Awesome Independent Festivals Happening in the UK in 2026

We've lost a LOT of great festivals over the last few years, shoutout to Balter, Nozstock, Hogsozzle, Wilkestock, Curious Yellow, Bluedot, Illusive etc, we will never forget you, but there's never been a better time for some new names to rise to the top of the independent festival scene in the UK.

Here are some independent festivals that you might not have heard of but are going to be popping right off this year. I don't have photos for all, some haven't happened yet and some I haven't been to or wasn't able to nag friends for photos, please feel free to share your own photos with me via instagram @katyclouds. I'll add to this list as more festivals get recommended, so pop your favourite independent event in the comments below.

Gemfest, 11th June - 14th June 2026, Malmesbury

Lineup Highlights: High Contrast, The Shapeshifters

If you ever went to WOMAD in Malmesbury you'll already be familiar with the beautiful estate this gem of a festival is held at, Charlton Park is perfect for an event like this. Gemfest has been popping up more and more on my socials and it's looking like it's the perfect mix of Dubstep, Techno, Jungle and D&B to create a brand new rising star of the grassroots festival scene - definitely one to think of if you want to support the rebirth of independent festivals in the UK as the team behind it are super experienced and know exactly what they are doing! There's lots of immersive theatre at this one and if you like quests and challenges, follow the wizard ;-)

Moovin Festival, 12th June to 14th June 2026, Stockport

Lineup Highlights: Nightmares On Wax, Quantic, Mungo's Hifi

Moovin Festival has 11 years under it's belt so far and this festival has kept itself small, but looks packed with arts and culture and a line-up that rivals some of the biggest. I'm a HUGE Mungo's HiFi fan and try to see them at least a couple of times a year, especially excited about dancing to their absolute classic dancehall in a more intimate setting. As well as some wonderfully themed stages and lots of fun extras, they have actual real flushing toilets...

Ground Rules, 19th to 21st June, Deene Park, Northampton

Real ones will know what a weekend at Deene Park means, and for those who haven't experienced it, you should. This brand new independent festival will showcase art, theatre and music from Acid House to Banghra and from Techno to Bardcore, so there's going to be something for all of your crew to discover. Held on the grounds that have housed Illusive for the last decade, this is bound to be a reunion of sorts...but without the camping. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to pan out as the location is quite out of the way, I'm guessing there will be a whole bunch of packed laybys around the areas...one to watch...

Landed, 24th to 26th July 2026, Mid Wales

Credit Zoe Soane, 2017

I last went to Landed nearly ten years ago and it's stuck in my mind as one of the most beautiful weekends. It's set in a magical location in the Welsh valleys, surrounded by a fast flowing river and in the grounds of a manor house with a mysterious past. I didn't know this was still going after Covid, and I'm thrilled to see that not only has it survived but appears to have got even better (and not that much bigger!) in the time I haven't been. It's one of the most child-friendly festivals I've been to, with a barefoot tribe of kids running absolutely riot around the campsites brandishing wooden swords and shields, the biggest rubber duck race you ever saw (adults should decorate a duck too, mind, it's compulsory) and a vibe that genuinely makes everyone feel welcome. These people actually know how to throw a party, so expect seriously eclectic music and ridiculous theatre. I'm adding this to my must-gos this summer!

Wickham Festival, 30th July to 2nd August, Hampshire

Lineup Highlights: The Proclaimers and Amy Winehouse Original Band

A few years ago I attended Wickham festival as a bar supervisor and it was one of the strangest weekends of my life which I do not say lightly. From drinking homemade honey mead at 5am to working some of the longest shifts ever on a bar made out of a fairground ride with an enormous racist moose hanging from the front, so much happened at this funny little local festival that it's kept a place in my heart ever since. There's everything from yoga to silent disco to theatre and storytelling, plus the line-up is usually surprisingly good for such a small event, the location is lovely and it's cheap and family friendly. 

Maui Waui, 28th to 30th August 2026, Suffolk

Credit: The Turner Brothers

Line-up Highlights:  Dub Pistols, Dreadzone and Phil Hartnoll from Orbital

We first learnt about Maui Waui at Bearded Theory festival, and incredible little festival near Derby that I would have included on this list had they not recently sold part of their endeavour to the big LN. The Maui Waui stage was incredible, with huge tentacles and amazing music, as well as a cute area for VIP and crew to relax and get away from the hubbub. Finding out it was an entirely separate festival in it's own right made we want to go, and then I found out The Turner Brothers were playing the festival last year too! I couldn't attend due to prior commitments but it looks SO fun it's definitely on my list for this year. Not only do kids go free which is wonderful for families, but the whole weekend looks packed out with live bands, comedy cabaret and art.

