tique event Found Fes­ti­val is about as un-cor­po­rate as it gets. Ful­ly inde­pen­dent and non-prof­it, it’s a delib­er­ate­ly small and stress-free occa­sion wel­com­ing only 2,000 to the Clay­don Estate, Buck­ing­hamshire. Found show­cas­es Amer­i­cana, blues, indie, folk and funk: you’ll find Stornoway, This Is the Kit, The Felice Broth­ers, Ele­phant Ses­sions, The Hack­ney Col­liery Band, Noble Jacks and more on the line­up. Found also offers inter­ac­tive work­shops in dance, craft, sto­ry­telling and cir­cus, fam­i­ly shows, well­be­ing expe­ri­ences, ceilidhs and DJ sets. The bars will be pro­vid­ed by local Buck­ing­ham brew­ery, Rebel­lion and many of the food traders are local too. Tick­ets for Found Festival. 

Forwards 29–30 August

Bris­tol’s For­wards fes­ti­val is just that – a for­ward-think­ing week­end event with music, talks and social ini­tia­tives that set this event apart. Tak­ing place on Bris­tol Downs, this year hosts Tems, Wet Leg, Dijon, Lit­tle Simz, Self Esteem and Amyl and the Snif­fers. Else­where there’s Para­orches­tra presents Kraftwerk, Princess Nokia, Anai­is and lots more over the week­end. The festival’s acclaimed ‘THE INFORMATION’ stage will return, host­ing time­ly debates, grass­roots voic­es and big ideas that shape cul­ture beyond the week­end itself. Tick­ets on sale now for­wards­bris­tol 

LIDO 31 August

LIDO fes­ti­val made its debut last year and proved pop­u­lar with Lon­don’s day fes­ti­val crowd. It’s also notable for its eco cre­den­tials. This year it has moved from June to August due to issues with the ground. The now one-day event will see Mari­bou State head­lin­ing, with Kelis, Folam­our, Theo Par­rish, b2b, Moody­mann and many oth­ers set to per­form. For up to date infor­ma­tion, check out the web­site Lido fes­ti­val

Manchester Psych Fest 5 September

Man­ches­ter Psych Fest returns with a stel­lar line­up – Angine de Poitrine, Beta Band, Adult DVD, Allah-Las, The KVB, Sil­ver Gore, Stero­lab, Ty Segall, White Den­im, Dreamwave, Ghost­woman… venues The Apol­lo, Man­ches­ter Acad­e­my, The Ritz, Pro­jek­ts Skate Park, Goril­la, YES, Deaf Insti­tute, Cir­cle Square, Sand­bar, Lass O’Gowrie & The Bread Shed. There’s also film screen­ings and art. Man­ches­ter Psych Fest

Love to Be… 5 September

North York­shire’s house cul­ture fes­ti­val expands again, with three stages and upgrad­ed pro­duc­tion. Phase one names include Sam Divine, Julie McK­night live, David Penn, Mousse T, Todd Ter­ry, Gok Wan and K Klass live, along­side a wide spread of house favourites and live per­for­mances across the site. More head­lin­ers are still to be announced. Love to be… has been part of UK house cul­ture since 1994, and the Har­ro­gate fes­ti­val has quick­ly become one of its stand­out moments. Love To Be… tickets

Down at the Abbey 11–12 September

Down at the Abbey was on hia­tus in 2025 but Read­ing’s lit­tle fes­ti­val (no, not that Read­ing event) is back this year. The two-day event has­n’t yet post­ed its line­up but the last one was pret­ty spec­tac­u­lar with The Comet is Com­ing, Pale Blue Eyes and lots more across its two stages. Keep your eyes peeled for this one! Down at the Abbey

AVA 24–26 September

Across three days and nights, AVA Lon­don will take over lead­ing cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions with a pro­gramme of keynotes, live per­for­mances, mas­ter­class­es, instal­la­tions and future-fac­ing ideas. AVA will host 70+ speak­ers, 30+ ses­sions and over 8,000 atten­dees. AVA fes­ti­val

Main pho­to: Char­lie Mitchell/Love to Be…
All infor­ma­tion cor­rect on date of post­ing: 5th May 2026