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

Most­ly 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!

WOMEX 23–28 October

Man­ches­ter is the host part­ner this year for WOMEX (World­wide Music Expo), with a full music and film line-up. Open­ing con­cert at The Bridge­wa­ter Hall on 23rd Octo­ber host­ed by Manchester’s DJ Paulette. Venues include Albert Hall, Man­ches­ter Cen­tral and HOME; artists include Mit­sune, Bal­i­maya Project and Hon­eyfeet. For pub­lic tick­ets for WOMEX 24 vis­it the WOMEX Fes­ti­val website

Boia festival 25–27 October

Bode­ga, The Zutons, Lanterns on the Lake, Rozi Plain, Pic­tish Trail, The Gen­tle Good, Sara Wolff, Desert Life plus more… all hap­pen­ing at St David’s, Pem­brokeshire. Sev­er­al venues are host­ing the gigs so get your wrist­band and enjoy any num­ber of artists. Lim­it­ed tick­ets remain, rush over to Boia Fes­ti­val here

Favourite Days 6–10 November

Liv­er­pool is the des­ti­na­tion for this new event, tak­ing over the city at var­i­ous grass­roots venues: Jacaran­da Baltic, Leaf, Fur­nace and more. Acts are being added to a juicy col­lec­tion already on their line­ups. Check out: The Howlers, Arxx, Bal­anc­ing Act, Requiem Blues, Yard Act, Sprints… Favourite Days tick­ets here

Drumsheds – September to December

Not strict­ly a fes­ti­val but we decid­ed to slip this cool venue in here… there’s loads hap­pen­ing for the third series at Drumsheds, the venue locat­ed at Tot­ten­ham Hale in north Lon­don. The vast indus­tri­al ware­house space fea­tures DJs and live acts and high-spec pro­duc­tion. Over the com­ing months, check out ANZ, BATU, BICEP, BLAWAN, DJ STORM B2B DJ FLIGHT, KONSHENS, MAJOR LEAGUE DJZ, ELIZA ROSE, DJ STINGRAY, PENDULUM, MALA, KODE9, TSHA, LOGIC1000 and more. Tick­ets for Drumshed here

Tomorrow’s Ghosts 1–3 November

Spooky stuff galore at Whit­by Pavil­ion for the annu­al Hal­loween gath­er­ing. Creep­er, Peter Hook, Ist Ist, Kata­to­nia, Black Dol­drums are just a few of the artists on stage this year. Part­ner­ing again with the Sophie Lan­cast­er Foun­da­tion, this fes­ti­val is a true cel­e­bra­tion of indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, music and cul­ture where all are wel­comed to be their authen­tic and dark self. Tick­ets for Tomor­row’s Ghosts avail­able now!

Mutations festival 5–9 November

There’s a phe­nom­i­nal amount going on at Muta­tions over the five days, from big names to emerg­ing artists. Here’s just a sam­ple: Kneecap, War­m­dusch­er, Casis­dead, Deary, Dora, Mer­cury Rev, Nov­el­ist, Jane Weaver, Sprints, Loy­al­ty… Per­for­mances take place at a total of nine grass­roots venues in Brighton. Get your wrist­band and get ready for a music onslaught. Muta­tions festival

Yours to Keep 9 November

Hud­der­s­field­’s one day fes­ti­val – Sat­ur­day 9th, at The Parish. The fes­ti­val will also fea­ture Pale Blue Eyes, Fried­berg, Shelf Lives, Grand­mas House, Sil­ver­backs, Maria Uzor, Nature TV, Duvet, Mewn, Ophe­li­ah, Pol­e­vaulter, Cal­lis, The Will Yates Expe­ri­ence, Gravy, Paid By Cash, and Pen­nine Suite. We’ve fea­tured up and com­ing Tod­mor­den-based Cal­lis band here. Check out Yours to Keep page 

Louder than Words 15–17 November

The UK’s biggest Music Lit Fest, Loud­er than Words has plen­ty going on. There are in con­ver­sa­tions, pan­el dis­cus­sions, book sign­ings and plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties for social­is­ing. It’s all hap­pen­ing in Man­ches­ter at the Inn­side Hotel. Tick­ets are avail­able here

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

January Blues Festival 3 – 31 January

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 avail­able here

Celtic Connections 16 Jan- 2 February

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

Independent Venue Week 27 Jan – 2 February

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

Simple Things February

Bris­tol’s fes­ti­val heads into its 11th year. It’s hap­pen­ing but there are no line­up announce­ments yet… this is a mul­ti venue event hap­pen­ing around the city cen­tre, with venues close to each oth­er. Info to come!

Fes­ti­val info is cor­rect at time of going live.