UK Festival Calendar 2026: Every Date You Need to Know
Glastonbury is taking its fallow year. The farm needs a rest, the Eavis family have earned a breather, and the rest of the UK festival scene has responded exactly as you'd hope — by stepping up. Whether you're a devoted tent-dweller or a day-tripper, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most loaded summers on record.
We've compiled every major UK festival below, with confirmed dates, locations, headliners and ticket links. Scroll through or jump to a month. We've also picked out ten international festivals worth having on your radar — from Barcelona to Budapest, and Chicago to the Nevada desert.
If you buy tickets through our links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
⚠️ A note on Glastonbury
Glastonbury won't be happening in 2026. The festival takes a fallow year every five or six years to let Worthy Farm recover — the land, the infrastructure and frankly the people who run it all need it. The next edition will be summer 2027. In the meantime, this is your guide to everything else.
May
Slam Dunk Festival
23 May (South — Hatfield Park, Hertfordshire) · 24 May (North — Temple Newsam, Leeds)
The UK's premier pop-punk and alternative festival returns for its two-city one-day format. If you grew up on Paramore, Taking Back Sunday and Neck Deep, this is your weekend. The atmosphere is reliably brilliant — high energy, zero pretension, and everyone knows every word.
Get tickets via Skiddle → · slamdunkfestival.com
June
Download Festival
12–14 June 2026 (camping from 10 June) · Donington Park, Leicestershire
The 23rd edition of the UK's biggest rock and metal festival, and it's brought out some serious firepower: Limp Bizkit, Guns N' Roses and Linkin Park headline across the three main nights. Whatever you think of the nostalgia-heavy booking policy, there's no denying it works — Donington goes off every year.
Get tickets via Skiddle → · downloadfestival.co.uk
Lido Festival
12–13 June 2026 · Victoria Park, London
A two-day London festival that punches well above its weight. The 2026 lineup — Father John Misty, CMAT, Sharon Van Etten, Maribou State, Kelis — is the kind of bill that makes you wonder why more people aren't talking about it. If you want quality over spectacle, Lido is one of the summer's best-kept secrets.
Isle of Wight Festival
18–21 June 2026 · Seaclose Park, Newport, Isle of Wight
One of Britain's oldest and most storied festivals, and one that carries a genuine sense of place. The ferry crossing is part of the experience. Broad in its booking, loyal in its audience, and reliably good fun across four days.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · isleofwightfestival.com
TRNSMT
19–21 June 2026 · Glasgow Green, Glasgow
Scotland's biggest music festival — and one of the best settings in UK festival culture. Glasgow Green in June, with the city skyline behind you and 50,000 people losing it, is genuinely hard to beat. Strong indie and rock bookings, reliably loud crowd.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · trnsmtfest.com
Parklife
20–21 June 2026 · Heaton Park, Manchester
Manchester's flagship summer festival, and one of the sharpest-booked events in the UK for urban, electronic and pop crossover acts. Two days, consistently strong lineups, and a crowd that actually dresses up. If you haven't been, go.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · parklife.uk.com
July
Latitude Festival
23–26 July 2026 · Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk
The thinking person's camping festival. Latitude's combination of music, comedy, theatre and literature in the Suffolk countryside has made it the default choice for people who want a full cultural weekend rather than just a gig. Beautiful site, warm crowd, sensible approach to children and families.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · latitudefestival.com
Truck Festival
23–26 July 2026 · Hill Farm, Steventon, Oxfordshire
Truck has been doing independent, curated, genuinely warm festival culture since 1998. It remains one of the friendliest festivals on the circuit — the kind of place where the bar queue becomes a conversation and the lineup always has at least three acts you've never heard of but end up obsessing over.
Get tickets via See Tickets → · truckfestival.com
Wilderness Festival
30 July – 2 August 2026 · Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire
Wilderness sits at the boutique, grown-up end of the spectrum — music, arts, food, debate and woodland spa facilities, all in the Oxfordshire countryside. The lineup is always eclectic and thoughtfully put together. It costs more than most, but it delivers more than most.
