Ahh fes­ti­val sea­son! It’s not long now and we can’t wait. Here’s our fes­ti­val cal­en­dar for the sum­mer. All of those fea­tured still have lim­it­ed tick­ets avail­able. Peo­ple may be being a bit care­ful due the cost of liv­ing cri­sis but sales are nonethe­less healthy, so if there’s a fes­ti­val you’ve got your eye on, don’t delay! 

Focus Wales 4 – 6 May

Start your fes­ti­val sea­son ear­ly with this music-packed event. Focus Wales is an annu­al heavy­weight indus­try fes­ti­val tak­ing place in Wrex­ham and 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. Bil­ly Nomates, Squid, Alaskalas­ka, Adwaith, Cara Ham­mond, Haz­mat, Pri­ma Queen, Val­ley Boy Zero all fea­ture. Con­fer­ence del­e­gates include Bev­er­ley Whitrick of the Music Venue Trust. Focus Wales

The Great Escape 10 – 13 May

The Brighton-based indus­try event sees over 450 up and com­ing artists per­form at over 30 venues. Arlo Parks, The Dream Machine, Sylvie, Slant, Sor­ry, PVA, Melin Melyn, Ghost Woman and Eat Your Heart Out, plus anoth­er few hun­dred or so will play for your lis­ten­ing plea­sure over four days. No camp­ing but there’s plen­ty of accom­mo­da­tion in and around Brighton. The Great Escape 

Bearded Theory 25 – 28 May

Beard­ed The­o­ry is a quirky and super-friend­ly fam­i­ly fes­ti­val set in Der­byshire. It’s had a recent takeover and the new own­ers have cer­tain­ly pulled a great line­up out of the bag, there’s even an extra stage this year to accom­mo­date it all. See Echo & The Bun­ny­men, Pre­tenders, Gary Numan, Pigs x 7, Henge, Alv­vays, Stick in the Wheel, Flog­ging Mol­ly, Kid Kapichi and Loose Arti­cles. Reas­sur­ing­ly, Beard­ed The­o­ry tra­di­tions are set to con­tin­ue with fan­cy-dress Sun­day, and the fes­ti­val mar­vel that is Mag­i­cal Sounds dance tent. Beard­ed The­o­ry Review here

Sea Change Weekender 26 – 28 May

Sea Change in Totnes takes over some of the more quirky build­ings in the town and always offers a well-thought out and bril­liant­ly curat­ed event with some unusu­al addi­tions. This year it adds The Alba­tross com­mu­ni­ty space, run by the esteemed and adven­tur­ous Bull Inn, to its venue list. Sea Change encom­pass­es music, art, con­ver­sa­tion, film and more. Bill Ryder-Jones, Lonela­dy, Eyes of Oth­ers, and on Fri­day, a Speedy Wun­der­ground takeover fea­tur­ing Heart­worms. The new “Lazy Sun­day” will high­light region­al food and drink. The fes­ti­val has also cut all tick­et prices by 33% – can’t say fair­er than that. At the heart of Sea Change remains Drift Record shop with sign­ings, per­for­mances and great cof­fee. Week­end wrist­bands just £59.99, hur­ry tick­ets sell­ing out. Sea Change Week­ender NOW SOLD OUT

Wide Awake 27 May

This one-day­er tak­ing place in Brock­well Park in south Lon­don has quick­ly estab­lished itself as a unique, tru­ly for­ward-think­ing and inde­pen­dent event. Car­o­line Polachek is set to head­line and there’s a huge line­up includ­ing: Black Coun­try New Road, Erol Alkan, Arooj Aftab, Habibi Funk, Sun­set Roller­coast­er, Gilla Band and Lebanon Hanover. Don’t miss Ty Segall! Tick­ets and info: Wide Awake

KITE festival 9 – 11 June

KITE burst onto the scene last year and tapped into an enthu­si­as­tic audi­ence, keen to expe­ri­ence its thought­ful meld of music and talks with some big hit­ters on both counts. This year con­tin­ues its jour­ney with Suede, Hot Chip, Pre­tenders and Sofia Kour­te­sis on the music side; and on the ideas line­up are Dame Joan Collins, Mari­na Hyde, David Bad­diel, Alexi Mostrous. Plus Chris Pat­ten & Rana Mit­ter on Chi­na & The West, Rachel Reeves in con­ver­sa­tion with James Hard­ing plus many more. The fes­ti­val site is par­tic­u­lar­ly scenic: the gen­tle grounds of a Pal­la­di­an house in the Oxford­shire coun­try­side. Kite fes­ti­val
Our review

