Sum­mer fes­ti­val sea­son is on the hori­zon at last! Here’s our annu­al fab­u­lous fes­ti­val guide to see you through from mid May to the end of September.

The fes­ti­val land­scape has been chang­ing rapid­ly over the past few years as events strug­gle to keep afloat; we’ve said good­bye to a num­ber of much-loved ones. On the upside, new­bies are emerg­ing, with an increase in non-camp­ing city fes­ti­vals in park­land. And, as ever, we cham­pi­on those inde­pen­dent fes­ti­vals who pour their hearts and souls into bring­ing their event to life each year.

Some fes­ti­vals have sold out such as Kendal Call­ing, also Green Man but you can put your­self on their Tix­el wait­list. At the date of post­ing, all our list­ed fes­ti­vals still have some tick­ets still avail­able, but don’t dawdle… 

Focus Wales 7–9 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. 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. 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

Bearded Theory 20–24 May

There’s a loaded line­up for this year’s Beard­ed The­o­ry. And the super-friend­ly Mid­lands festie now sports two big stages, leav­ing the Wood­land Stage in its shady glade for the more acoustic sounds. Pix­ies take prize posi­tion along with Fat Dog, Fero­cious Dog, Skunk Anan­sie, Get­down Ser­vices, New­dad, Sprints and many more. Beans on Toast will curate the Wood­lands stage on Sat­ur­day after­noon pre­sent­ing some choice artists. Late addi­tions include Lit­tle Grandad (who we hearti­ly rec­om­mend). And don’t for­get the Some­thing Else Tea Tent for a cup­pa, piece of cake and delight­ful com­pa­ny. Start sewing your cos­tume for Sun­day’s fan­cy dress com­pe­ti­tion – this year’s theme is “Beyond the Grave”. Lots of scope there… and you may win your­self tick­ets to next year’s fes­ti­val! Beard­ed Theory

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. There are more to be announced too. Get going on the tick­ets, they’re already on Tier 4. 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

Moovin 12–14 June 

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 there’s a stel­lar lin­up with Gilles Peter­son, DJ Paulette, Graeme Park, Ozric Ten­ta­cles, Night­mares of Wax and Groove Arma­da DJ set, Greg Wil­son and more. Over 18s only. Moovin fes­ti­val

Wild Wood 19–21 June

Wild Wood returns, mark­ing the 10 year anniver­sary of being an inde­pen­dent, com­mu­ni­ty-led, inti­mate (only 2000 atten­dees) fes­ti­val in enchant­ed wood­lands in South Cam­bridgeshire. It’s a proud­ly female-led elec­tron­ic music fes­ti­val built on con­nec­tion, cre­ativ­i­ty and musi­cal dis­cov­ery. On the line­up: Erol Alkan, Cos­mo Sofi, Call Super, Mr Scruff, Man Pow­er, Ivan Smag­ghe and loads more. For well­ness, you’ll find Sound Heal­ing, Breath­work, Reg­gae Yoga or Dis­co Yoga. Or enjoy a trip to The Wan­der­ing Wild Spa, where on Fri­day night, the spa is open for sun­set ses­sions. Tick­ets are now on the final tier. Buy Wild Wood tick­ets here

Everywhere at Once 26–28 June

Music venues get side­lined in sum­mer while fes­ti­vals take all the glo­ry – so all cred­it to new endeav­our Every­where At Once which will bring­ing music back to our grass­roots spaces, main­ly in urban loca­tions. The UK-wide event is being spear­head­ed by Music Venue Trust, Save Our Scene and  Asso­ci­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Pro­mot­ers, and the Nation­al Lot­tery to launch “the UK’s biggest fes­ti­val on your doorstep”, at hun­dreds of grass­roots music venues across the coun­try. We can’t wait to see the line­ups, which will be out soon. MVT

Kaleidoscope 11 July 

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 Roni Size. Or dance at the Cloud 10 with Groove Arma­da. There’s plen­ty for younger fes­ti­val-goers too, all set in a grassy ded­i­cat­ed kids area. Kalei­do­scope festival 