Get tickets via Skiddle → · wildernessfestival.com
August
Boardmasters
5–8 August 2026 · Watergate Bay, Newquay, Cornwall
Surfing, skating, music and the Cornish coast — the setting alone makes Boardmasters one of the most distinctive festivals in the UK. The lineup has improved year on year, and the combination of beach culture and live music has a looseness and joy that the big city festivals can't quite replicate.
Get tickets via Skiddle → · boardmasters.com
Boomtown Fair
12–16 August 2026 · Matterley Estate, near Winchester, Hampshire
The most immersive festival in the UK by a considerable distance. Boomtown builds a full narrative city every year — each district with its own look, feel, cast of characters and storyline — and fills it with reggae, dub, electronic, world music and everything in between. It is genuinely unlike anything else. It is also genuinely not for everyone. If it sounds like your thing, it almost certainly is.
Get tickets via Skiddle → · boomtownfair.co.uk
Green Man Festival (SOLD OUT)
20–23 August 2026 · Glanusk Estate, Brecon Beacons, Wales
If Green Man had more tickets to sell, it would be one of the most talked-about festivals in the country. The lineup is consistently excellent — curated in the truest sense, without the need to chase big commercial names — and the setting in the Brecon Beacons is among the most beautiful in UK festival culture. Sold out for 2026, but worth knowing about for 2027. Put it on the list now.
All Points East
22–30 August 2026 · Victoria Park, London
London's most ambitious festival format returns with a typically wide-ranging lineup across multiple weekends. Lorde, Tyler the Creator, Twenty One Pilots and Deftones headline individual days — it's a genuinely diverse bill, and Victoria Park in late August remains one of the great city festival settings.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · allpointseastfestival.com
Reading & Leeds Festival
27–30 August 2026 · Richfield Avenue, Reading · Bramham Park, Leeds
The August bank holiday institution, and in the absence of Glastonbury, the biggest story of the UK festival summer. Charli XCX, Chase & Status, Dave, Florence + the Machine, Fontaines D.C. and RAYE headline — an all-British top of the bill that reflects exactly where UK music is right now. It's the first time since the early 2000s that R&L has looked this confident about homegrown headliners, and it's hard to argue with the logic.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · readingandleedsfestival.com
Creamfields
27–30 August 2026 · Daresbury Estate, Cheshire
The UK's biggest and best dance festival. Calvin Harris, Tiësto, Sonny Fodera and Underworld are among the headliners for 2026 — a lineup that covers the full electronic spectrum, from stadium house to classic rave to underground techno. Four stages, four days, 70,000 capacity. The Bank Holiday long weekend at its most unapologetically hedonistic.
Get tickets via Ticketmaster → · creamfields.com
September
End of the Road
3–6 September 2026 · Larmer Tree Gardens, Cranborne Chase, Dorset
The connoisseur's festival, and one that gets better every year it hasn't sold out. Larmer Tree Gardens — a Victorian pleasure ground in Dorset — is one of the most beautiful festival sites in existence. The 2026 lineup includes Super Furry Animals, Lucinda Williams and Kurt Vile, which is about as End of the Road as End of the Road gets. Intimate, impeccably programmed, and the kind of place where you genuinely don't check your phone.
Get tickets via Skiddle → · endoftheroadfestival.com
🌍 International Highlights
Not ready to stay in the UK? Here are ten festivals worth getting on a plane for — and most of them are accessible enough from the UK to make a long weekend of it.
Coachella — 🇺🇸 USA
10–12 & 17–19 April 2026 · Empire Polo Club, Indio, California
Two-weekend behemoth in the Californian desert. The benchmark for festival production globally, and still the one that sets the conversation. Worth going once, even if only to confirm your suspicions that UK festivals are better value for money.