The Eden festival 8 – 11 June

Set with­in the invit­ing fam­i­ly-friend­ly vale of Rae­hills Mead­ows in Dum­friesshire, The Eden fes­ti­val spoils those attend­ing – capac­i­ty is only 5000 yet there are 10 stages fea­tur­ing over 200 acts, They cov­er all musi­cal bases from world to funk, clas­si­cal to jun­gle, acoustic to dance­hall. This year Sis­ter Sledge, Gen­er­al Levy, Henge, Elvana, Stan­ton War­riors, Pon­go, and Afriquoi are on the line­up. It’s a fam­i­ly friend­ly fes­ti­val with activ­i­ties and work­shops through­out the day­times. The Eden festival

WFR LONDON 10 June

The Water Rats in Lon­don is host­ing this all-day­er on Sat­ur­day 10th June. It’s an elec­tron­ic music fes­ti­val start­ing at 3pm and wrap­ping at 11pm. Worth see­ing for BUNKR who played a mes­meris­ing set at Oslo a while back. Also appear­ing Con­cretism, Chol­ly, Kier­an Mahon, Obscen­i­ty State, Eon­lake, Fem­me­pop and Loop­ingstar. Pre­sent­ed by Wer­ra Fox­ma Records. Tickets

The Cambridge Club 9 – 11 June

The dance-inspired line-up of The Cam­bridge Club fea­tures dis­co, funk, pop, R&B and soul leg­ends. Also find com­e­dy, talks and live pod­casts plus fam­i­ly activ­i­ties, well­ness and yoga to late night par­ties and DJs play­ing under the Orchards twin­kling lights. On the line-up: Grace Jones, Lionel Richie, Kool & The Gang, Alexan­der O’Neal, The Real Thing, Sophie Ellis-Bex­tor plus many more. The Cam­bridge Club 

Black Deer festival 16 – 18 June

Black Deer, set in Eridge Park, Kent, is a suit­ably pic­turesque rur­al spot for a fes­ti­val of Amer­i­cana. This year Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, The Pre­tenders, Steve Ear­le, Kurt Vile and the Vio­la­tors, Kather­ine Prid­dy, Lucin­da Williams are amongst many on the var­ied line­up. There’s plen­ty of Amer­i­cana style food too, includ­ing the huge­ly pop­u­lar ‘Live Fire’ chefs, brought to you by Grill­stock founders, and sto­ry­telling with the Arkansas Porch Ses­sions. Black Deer festival

Sheeptopia 1 July

Steal­ing Sheep announce the launch of Sheep­topia Fes­ti­val, an event curat­ed by them­selves and fea­tur­ing sig­nif­i­cant female and non-bina­ry artists. “Turn­ing our Sheepie dreams into real­i­ty. Join us on Sat­ur­day 1st July, for leg­endary artists and new acts too!” The Orielles, Yama Warashi, Alice Low and IAMKYAMI, Mer­maid Chunky, and ephemer­al trash-elec­tro-dis­co out­fit Chewy Shew who will be DJing an after­par­ty. Tick­ets for Sheep­topia at Future Yard

Pulp Finsbury Park 1 July

Pulp play at Fins­bury Park in north Lon­don – with sup­port from Wet Leg. “Three months ago, we asked, What exact­ly do you do for an encore?” “Well… An encore hap­pens when the crowd makes enough noise to bring the band back to the stage. So…We are play­ing in the UK & Ire­land in 2023. There­fore… Come along & make some noise. See you there ” – Jarvis Cock­er Octo­ber 2022. There are VIP tick­ets remaining 

Timber festival 7 – 9 July

Tim­ber is a beau­ti­ful event set in the Nation­al For­est, near Fearne­dock, on a 70-acre site on the Der­byshire bor­der. Join new thinkers as they chal­lenge you to re-exam­ine your rela­tion­ship with the nat­ur­al world. Gath­er with artists, musi­cians and writ­ers, as they respond and react to the for­est in bold and exhil­a­rat­ing ways. There is music from Rebec­ca Hurn, Cerys Hafana, Kather­ine Prid­dy, Sis­ter Wives and N’famady Kouy­até. There’s spo­ken word and For­est Sound Walk with Alice Boyd, plus an evening host­ed by the Kendal Moun­tain Fes­ti­val team. Tim­ber festival

