The tent may be packed away but fes­ti­vals are car­ry­ing on at venues around the coun­try through­out autumn and win­ter. From all-day­ers to week­enders, from city events embrac­ing a mul­ti­tude of grass­roots venues, to small, spe­cialised gath­er­ings in pubs up and down the land. Designed to give you an uplift­ing fes­ti­val expe­ri­ence even in the depths of winter.

Here’s a selec­tion but check back as we’ll be adding plen­ty more. And we’re putting a call out to pubs and small venues out­side Lon­don who are run­ning events – sent us your details!

Other Side Psych Weekender 18–20 Sept

This pop­u­lar psych week­ender takes place at the Stron­groom Bar, east Lon­don. On the line­up are: Carl­ton Melton, Zement, The Tele­scopes, Cer­e­mo­ny East Coast, Yobs, Kalac and lots more. Plus after par­ties on both days till 2am! Last year was a sell­out so don’t delay. Oth­er Side Weekender

Float Along Festival 26 September

Sheffield city cen­tre’s annu­al shindig that takes place from 12pm till late. Too many artists to men­tion on this packed line­up, but here’s a few: Opus Kink, Man/Woman/Chainsaw, White Lies, TTSSFU, Sprints, War­m­dusch­er, Oslo Twins, Lit­tle Grandad, set to play at var­i­ous venues around the city. And check out the after­par­ties… Float Along

The Seventh Wave No 18 2–4 October

The imag­i­na­tive Sev­enth Wave Fes­ti­val of Elec­tron­ic Music, to give it its prop­er title, is hold­ing a three-day event on 2–4 Octo­ber at the Cas­tle and Fal­con, Birm­ing­ham. Fri­day Fiat Lux + Prom­e­nade Cin­e­ma + HaHa Hats. Fri­day tick­ets. Sat­ur­day Zion Train + Trans­glob­al Under­ground. Sat­ur­day tick­ets. Sun­day: Test Dept + Bruise Blood (ft. Mike Bourne). Sun­day tickets

Line Up 3 October

Get ready to enjoy a relaxed, seat­ed fes­ti­val of elec­tron­ics, folk, jazz and oth­er exper­i­men­tal music at Malvern Cube. LINE UP is brought to you cour­tesy of Sev­ern Arts and Malvern Hills Dis­trict Coun­cil and show­cas­es a range of exper­i­men­tal music across dif­fer­ent gen­res. Aster, The Hardy Tree and folk mae­stros Brid­get Hay­den and The Appari­tions are amongst those appear­ing. Line Up festival

Commoner’s Fair 3 October

Bristol’s bright­est and best immer­sive day par­ty is back – at Loco Club, Bris­tol. The self-anoint­ed King Jamie pre­pares to wel­come rev­ellers to the 2026 Fair. Is this the dawn of a new demo­c­ra­t­ic age for the peo­ple of the Fair, or has the King’s reign of ter­ror only just begun? Gen and the Degen­er­ates, Nasty Fish­mon­ger and lots more on the line­up. Com­mon­er’s Fair tickets

Lancaster Music Festival 8–11 October

It is one of the UK’s largest urban music fes­ti­vals, where an esti­mat­ed 50,000 fes­ti­val-goers descend on Lan­cast­er city for a long week­end of music and mer­ri­ment. Over 50 venues, all eas­i­ly walk­a­ble with­in the city cen­tre, from the court­yard inside Lan­cast­er Cas­tle to cafés and cof­fee shops; through the city’s squares and out­door spaces; and in the major­i­ty of the city’s 30-odd pubs and bars. Lan­cast­er Music Festival

Home Run Soul Club 9–11 October

A soul­ful Man­ches­ter expe­ri­ence awaits at the annu­al Home Run Soul Club Week­ender. Three amaz­ing venues sit­u­at­ed on the Oxford Road cor­ri­dor – Refuge, which will host the Sat­ur­day night and Sun­day clos­ing gath­er­ings, the new North­ern Quar­ter base­ment club space of The Freemount for the Fri­day and the amaz­ing YES roof ter­race returns for the Sat­ur­day all-day­er. Line­up details to come. For more details, check the web­site. Home Run Soul Club Info and tickets

Beyond The Music 7–9 October

Man­ches­ter’s indus­try event – this is the city’s glob­al music con­fer­ence and show­case fes­ti­val which is all about build­ing a fair­er future for artists and del­e­gates. Join the rev­o­lu­tion. Beyond the Music takes place at Media City, Sal­ford, from 9:00am til 11:45pm (Last entry 7:00pm). Beyond the Music festival

No Bounds Festival 9–11 October

Lucky Sheffield gets anoth­er week­ender. Across 10 venues in Sheffield and Rother­ham, No Bounds returns with bound­ary-push­ing live per­for­mances, huge immer­sive expe­ri­ences, and mind-melt­ing moments. Par­ties, all-day­ers, hap­pen­ings, exhi­bi­tions, and talks. Head­lin­ing is Max Coop­er – and you’ll also find Blawan, Mala/Oppidan, Jen­ny Sparks, Algo­rave, Suchi and more on the exten­sive line­up. No Bounds Festival