EDC Las Vegas — 🇺🇸 USA
15–17 May 2026 · Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Nevada
Electric Daisy Carnival is the largest electronic music festival in North America — 170,000 people over three nights in the desert, with production values that make most European festivals look modest. If dance music and spectacle are your thing, this is worth the long-haul flight.
Primavera Sound — 🇪🇸 Spain (SOLD OUT)
4–6 June 2026 · Parc del Fòrum, Barcelona
Sold out for the second consecutive year, and the 2026 lineup makes it easy to see why: The Cure, Gorillaz, Doja Cat, Massive Attack, The xx, My Bloody Valentine — it's one of the strongest bills in European festival history. If you can get a ticket, go. If you can't, add it to next year's list and buy the moment they go on sale.
Sónar — 🇪🇸 Spain
18–20 June 2026 · Fira Gran Via, Barcelona
Where Primavera Sound is for the indie and alternative crowd, Sónar is for the electronic faithful. Thirty-plus years of advanced music and creative technology, in a city that does late nights better than almost anywhere on earth. The 2026 edition moves day and night into one unified venue for the first time.
Roskilde Festival — 🇩🇰 Denmark
27 June – 4 July 2026 · Roskilde, Denmark
The most underrated major festival in Europe. Eight days, non-profit, politically engaged, with a curation that puts most UK festivals to shame. If you've never been, the commitment required — it's a week, in Denmark — is exactly the point. Roskilde is a proper festival experience, not just a gig.
Tomorrowland — 🇧🇪 Belgium
17–19 & 24–26 July 2026 · De Schorre, Boom, Belgium
The most visually spectacular festival in the world. Two weekends, 200,000 attendees, stage sets that cost more than most UK festivals' entire budgets. Tomorrowland is electronic music at its most theatrical — not for purists, but extraordinary as an experience.
Fuji Rock Festival — 🇯🇵 Japan
24–26 July 2026 · Naeba Ski Resort, Niigata, Japan
Japan's most celebrated music festival, held at altitude in the mountains three hours from Tokyo. Fuji Rock has a reputation for being the cleanest, most well-organised, most genuinely pleasant festival experience on earth — which, depending on your attitude to mud and chaos, is either very appealing or slightly beside the point. Massive Attack are among the 2026 headliners.
Lollapalooza — 🇺🇸 USA
30 July – 2 August 2026 · Grant Park, Chicago
The original city-park festival format, and still one of the best. Four days in the heart of Chicago, with a lineup that spans rock, hip-hop, electronic and pop. The backdrop of the Chicago skyline is genuinely something.
Sziget Festival — 🇭🇺 Hungary
11–15 August 2026 · Óbudai Island, Budapest
The "Island of Freedom" — five days on a Danube island in the middle of Budapest, with 100,000 daily visitors and a bill that goes harder every year. Florence + the Machine and Lewis Capaldi are among the 2026 headliners. Budapest is one of Europe's most beautiful and affordable cities. Stay a few days either side. You won't regret it.
Burning Man — 🇺🇸 USA
30 August – 6 September 2026 · Black Rock City, Nevada
There's no traditional lineup at Burning Man, and that's partly the point. A temporary city of 70,000 people built in the Nevada desert, then dismantled without a trace — art installations, electronic music, radical self-reliance and a week-long experiment in what community can look like when you remove commerce. Not a festival in the conventional sense. Genuinely unlike anything else on this list.
Festival Essentials
Wherever you're going this summer, you'll want to be prepared. A decent waterproof is non-negotiable — even Cornish August has its moments — and if you're camping, the difference between a £30 tent and a decent one is the difference between sleeping and lying awake listening to it leak.
Mountain Warehouse and Decathlon are both worth a look for gear that does the job without costing a fortune. And if you're travelling by train this summer — which, frankly, you should be — Trainline makes it easier to compare times and prices across the whole network.
If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you.