Beat-Herder 13 – 16 July

There’s now four days of good times to enjoy at the Rib­ble Val­ley’s famous Beat-Herder. Con­firmed for the famous Toil Trees stage, set in a majes­tic wood­land are Skream, Ewan McVi­care, Gerd Jan­son, and Sherelle. Oth­er artists include Pen­du­lum, Ali­son Gold­frapp, Con­fi­dence Man, Wilkin­son, Bad Boy Chiller Crew – BCUC – Dub Pis­tols, Peter Hook and the Light, Jun­gle Broth­ers, Rene­gade Brass Band, and more. If the par­ty­ing gets a lit­tle too much, guests can slow the pace by loung­ing by the huge fire in the stone cir­cle, gaz­ing at the wood­land water­fall with a cof­fee, or par­tak­ing in some nos­tal­gic enter­tain­ment at the site’s very own work­ing men’s club. To expe­ri­ence Beat-Herder is to ride a roller­coast­er like no oth­er. Beat-Herder

Kaleidoscope 15 July

Kalei­do­scope has become a very wel­come fam­i­ly fix­ture on the day fes­ti­val cir­cuit. The gor­geous set­ting of Alexan­dra Palace, north Lon­don, and its park­lands comes into its own and the piece de resis­tance is the main stage. It’s set on Ally Pal­ly’s slope so every­one gets a fab­u­lous­ly clear view of the main stage action (and the Lon­don sky­line in the back­ground), so no dodg­ing about try­ing to avoid that 6‑footer in front of you. All the bet­ter then to expe­ri­ence Hot Chip this year, along with Girls of the Inter­net, Gaz Coombes and more. Or dance at the Cloud 10 with Erol Alkan, Fabio & Grooverid­er and more. Nat­u­ral­ly there’s plen­ty for kids such as Chick­en­shed The­atre and a Bub­ble­ol­o­gist, all set in a ded­i­cat­ed kids area. Kalei­do­scope fes­ti­val . Review

Ealing Blues festival 22 – 23 July

Eal­ing Blues, Lon­don’s longest run­ning blues fes­ti­val is part of the Eal­ing Fes­ti­vals series, along with their oth­er events, usu­al­ly the Com­e­dy and Jazz week­enders. Set in Wal­pole Park, they’ve just announced their line­up for this year with the Geoff Gar­bow Band, Nev­er the Bride, West Lon­don Roots Revue, The Paul Cook Blues Band and Liquorice Moon. As usu­al there will be the large, cov­ered Main Stage, the South Stage plus there’s usu­al­ly an addi­tion­al small stage in the bar area. It’s always a chilled and fun fam­i­ly event with all the usu­al fes­ti­val add-ons: food out­lets, a good bar and some craft and vin­tage stalls. Eal­ing Blues Festival

Bluedot festival 20 – 23 July

Blue­dot fes­ti­val is a per­fect mix of sci­ence, space and music, set at Jodrell Bank Obser­va­to­ry in Cheshire with the majes­tic Lovell tele­scope look­ing down benign­ly over the pro­ceed­ings. Day­times there’s talks and work­shops by the sci­ence world’s famed such as Chris Lin­tott, Mag­gie Aderin-Pocock and Mike Bern­ers-Lee. Chil­dren’s enter­tain­ment offers some cut­ting edge sci­ence work­shops and a wel­come return of the pop­u­lar Jedi Lightsaber Train­ing. There are always unex­pect­ed treats in store – a David Bowie spe­cial edi­tion of Adam Buxton’s Bug! and a screen­ing and in-con­ver­sa­tion with Moon­age Day­dream direc­tor, writer and pro­duc­er Brett Mor­gan. Music good­ies: Pave­ment, Left­field, Skin­ny Pelem­be, Róisín Mur­phy, David Holmes, Tinari­wen, Grace Jones and Young Fathers. Plus the Thurs­day night open­ing con­cert which fea­tures Max Richter. Dis­cov­er the blue­dot . Our Review

Camp Bestival Dorset 20 – 23 July

Camp Besti­val cel­e­brates its 15th Birth­day line­up with a fab­u­lous line­up, set in its usu­al spot of Lul­worth Cas­tle. Grace Jones is set to head­line, Craig David presents TS5 and the Kooks. Con­fi­dence Man will bring their unique­ly feel-good par­ty anthems to Dorset, whilst pop icons Melanie C and Sophie Ellis-Bex­tor also join the line up along­side vocal pow­er­hous­es Sam Ryder and Ella Hen­der­son. Plus, Dick & Dom, Cos­mic Kids Yoga, Junior Jun­gle and Mr Tum­ble will enter­tain fam­i­lies of all ages at the four-day cel­e­bra­tion. Get your tick­ets at Camp Besti­val Dorset 