Derby Folk Festival 9–11 October

This week­end event has plen­ty going on, not just music but work­shops, danc­ing and more. The fes­ti­val takes place at The Old Bell Hotel, Chapel Street Arts Cen­tre, and Der­by Muse­um’s Ward­wick with artists such as Sticky Bones Jones, Becky Foord, Belper Folk Club, Bob Fox, Bur­ton Folk Club, Win­ter Wil­son and many more. Buy either day or week­end tick­ets. There are free fringe events too. Der­by Folk Festival

SWN Festival 15–17 October

Cardiff”s award-win­ning mul­ti-venue music fes­ti­val, focus­ing on new music, emerg­ing artists and home­grown acts. Mas­sive line­up awaits includ­ing Dove Ellis, Bathing Suits, Lacu­na, Good Health Good Wealth, Per­son­al Train­er, Mod­ern Woman, The Orielles, The Dogs, World News, Shlug and Ifan. SWN fes­ti­val

Future Days 16–17 October

Future Days takes place at The Cross­ing, Dig­beth, Birm­ing­ham with two days of music. On Fri­day there’s Work­ing Mens Club, Ulri­ka Spacek, Sil­ver­wingkiller and Tele­vised Mind DJs. Sat­ur­day: Adult DVD, Gans, Peb­bledash and a spe­cial cur­tain rais­er set from Per­son­al Train­er. Wierd on pur­pose stage TBA. Future Days tickets

Down Stokes 17–18 October

Down Stokes is a four-day inde­pen­dent mul­ti venue cel­e­bra­tion of psych rock and post-punk, fea­tur­ing live per­for­mances in the heart of Stokes Croft, Bris­tol. Curat­ed by Vel­vet Echoes and Extra Ter­res­tri­al Pro­mo­tions. Ditz, Eno­la Gay, Home Coun­ties, Dreamwave and more are on the line­up. Down Stokes

Mutations festival 23–24 October

Muta­tions, the annu­al mul­ti-venue event is a huge part of Brighton’s busy music scene and, as always, has a tempt­ing line­up. How to get round all the venues on your list is your quandary; we know it’s a tricky one. Muta­tions Fes­ti­val takes place across ten grass­roots venues in Brighton, includ­ing the Hope and Ruin, and the Prince Albert. Fri­day includes Basht., Squid, The Besnard Lakes, BDRMM, Inse­cure Men, Lip Crit­ic and Scaler, with head­lin­ers Fat Dog and Squid. Sat­ur­day sees TTSSFU, UNKLE sounds, Fat Dog, Warhaus, The Wave Pic­tures, Pan­ic Shack and more. And head­lin­ers are Mike D Five D and Dove Ellis. Bet­ter get plan­ning. Muta­tions festival

Shoegaze and Dream Pop Weekender 6–7 November

Some­thing irre­sistible this way comes… The sixth Oth­er Side week­ender lays on a feast of shoegaze with ten live bands over two days. Healees, Pills for Tomor­row, Silk amongst oth­ers are on the line­up. Also visu­als on both nights by Dwave­hed and after­par­ties too. Plus DJ Yogi and DJ Son of Hall (Chris Mar­ron) spin­ning records between bands and after bands until 2am on both days. Buy a tick­et for an indi­vid­ual day or for both. Shoegaze and dream pop weekender

Hackney Prog Fest 7 November

Organ­ised by Sig­na­ture Brew prog lovers can get their fill at this full day cel­e­bra­tion of pro­gres­sive music, bring­ing togeth­er leg­endary inno­va­tors, mod­ern trail­blaz­ers and adven­tur­ous new voic­es for a unique fes­ti­val in the heart of East Lon­don. Car­a­van (acoustic), Kar­ma Sheen, Seas of Mirth, Z Machine and more are lined up to play for you. The fes­ti­val starts at 1pm and takes place at Sig­na­ture Brew Hag­ger­ston, locat­ed at 340 Acton Mews, Lon­don. Cheers. Hack­ney Prog Fest

Pitchfork Music Festival 2–8 November

Pitch­fork Music Fes­ti­val comes along at just the right time, it’s a musi­cal bright spot on a dark win­ter Lon­don land­scape. For a whole week, you’ll find a huge amount to choose from with a mul­ti­tude of bands and artists play­ing. Venues range from the capa­cious Round­house and Roy­al Fes­ti­val Hall, through to more inti­mate grass­roots loca­tions like Vil­lage Under­ground, Moth Club and Oslo Hack­ney. There will be an exclu­sive per­for­mance by The Avalanch­es plus Pan­da Bear and Son­ic Boom at The Round­house and Moth Club Takeovers with Greg Mendez, Rocky Rode and more. We also hearti­ly rec­om­mend Sat­ur­day’s Dal­ston Takeover: the area’s many atmos­pher­ic venues (they’re all just-about walk­a­ble) are host­ing a mul­ti­tude of artists. It’s a chance to see some rare per­for­mances and an excit­ing voy­age of dis­cov­ery – bands include, so far, Psy­che­del­ic Porn Crum­pets, Mandy, Indi­ana, Sex Mask, blood­sports and more. It’s going to be epic. Pitch­fork Music Festival