Foundations, 28th to 30th August, Huntingdon

Foundations has been in the making for a while, and lots of people I've met over the years are getting excited about it actually coming to fruition this year. With the ethos of the free party movement and fully independent, it's been the one most might be talking about, but other than the list of sound systems on their website I'm struggling to find more info about the festival itself, including the full line-up. Held on the site of Secret Garden Party, so you know it's likely to be of a similar vibe, but the venue is incredible with swimmable lakes, hidden woods and lots of potential...

Sound City, 4th to 6th September 2026, Gloucester

Credit: Annie Smith

We needed something to fill this weekend, and by all accounts it seems that Sound City has everything we could have wished for.  Not to be confused with the Liverpool based festival of the same name, Sound City has it's roots in sound system culture, three mega sound systems come together to create a spectacularly loud, fun and intimate weekend. I'll update this with line-up highlights when the line-up for this drops! 

Mucky Weekender, 10th September to 12th September, Winchester

Credit: Me

Lineup Highlights: David Rodigan, Leftfield, Krafty Kuts, Ed Solo and Deekline...so many great artists!

Last year was my first at this wicked little festival and I am so glad I went, the line-up is always incredible, as you would expect considering it's run by the Ashcroft family and the Dub Pistols. Featuring lineup line up line up. It's a slightly older, experienced party crowd with some seriously fun stages, I love the UFO in the woods, blasting Ed Solo and Deekline out to the muddiest most joyful crowd I'd ever seen. It's a really great vibe here, bring your best mates and enjoy the last proper festival weekend of the summer with a bunch of like-minded people, There's also lots of sober options, from functional and adaptogenic drinks to food laced with Lions Mane. See you there this summer!

Five MORE reasons to grab a last minute ticket to Curious Yellow - UPDATED DISCOUNT CODES!!

It's two sleeps until Curious Yellow and I'm beyond excited. My bags are packed, the chat group is buzzing and the weather is looking amazing.

There's still a few tickets left for sale, here are my (updated for 2018 but you can read the original post here) top five reasons for snapping one up...

1. The music is going to be AMAZING

Every year the team manage to put together a completely eclectic and original line-up with bands, artists and workshops that will blow your mind. One of my favourite things to come out of this event is collaborations between artists that met in the gardens. This year, (I hope I'm not breaking any of the secret line-up rules by saying this I probably am!) I know that The Turner Brothers (woop!), Sweetcornbread and Bare Jams, three of my Curious favourites are all set to play. I'm hoping that the Turner Brothers are going to be joined by our favourite rapping, beat boxing flute player, Archie XN Trick, whose been bashing out some fab content recently and will fit in perfectly to the Turner's party sound. In previously years we've enjoyed fab harmonies in the Once In A Blue Moon tipi with The Midnights, amazing singing bowls from the Consciousness Collective and serious late night dance beats from the Curious Yellow DJ's - I can't wait to see what is in store this year.

(Photos from the Curious Yellow Facebook Page - click here for more)

2. The Gardens

I feel like I have said it before (just a few times?) but the Gibberd Garden is one of my all time favourite places in the UK. Last year I know a couple got married there so I'm kind of jealous that they stole my idea, because the setting is so romantic and wild that I can't honestly think of a better venue to say your vows. This will be our forth year returning to the valley, each year I've taken photos of the foliage and it gets better each year. The best part is the undergrowth along the freshwater stream, giant leaves, dragonflies and tropical-looking flowers leading to a magical stone tower with a perfect lily pool at the top. Note to self - stay away from the poisonous Giant Hogweed!

3. Friends

We had an amazing group at Hogsozzle a few weeks ago and most of the same people seem to have snapped up tickets already so I'm thrilled to be spending the weekend with my besties and a bunch of people who haven't ever experienced Curious. The actual festival is in it's 6th year, with this being the 4th at the Gibberd Gardens. There's a quite substantial bunch of 'regulars' and it will be seriously joyous to see their faces round every corner again this year but the best thing to be is a newbie that gets to experience everything for the first time - if you haven't been before, grab a few of your most spontaneous and fun friends and snap up a ticket using the links below, I promise you won't regret it!

