Fes­ti­val sea­son has moved into high gear. Sev­er­al have sold out (Green Man, Kendal Call­ing and Beau­ti­ful Days to name just three – and Ral­ly is close to sell­ing out) but there’s still over­all plen­ty of choice. Our list includes sev­er­al met­ro­pol­i­tan (non camp­ing) shindigs too, right into Sep­tem­ber. If you’re des­per­ate to attend a par­tic­u­lar sold-out event such as Green Man, it’s a good idea to join their Face­book Chat group, as tick­et sell­ers often warn mem­bers of their impend­ing sale on approved resale sites such as Festicks, Twick­ets and Tixel. 

Seaview festival 8 July

At the De La Warr Pavil­ion in Bex­hill on the South Coast is this one day event with a tru­ly awe­some line­up – War­m­dusch­er, Heart­worms, Pale Blue Eyes, BC Camp­light and more. With James Endea­cott on the turnta­bles plus a Bel­la Union pop-up with spe­cial appear­ances, spe­cial guests, lots of food and local ales. Seav­iew tick­ets avail­able here. Fes­ti­val starts at 1pm.

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. For tick­ets click here: 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 fes­ti­val. Con­firmed for the famous Toil Trees stage set in majes­tic wood­land are Skream, Ewan McVi­care, Gerd Jan­son, and Sherelle. Oth­er artists include Pen­du­lum, Ali­son Gold­frapp, Con­fi­dence Man, Wilkin­son, Jun­gle Broth­ers, Rene­gade Brass Band, and more. If the par­ty­ing gets a lit­tle too much you can lounge by the huge fire in the stone cir­cle or par­take in some nos­tal­gic enter­tain­ment at the site’s very own work­ing men’s club. Beat-Herder tick­ets

Kaleidoscope 15 July

DUE TO BAD WEATHER AND HIGH WINDS KALEIDOSCOPE FESTIVAL HAS JUST BEEN CANCELLED. Kalei­do­scope has become a fam­i­ly fix­ture on the day fes­ti­val cir­cuit. 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 – 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 and Gaz Coombes. Or dance at the Cloud 10 with Erol Alkan and Fabio & Grooverid­er. There’s plen­ty for younger fes­ti­val-goers 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 the Com­e­dy and Jazz week­enders. Set in Wal­pole Park, their line­up for this year includes 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 small­er South Stage plus 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 jew­ellery 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 famous names in the world of sci­ence, 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’s 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 and Til­da Swin­ton. Dis­cov­er the blue­dot . Our Review

Camp Bestival Dorset 20 – 23 July

Camp Besti­val cel­e­brates its 15th Birth­day with a fab­u­lous line­up, set in its usu­al spot of Lul­worth Cas­tle. Grace Jones is set to head­line and Craig David presents TS5. Anoth­er draw is Con­fi­dence Man will bring their unique­ly feel-good par­ty anthems whilst pop icons Melanie C and Sophie Ellis-Bex­tor also join the line up along­side Sam Ryder and Ella Hen­der­son. 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

WOMAD 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

RALLY 5 August

We like the ethos that dri­ves this new one-day event hap­pen­ing at South­wark Park, Lon­don on 5th August. RALLY strives to cre­ate oppor­tu­ni­ties for grass­roots cul­ture and pro­motes the dis­cov­ery of
new sounds and bound­ary-push­ing artists. Some of those appear­ing on the line­up include: Lau­ra Misch, PVA, Princess Nok­ie, Space Afri­ka, Yazz Ahmed, Kel­ly Lee Owens and lots more. Only a hand­ful of tick­ets left so book now at Ral­ly

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 event: ‘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. On 18th August, there’s a spe­cial “Stor­mzy Day”, offi­cial­ly called: ‘This is What We Mean”. He’ll head­line plus curate the whole day, with KehlaniSam­phaKnucksLucky Daye, WSTRN, Ms Banks and The No Sig­nal Stage. Lat­er in the month are two head­lin­ers unique to All Points East: Jun­gle (26th) and Cal­i­for­ni­ans Haim (28th) for Bank Hol­i­day Mon­day. Field Day now comes under the APE umbrel­la and fea­tures Aphex Twin, Bonobo and Jon Hop­kins. 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 stretch­es over three days. Head along to see Mum­ford & Sons, Ben Howard, Alt‑J, The Char­la­tans and DJ leg­end Pete Tong, who will be deliv­er­ing Ibiza Clas­sics with the Essen­tial Orches­tra. There’s also Amyl and The Snif­fers, The Coral and Wun­der­horse. New for this year is an expend­ed com­e­dy stage with Omid Djalili, Jason Man­ford and Dara O’Briain. For tick­ets Vic­to­ri­ous

The Big Feastival 25–27 August

The famed event tak­ing place down on Alex James’ farm in the Cotswolds, Gourmet Gigs hearti­ly approves of this music and food idyll. On the music side of things are Every­thing Every­thing, Blos­soms, Rick Ast­ley, Exam­ple, New­ton Faulkn­er. At Alex James Cheese Hub, DJs include Krafty Kuts, Stan­ton War­riors and Lot­tie. There is com­e­dy, chil­dren’s the­atre, Alice’s Adven­tures in Aeri­aland plus lots of food-relat­ed activ­i­ties. Eat, drink, dance and be mer­ry. The Big Feast­i­val tickets. 

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 with clas­si­cal, coul and jazz per­for­mances 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 for Bat­tersea Park In Con­cert here

Forwards 1 – 2 September

We were impressed with the line­up at For­wards fes­ti­val last year and they’ve pulled it out of the bag again for 2023. Bris­tol’s newest event is every­thing you want from an inner city gath­er­ing. Erykah Badu, Raye, Gabriels and Pri­ma Queen star on Fri­day, and Aphex Twin, Left­field, Jock­strap and Intoku on Sat­ur­day. The for­ward-think­ing event also has a space for debate and dis­cus­sions too. A fes­ti­val defin­ing con­cept stage – THE INFORMATION at FORWARDS – faces press­ing cul­tur­al issues head on, with no con­ver­sa­tion off lim­its. The 2023 pro­gramme will tack­le inequal­i­ty in the media, the hous­ing emer­gency, racism, sex­ism in sto­ry writ­ing, black nov­el­ists and writ­ers, queer sto­ries, pol­i­tics on Tik­Tok and more. Head­line speak­er names for 2023 include David Olu­so­ga and artist Jere­my Deller. For­wards Bris­tol tick­ets, con­ces­sion­ary priced for local residents.

All infor­ma­tion cor­rect on date of post­ing: 5 July 2023 

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