Beat-Herder 16–19 July

There’s now four days of good times to enjoy at the Rib­ble Val­ley’s famous Beat-Herder fes­ti­val. Head­lin­ing the famous Toil Trees stage set in majes­tic wood­land are Faith­less, Sig­ma and Wilkin­son. Oth­er artists include Eats Every­thing, Trans­glob­al Under­ground, Gau­di, Beardy­man, Drum Machine, Salute and more than we can men­tion. 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

WOMAD 23–26 July 

WOMAD will wel­come back its com­mu­ni­ty to the new site at Neston Park, Wilt­shire. WOMAD has announced the first wave of artists, with Green­tea Peng, Oumou San­garé, Bar­ring­ton Levy and José González to head­line. Ana Lua Caiano (Por­tu­gal), Mis­sis­sip­pi fam­i­ly band Annie and the Cald­wells and sev­en-piece West African band Bénin Inter­na­tion­al Musi­cal are also on the line­up. The fes­ti­val’s World of Words returns with talks and thought-pro­vok­ing con­ver­sa­tion; the Hip Yak Poet­ry Shack show­cas­es the best-spo­ken word artists, while the World of Well­be­ing offers an oasis of calm, com­plete with wood fired hot tubs and all-day yoga. Mean­while, at the unique Taste the World stage, per­form­ers will swap stages for stoves, shar­ing culi­nary secrets and flavours from their home­lands. WOMAD

Camp Bestival 30 July‑2 August

Lul­worth Cas­tle in Dorset is the home of Camp Besti­val, the pop­u­lar fam­i­ly-friend­ly gath­er­ing organ­ised by Rob Da Bank. Fat­boy Slim and Friends, Bastille, Self Esteem, The Guest List and Bil­ly Ocean are on the line­up. Well – the grownups’ one any­way. There are also activ­i­ties galore for young ones: Mr Tum­ble, Dick and Dom, Blip­pi, Bob­bin and many more. Those in need of recov­ery need to head to the Slo­mo Well­be­ing area with mas­sages, hot tubs, tarot and sauna ses­sions. Camp Besti­val

Wilderness 30 July‑2 August 

Wilder­ness marks it’s 15th edi­tion with gor­geous expe­ri­ences galore, escapism, cre­ativ­i­ty and joy. There are head­line sets from Scis­sor Sis­ters, The Last Din­ner Par­ty, Carl Cox, Soul­wax, St Eti­enne and Bax­ter Dury. Then there’s SISTERS – curat­ed by Annie Lennox, she will present and raise funds work of glob­al fem­i­nist organ­i­sa­tion The Cir­cle. Secret walled gar­den venue The Rid­dle returns with anoth­er line-up aimed at the phone-free dance­floor. There’s fal­con­ry, a for­ag­ing work­shop and a wild med­i­cine walk. And The Chef’s Table is the ulti­mate lake­side fine-din­ing expe­ri­ence. Wilder­ness fes­ti­val tickets

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 

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

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 70% 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 has moved from June to August with only one date remain­ing. This is due to issues with the ground at Vic­to­ria Park. The one-day event will see Mari­bou State head­lin­ing. For up to date infor­ma­tion, see the web­site Lido fes­ti­val

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

Mucky Weekender 10–12 September

Small and friend­ly, Mucky Week­ender Fes­ti­val returns to Vic­arage Farm for its sev­enth year. It’s the inde­pen­dent fes­ti­val curat­ed by Bar­ry Ash­worth and his band Dub Pis­tols. You’ll find four themed stages and a large bar venue: head­lin­ers include Goldie (Live), David Rodi­gan, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Dut­ty Moon­shine Big Band, Roni Size, Pop Will Eat Itself, Goldie Lookin Chain, Chil­dren of Zeus, Nor­man Jay MBE, and spe­cial guests The Sabres of Par­adise (Live) host­ed by Dub Pis­tols. The theme for 2026 is Cir­cus of Freaks – and fes­ti­val dress-up is encour­aged! Mucky Week­ender

Down at the Abbey 11–12 September

Down at the Abbey was on hia­tus in 2025 but Read­ing’s lit­tle fes­ti­val (no, not that Read­ing event) is back this year. The two-day event has­n’t yet post­ed its line­up but the last one was pret­ty spec­tac­u­lar with The Comet is Com­ing, Pale Blue Eyes and lots more across its two stages. Keep your eyes peeled for this one! Down at the Abbey

All infor­ma­tion cor­rect on date of post­ing: 26th March 2026