Simple Things 7 November

Bris­tol’s bril­liant win­ter music fes­ti­val with cura­tor line­ups, tak­ing place in venues all around the city. This year fea­tures Squid, The Avalanch­es, SILVERWINGKILLER, Roomer, car­o­line, Bathing Suits,and many, many more play across the city. Sim­ple Things festival

Liminal Sound 28 November

Lim­i­nal Sound takes place in New­cas­tle upon Tyne, pro­grammed by and fea­tur­ing New­cas­tle band Parasta­t­ic – their last album was on our top albums of 2025 list. Lim­i­nal is ‘music from the edges’ fea­tur­ing some of the finest estab­lished and emerg­ing artists from across the North’s alter­na­tive scene. With music from 7 artists, expect a healthy dose of fuzz, shoegaze, some post-punk action, Krautrock and exper­i­men­tal elec­tron­ics from the abstract to the down­right dance­able. Self Immo­la­tion Music // Parasta­t­ic & Late Girl // Señor Pink // Dex­tro // Spacecadet­bloom // Nadine Hur­ley // Cat­a­stroph­ic Need. 4.30–11pm. Tick­ets to Lim­i­nal Sound

Rockaway Beach 8–11 January

But­lin’s Bogn­or Reg­is is the loca­tion for this sell­out start to the year. Three nights’ accom­mo­da­tion is includ­ed in the price, with hotels, chalets and apart­ments to choose from. Music starts around 12 noon each day. There’s also head­line DJ sets, takeover par­ties and silent dis­cos. The organ­is­ers try and avoid stage clash­es, so there’s less for your fuzzy New Year head to think about. The Char­la­tans, Get­down Ser­vices, Sprints, The Twi­light Sad, Cock­ney Rejects, Opus Kink, Night­bus and more are set to per­form. Rock­away Beach

January Blues Festival 15–29 January

Jan­u­ary Blues Fes­ti­val is a month of … well, live blues at 229, Great Port­land Street, Cen­tral Lon­don, W1 from 15–29 Jan 2027. The Ani­mals, Dr Feel­go­od, Eric Bibb and Char­lie Mus­sel­white plus oth­ers per­form over the month. On the 18th, Band of Friends will be cel­e­brat­ing Rory Gal­lagher’s music at 229 Lon­don. Tick­ets for the entire fes­ti­val or to indi­vid­ual evenings. Jan­u­ary Blues Festival

Celtic Connections 14 ‑31 January

Glas­gow’s annu­al win­ter fes­ti­val has expand­ed into a mul­ti­tude of gen­res over its 30-year his­to­ry and now includes acoustic, tra­di­tion­al, indie, Amer­i­cana, jazz, blues, orches­tral, exper­i­men­tal and more. Punch Broth­ers and sup­port, Car­ton Kids and Vera Sola are just a few names to bright­en your evenings in ear­ly 2027. Celtic Con­nec­tions tick­ets here

Independent Venue Week 

Erm ok not strict­ly a fes­ti­val but #IVW is one of the most impor­tant weeks of the music cal­en­dar, espe­cial­ly dur­ing these con­tin­ued times of uncer­tain­ty for our inde­pen­dent grass­roots venues. Get out and sup­port your local music palace – and par­take of this annu­al feast of music which sees numer­ous venues host a whole slew of artists. The Trades in Heb­den Bridge is just one tak­ing part. Artists and ambas­sadors for 2027 will be announced in due course. Inde­pen­dent Venue Week

Shiiine On Weekender Skegness 19–21 March

The indie event fea­tures Babysham­bles as head­lin­ers for Sat­ur­day night. Lots else going on besides with Ash, Buz­zcocks, The Selecter, The Sul­tans of Ping, EMF, Puressence, The Dub Pis­tols, The Farm, Dub­star, Ozric Ten­ta­cles, Ban­co de Gaia, Senser, The Super­nat­u­rals, Chi­na Drum and many more. There’s a com­e­dy stage plus Tim Burgess will help bring the week­end to a close with a spe­cial Sun­day night clos­ing par­ty. Check out Shi­i­ine On Week­ender Skegness

We aim to be as accu­rate as pos­si­ble at the time of post­ing – please dou­ble check events before buy­ing tick­ets. We can­not be held respon­si­ble for inac­cu­ra­cies.
We only rec­om­mend events that we believe embody the Gourmet Gigs ethos.
There are a few affil­i­ate links for tick­et pur­chase, please buy through us as it won’t cost you any­thing but earns us a few pen­nies! Thank you