There are plen­ty of win­ter fes­ti­vals hap­pen­ing around the coun­try, help­ing liv­en up these dark and drea­ry months. Thank­ful­ly, no tents involved.

There are a few events we’re sad to see have decid­ed to take a sab­bat­i­cal – but not sur­pris­ing with the costs involved so let’s cross our fin­gers that they come back. Nev­er­the­less there’s plen­ty going on all around the coun­try and if you know of a lit­tle fes­ti­val, even if it’s some­thing at your local pub, let us know.

These are main­ly at cities and towns around the UK with sev­er­al mul­ti-venue events, one-day or week­enders. Check these good­ies out… and check back as we are adding lots more!

Rockaway Beach 3–6 January

But­lin’s Bogn­or Reg­is is the loca­tion for this pop­u­lar event to start the year. Three nights’ accom­mo­da­tion is includ­ed in the price, with hotels, chalets and apart­ments to choose from. Music starts around 12 noon each day. There’s also head­line DJ sets, takeover par­ties and silent dis­cos. The organ­is­ers try and avoid stage clash­es, so there’s less for your fuzzy New Year head to think about. Our picks: Spir­i­tu­al­ized, Sprints, Arab Strap, Meryl Streek, Blood­worm, Bode­ga. Rock­away Beach tick­ets TICKETS SOLD OUT

Winter Sprinter 8–11 Jan

From Wednes­day to Sat­ur­day, this annu­al event at The Lex­ing­ton on Pen­tonville Road has some great bands lined up. Some tick­ets still avail­able, but fair­ly lim­it­ed. Mod­ern Nature, Trust Fund, Atlanta Dream, Hol­i­day Ghosts and many more. Check out tick­ets to Win­ter Sprint­er here

January Blues Festival 3–31 Jan

Jan­u­ary Blues Fes­ti­val is a month of live Blues music at 229, Great Port­land Street, Cen­tral Lon­don, W1 from 3–31 Jan 2025. Geno Wash­ing­ton and the Ram Jam Band will be play­ing two con­certs with The Ani­mals. Also play­ing: Kyla Brox and Mud Mor­gan­field. Tick­ets for Jan­u­ary Blues Festival

Celtic Connections 16 Jan‑2 Feb

Glas­gow’s annu­al win­ter fes­ti­val has expand­ed into a mul­ti­tude of gen­res over its 30-year his­to­ry and now includes acoustic, tra­di­tion­al, indie, Amer­i­cana, jazz, blues, orches­tral, exper­i­men­tal and more. Hay­den Thor­pe, KT Tun­stall, Ele­phant Ses­sions, Ron Pope, Lady Black­bird, Hay­seed Dix­ie, Field Music and Lloyd Cole are just a few names amongst hun­dreds on this year. Celtic Con­nec­tions tick­ets here

Lewes Psychedelic Festival
Friday 17 Jan

The ever-pop­u­lar Lewes Psy­che­del­ic Fes­ti­val 2025 at Lewes Con Club, 139 High St, Lewes. Fri­day 17th sees Miki Berenyi Trio, Gwenifer Ray­mond, Sairie. And on Sat­ur­day 18th Jan­u­ary – Heli­con, Flo­ral Image and more. Tick­ets are now sold out but there will be resales on SEE or DICE or rep­utable sec­ondary sell­ers such as Twick­ets. Lewes Psych Fest 

Independent Venue Week 27 Jan‑2 Feb

Erm ok not strict­ly a fes­ti­val but #IVW is one of the most impor­tant weeks of the music cal­en­dar, espe­cial­ly dur­ing these times of such uncer­tain­ty for our inde­pen­dent grass­roots venues. Get out and sup­port your local music palace – and par­take of this annu­al feast of music which sees venues host a whole slew of artists. The Trades in Heb­den Bridge is just one tak­ing part. Inde­pen­dent Venue Week. Bands below are tak­ing part dur­ing the week at var­i­ous venues.

The Seventh Wave 14 Feb

The Sev­enth Wave Fes­ti­val of Elec­tron­i­ca have sev­er­al nights planned, at the Cas­tle and Fal­con, Birm­ing­ham. For­get the can­dlelit din­ner and spend 14th Feb­ru­ary with this line­up: Teeth of the Sea, TVAM and BUNKR. Tick­ets for Sev­enth Wave

Country to Country 14–16 March

The biggest coun­try music fes­ti­val that takes place in Lon­don, Glas­gow and Belfast with three days of the best in coun­try music and pro­gram­ming. Per­for­mances come from the world’s best coun­try stars as well as emerg­ing tal­ent from Nashville, UK and Europe. C2C Fes­ti­val will return to Lon­don The O2, Glas­gow OVO Hydro, and The SSE Are­na, Belfast. Lainey Wil­son, Cody John­son, Drew Baldridge and many more. Coun­try to Coun­try