WOMAD 27 – 30 July

The World’s fes­ti­val WOMAD (pic­tured, top) cross­es bor­ders and lan­guages to unite thou­sands in the joy of music and dance with­out lim­its. With music plus artists cook­ing up a storm at the Taste The World stage, chill­ing out at the World of Well­be­ing, cel­e­brat­ing the spo­ken word at World of Words, sci­ence explo­ration at World of Physics and children’s activ­i­ties at the World of Chil­dren. This year sees Femi Kuti and the Pos­i­tive Force, Bom­bay Bicy­cle Club, Mariza, Kate Rus­by, Horace Andy and Dub Asante Band, Mokoom­ba, Souad Mas­si and plen­ty more. WOMAD

Camp Bestival Shropshire 17 – 20 August

This is the sec­ond year of Camp Besti­val Shrop­shire after a smash hit first year. There’s plen­ty for par­ents and kids: Rudi­men­tal, The Human League, Con­fi­dence Man, Sophie Ellis-Bex­tor plus loads more. And for kids there’s Dick & Dom, Cos­mic Kids Yoga with Jaime, Extreme Bike Bat­tles and Wild Swim­ming and Cirque Bijou with a mind-bog­gling new cir­cus show ‘The Silent For­est Show’. New for this year is the Big Camp Fan­cy Dress Parade. Tick­ets at Camp Bestival

Moovin 25 – 27 August

Fun down on the farm: White­bot­tom Farm, Stock­port to be more pre­cise. This is the event to tru­ly let your hair down and dance. All week­end. Stages include The Barn, a large con­vert­ed cow shed with a huge bar for speedy ser­vice at rea­son­able prices, space to dance and hay bale seat­ing to kick back on. This year sees DJ Paulette, Lau­rent Gar­nier, Gilles Peter­son, Antony Szmierek, Winachi, Krafty Kuts, Steve Thor­pe, DJ Woody, Mr Scruff and Lau­ren plus more – many more. Moovin . For over 18s only.

All Points East August, various dates

All Points East once again takes over Vic­to­ria Park in east Lon­don for a series of day events, man­ag­ing to get some heavy-hit­ters for head­line slots. This year there are two head­lin­ers unique to All Points East: Jun­gle on Sat­ur­day 26th August and Haim (28th) for Bank Hol­i­day Mon­day. Field Day now comes under the APE umbrel­la and fea­tures Aphex Twin, Bonobo and Jon Hop­kins. And on 18th August, there’s the spe­cial “Stor­mzy Day” too, offi­cial­ly called: ‘This is What We Mean” day. He’ll head­line plus curate the whole day, with Kehlani, Sam­pha, Knucks, Lucky Daye, WSTRN, Ms Banks and The No Sig­nal Stage. As a com­mu­ni­ty fes­ti­val, there are free days with events tak­ing place dur­ing the week. For full details and tick­ets check All Points East 

Victorious 25 – 27 August

Vic­to­ri­ous is the UK’s biggest met­ro­pol­i­tan fes­ti­val and for the first time ever will be three full days. Mum­ford & Sons, Ben Howard, Alt‑J, The Char­la­tans and DJ leg­end Pete Tong, who will be deliv­er­ing Ibiza Clas­sics with the Essen­tial Orches­tra. Also Amyl and The Snif­fers, The Coral and Wun­der­horse. There’s an expend­ed com­e­dy stage with Omid Djalili, Jason Man­ford, Dara O’Briain. For tick­ets Victorious 

Battersea Park in Concert 26 – 28 August

London’s most mag­i­cal open-air con­cert series, Bat­tersea Park In Con­cert is set to host three days of stel­lar music in Bat­tersea Park with Clas­si­cal, Soul and Jazz perforhttps://www.batterseaparkinconcert.com/mances from Gabrielle, Roy­al Phil­har­mon­ic Con­cert Orches­tra, and The Ron­nie Scott’s All Stars. Oth­er per­form­ers include British sax­o­phon­ist Yolan­Da Brown, inject­ing fusions of reg­gae, jazz and soul. Unpack a pic­nic, pop the fizz and relax. Organ­ised by not-for-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion Enable. Tick­ets here

Infor­ma­tion cor­rect as of pub­li­ca­tion date 31st March 2023