Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val has always been the per­fect event to ease your­self into fes­ti­val sea­son. It’s a chilled event with a super-friend­ly crowd and always has a great mix of fam­i­lies and dif­fer­ent ages. And as it takes place over the May Bank Hol­i­day, you’ve got a spe­cial rest and recov­ery day before fac­ing the world of work again.

The line­up for 2023 has already had the thumbs up from BT fans with Pri­mal Scream, Gogol Bor­del­lo, Gary Numan, Flog­ging Mol­ly and Echo & The Bun­ny­men. Addi­tion­al­ly there’s Via­gra Boys, Yard Act, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, She Drew The Gun, The Beths and The Mys­ter­ines. And plen­ty more.

Here’s some more good­ies – and a few changes – for this year:

A New Stage: The main stage (Pal­let Stage) will be joined this year by the wel­come addi­tion of the brand-new Big Top Stage, also in the main are­na, giv­ing you twice as much music to choose from and reliev­ing pres­sure on … 

The Wood­land Stage: If you’re after lis­ten­ing to a band in a more tran­quil set­ting, this is the place. Carved out of a piece of oak and set in a shady spot, the Wood­land has its own bar and plen­ty of room to sit under the trees. 

Mag­i­cal Sounds dance tent will be with us once again, giv­ing you the chance to immerse your­self in its psy­che­del­i­cal­ly dec­o­rat­ed won­der­ment. The pul­sat­ing struc­ture will be host­ing its usu­al mix of folk, trance, tech­no and world music. On stage this year are Scalp­ing, plus Joey Bel­tram, Ban­co De Gaia, Ed Tan­gent, Glow­bones, Dut­ty Moon­shine Soundsys­tem and plen­ty more.

This year the Maui Waui tent is back – with a wel­come return of The Bea­t­les Dub Club, plus Mor­gan­way, The Might­ly Flux, Black­thorn, Town of Cats and more. Plus anoth­er year for Con­voy Cabaret and its bizarre and enter­tain­ing mix of punk, DJs and gen­er­al madness.

If you’re in need of a rest for your weary feet, you’ll find relax­ation and cake at the gen­tle Some­thing Else Tea Tent. With its com­fy chairs and a pro­gramme of folk(ish) sounds, it’s not an easy place to tear your­self away from. In fact you might just stay here all day.

The Beard­ed The­o­ry School is a unique fea­ture, allow­ing chil­dren to have a day of learn­ing. The school, which requires offi­cial enrol­ment and per­mis­sion from the children’s respec­tive schools, runs from 9am-3pm for years Recep­tion through till Year 10 on the Fri­day. Pre­vi­ous years have includ­ed maths (how to bud­get a music fes­ti­val), P.E. class­es by Der­by Coun­ty FC, Sub­lime Sci­ence, Eng­lish, His­to­ry and loads more.

The Earth Area, Beard­ed Theory’s crafts and heal­ing space, is a beau­ti­ful area to dis­cov­er, learn and grow, what­ev­er your age. And teenagers get their own space – the Rogues Hide­out. In the day time it’s an amaz­ing area for activ­i­ties and work­shops, but by night is a bang­ing DJ and live music venue. 

Tick­ets for Teens and Chil­dren are frozen at 2022 prices. And there are month­ly pay­ment instal­ment plans to spread the cost of pur­chase up until May 2023. 

Tick­ets are on sale now. For more info on pay­ment plans, camp­ing options and facil­i­ties please check their web­site HERE.