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.

Also festival 10–12 July

Also Fes­ti­val, set in War­wick­shire, com­bines music, com­e­dy, food, and ideas. The fes­ti­val fea­tures a host of talks, Q&As, and work­shops, a diverse line-up of music, culi­nary expe­ri­ences, and intel­lec­tu­al explo­ration. The fes­ti­val also includes com­e­dy and activ­i­ties pro­mot­ing nature and well-being, pro­vid­ing a unique bou­tique expe­ri­ence. On the music line­up are PVA, The Rosadocs, Jack­son Roy, Ecsta­t­ic Dance and lots more. Best­selling author Sath­nam Sanghera brings his new book Tonight the Music Seems So Loud to the stage, explor­ing the extra­or­di­nary life and times of George Michael. Also fes­ti­val

Kaleidoscope 11 July 

Close to sell­out! 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 The Amy Wine­house Band. Or dance at the Cloud 10 with Groove Arma­da and Roni Size. There’s plen­ty for younger fes­ti­val-goers too, all set in a grassy ded­i­cat­ed kids area. Kalei­do­scope festival

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

Tramlines 24–26 July

SOLD OUT – check the wait­ing list. Tram­lines Fes­ti­val takes over Hills­bor­ough Park, Sheffield, with live music, com­e­dy, per­for­mance, and fam­i­ly-friend­ly enter­tain­ment. The fes­ti­val presents estab­lished acts along­side emerg­ing artists and local tal­ent, main­tain­ing strong roots in the city’s inde­pen­dent music scene. Fat­boy Slim, Wet Leg, Flo­rence Road, Wolf Alice, Lot­tery Win­ners, Courte­neers, West­side Cow­boy fea­ture. Tram­lines also has com­e­dy, cabaret, talks. Tram­lines

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 

King’s Cross Summer Sounds 13–23 August

It’s the 11th year for this FREE music fes­ti­val set in Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross. King’s Cross Sum­mer Sounds will deliv­er live con­certs every evening from 6.30pm‑8.30pm and from 1pm-6pm on ‘Fam­i­ly Sun­days’. Amongst those per­form­ing are pio­neer­ing jazz devel­op­ment char­i­ty Tomorrow’s War­riors; Amer­i­cana with a twist with Lit­tle Grandad; five mass com­mu­ni­ty choirs on one day, includ­ing Lon­don City Voic­es and West End Musi­cal Choir. Find more info here

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 had to move from June to August due to issues with the ground. The new one-day event has a great line­up, with Mari­bou State head­lin­ing, plus Kelis, Folam­our, Theo Par­rish, b2b, Moody­mann and many oth­ers set to per­form. Added to the line­up are jazz musi­cian and spo­ken-word artist Alabaster de Plume, the bril­liant Kel­ly Lee Owens (DJ set), north Lon­don musi­cians Mad­Mad­Mad and a whole host more. 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

Read­ing’s fes­ti­val (no, not that one) is back this year. The two-day event, atmos­pher­i­cal­ly set in the Abbey ruins fea­tures Antony Szmierek, Nubiyan Twist, Kathryn Joseph, Rose Rey, Joshua Ide­hen, Ibibio Sound Machine and more. 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

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

Under the Sun 6 June – 8 August

You’ll dis­cov­er Under the Sun nes­tled in the gor­geous green space of Calthor­pe Com­mu­ni­ty Gar­den in King’s Cross. It’s a flower-filled gar­den which has been nur­tur­ing com­mu­ni­ty events for over 40 years. And Under the Sun, organ­ised by inde­pen­dent pro­mot­ers Wood­burn­er and Mag­net­ic Live is tru­ly a com­mu­ni­ty effort. This year fea­tures: the Malaw­ian duo Madal­it­so Band, singer-song­writer New­ton Faulkn­er, king of cool Reuben James, soul­ful vocal­ist Face­soul, along­side Kora vir­tu­oso Seck­ou Kei­ta, Celtic folk quin­tet Scot­tish Fish, and esteemed harpist Catrin Finch. Under the Sun

Everywhere at Once 26–28 June

Music venues get side­lined in sum­mer while fes­ti­vals take all the glo­ry – so all cred­it to Every­where At Once, bring­ing music back to our grass­roots spaces, main­ly in urban loca­tions. More than 2000 artists will per­form at over 400 grass­roots music venues across the UK. Fat­boy Slim, Becky Hill, Tinie Tem­pah, Glenn Tilbrook and The Lath­ums are play­ing spe­cial inti­mate shows to shine a spot­light on these impor­tant spaces. Oth­er artists include Lucy Sprag­gan, Gene, D Dou­ble E, P Mon­ey, Todd­la T, The Divine Com­e­dy. Pre­sent­ed by the Music Venue Trust. Keep check­ing the web­site for updates! Every­where at Once

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.

Love Supreme festival 3–5 July

Love Supreme Fes­ti­val offers jazz, soul, and funk in the scenic grounds of Glyn­de Place in East Sus­sex. World-class per­for­mances and a relaxed, fam­i­ly-friend­ly atmos­phere awaits. Plus late-night sets, well­ness activ­i­ties, talks, and ded­i­cat­ed cre­ative spaces. Ezra Col­lec­tive, Jalen Ngon­da, Maze, Frank Moody, The Temp­ta­tions and The Four Tops, Sis­ter Sledge, Gabrielle and more all per­form. Love Supreme

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