Dark Arts Saturday 15 March

Dark Arts is back again (whew!) with a great line­up at the Bel­grave Music Hall, Leeds. Court­ing, Home Coun­ties, No Win­dows, Hank, Glad­boy and more, with tick­ets only £17. From mid­day onwards. Dark Arts tickets 

The Winter’s End 24–27 April 

It’s prog heav­en. Win­ters End 2025 com­pletes line­up with Airbag, Haze, Cre­do and Lesoir at Chep­stow Drill Hall, Low­er Church St, Chep­stow. Yes trib­ute band Yes Please will be join­ing Sky­lines in a dou­ble head­er on the Thurs­day pre-fes­ti­val bash. Ear­ly bird tick­ets at just £120 for the week­end (Fri­day-Sun­day) or £135 for the com­plete fes­ti­val (Thurs­day-Sun­day) are still  avail­able on the Store page, as are Thurs­day night tick­ets at just £15.

Liverpool Sound City 3–4 May

Liv­er­pool’s annu­al city cen­tre bash, with music in the city cen­tre over the week­end. Pan­ic Shack, The Cheap Thrills, over­pass, Deary, The Stingrays and plen­ty more are already on the line­up. There’s sev­er­al venues to hop between, includ­ing The Ship­ping Fore­cast, arts club and Dome. For more info check out their web­site and tick­ets here.

Gigantic All Dayer Saturday 3 May 

The one-day music bash is return­ing to the fes­ti­val cir­cuit. Ris­ing-up in Bristol’s Mar­ble Fac­to­ry, Gigan­tic will be back with a colos­sal line-up of clas­sic indie sounds, stacked across 12 hours. Inspi­ral Car­pets head­line, with Ned’s Atom­ic Dust­bin, Jim Bob, The Dar­ling Buds and par­ty with Bez. There’s all day real ale and cider, street food plus lots more … tick­ets for Gigan­tic here

Takedown 4–5 April

It’s back! And this year, there will be Fero­cious Dog, Elvana, Urne, Sunk, Bad Touch, Desert Storm, Kite Thief, Lake Mal­ice, and a ton more bands and artists appear­ing. At Portsmouth Guild­hall – tick­ets and VIP tick­ets avail­able. Take­down Festi­val

Brick Lane Jazz 25–27 April

Over three days at the Tru­man Brew­ery, Vil­lage Under­ground, Rough Trade East, Rich Mix and oth­er venues, Brick Lane Jazz Fes­ti­val show­cas­es a selec­tion of artists mak­ing the biggest waves on London’s vibrant jazz scene today. There are hun­dreds of artists tak­ing part, among them Sans Soucis, Katie Tup­per, Rio Rainz Ragz Orig­i­nale, Move 78, KO Quar­tet, Allexa Nava… check out the web­site for the full list. and many more. Brick Lane Jazz Festival 

Roundhouse Three Sixty 1–30 April

What has tra­di­tion­al­ly been In the Round Fes­ti­val at the Round­house, Cam­den, has now changed to Round­house Three Six­ty. For one epic month, there’s music, spo­ken word, the­atre, visu­al arts, pod­casts, and club night. Check out the full line­up on the site. Round­house Three Sixty

Sounds From The Other City 4 May

It’s Sal­ford we’re talk­ing about, in case you won­dered, tak­ing cen­tre stage over Man­ches­ter. SFTOC, as it’s known, cham­pi­ons “new music, art and alter­na­tive under­ground cul­ture.” Line­up com­ing soon. Tick­ets will be on sale in Feb­ru­ary. SFTOC

Get Together Saturday 17 May

Sheffield­’s great all-day­er takes place with head­lin­ers Eng­lish Teacher, B C Camp­light, Moon­land­ingz, Divorce, Swim Deep plus loads more. At Kel­ham Island and Neepsend. Beer lovers should also get ready to embark on The Kel­ham Beer Mile, a unique ale trail offer­ing a taste of the city’s thriv­ing craft beer scene. Tick­ets for Get Together

Dub Pistols Boat Party Saturday 17 May

Not sure if this is a fes­ti­val but it looks fun. All aboard the Dub Boat (The Dutch Mas­ter) for the third Dub Pis­tols Boat Par­ty, 12.45pm till 5pm. It’s a cruise along the Thames, with two floors of music and great views of Lon­don. Pic­ture your­self sur­round­ed by the hap­pi­est par­ty peo­ple, all cel­e­brat­ing togeth­er. Tick­ets for Dub Pis­tols Boat Party

Main pho­to is at The Trades Heb­den Bridge #IVW24. All pho­tos are ©gourmetgigs.com
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