4. The Theme

Not going to lie, when I first heard the theme I didn't get it, but after a lot of thought, and some helpful posts from the Curious crew I think I've got an idea. 'Fruit' is a pretty strange theme for a festival but it reflects everything crazy and fun about the weekend and there are loads of ways to interpret it - I can't wait to see how people have taken the theme and run with it! I'm making an updated, fruity, curious and yellow version of my light-up crown and taking a few fun, fruity themed outfits which I'll be sharing over on my Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/katyclouds.

5. The Weirdness

UK festivals get more commercial every year. Tickets are expensive to most of the big weekends. Everyone seems to be wearing the same thing. The same bands do the festival circuit and if you go to a few the chances are you will see something the same. Curious Yellow breaks the mould completely with a weekend of love, warmth and partying like there is no tomorrow. Everything is done in the CY way from magicians in the undergrowth to getting your water from a freshwater spring right in the middle of the garden. Spending your Saturday following the sculpture trail and discovering new corners of the garden, your Sunday rolling around in cocktails and listening to music you will be hard-pressed to find again in such a great setting - Curious is different. escapist and hedonistic and definitely worth the £90 ticket price for the weekend.

So, if you want a ticket, there's still (just) time.

• Go here: https://curiousyellow.co.uk/event/curious-yellow-2018/

• Enter your details and use the code 10TURNER2018 for an extra £10 off the ticket price.

• Receive your ticket and get packing!

(thanks Darren Kern Photography for this fab photo of 2018's set up)

I can't wait to see you in the sunshine this weekend - feel free to drop me a note if you are coming along, we are organising a convoy from Hertfordshire and the more the merrier!

Katy x

First Festival Of The Year - Hogsozzle 2018

Does anyone else feel like this winter has gone on for several hundred years? I've forgotten what sunshine feels like on my skin and I can't remember the last time I drank rum out of a grass-filled plastic cup. Honestly, these last few weeks of Arctic weather and cloudy skies has kind of taken it out of me.

So, finally, the Eternal Winter is over and SPRING is on the horizon. That means it's time for the band to start booking up festivals, yay! For the last three years I've been lucky enough to go to Hogsozzle in Hertford during the last bank holiday in May with our friends, an 11-piece band called The Turner Brothers - all my posts about the band and their gigs are linked here.  This year the fun starts on the 25th of May and goes on until 27th - get your ticket by clicking here!

I've shared so many pictures of Hogsozzle over the last few years that some of these may be familiar if you have ever read one of my festival roundups, but I've grouped my all time favourite pics by year throughout this post anyway, because you can't have enough festival throwback pics on freezing Spring days, right?

Hogsozzle 2015...

...more 2015

As the band have played the festival for the last four years running, they aren't on the line-up this year, but I'm hoping this won't stop us heading over yonder hill to the custom built festival site (the guys run Wilkestock from the same site later in the Summer!) and getting ridiculous - we've seen several of the same people year in, year out so I'm looking forward to reconnecting with all the friends we've met over the years.

Hogsozzle is a small festival with a friendly vibe and a serious focus on looking and being as silly as possible. My favourite thing to do there is to sit on one of the huge torn sofas perched on top of the hill and just watch the craziness happening all around.

 ...2016 continued

 Every year the staples of what makes this a joyful start to the festival season stay the same. A glorious powdered paint fight, a couple of huge sizzling Hogs (included in your ticket price) and a line-up of some seriously awesome dance and entertainment acts as well as some of the best fancy dress we've seen in the last few years - and it's one of the cheapest around too. You can snap up tickets on their official site by clicking here.

Hogsozzle 2017...

...more 2017

I would love to try out their luxury camping this time round, each year we've have created our own little campsite area with gazebos and lights but I think trying the luxury camping would be super fun - there's bell tents for hire and the whole thing is set up ready when you get there. I'll be doing some camping and festival essential guides in the coming weeks as we dig our kit out from under the Christmas tree and everything else we've piled on top and I'm always looking for recommendations and gadgets to take camping. This year my essentials are going to include a solar powered fan, some kind of non-heavy, easy to carry chair situation and a battery charger that doesn't blow my phone battery with two uses - please do pop your recommendations below.

The line-up is looking pretty sweet too, no word yet on whether our dance tent favourites Mirrored Theory are going to be playing a set but I do know that Scratch Perverts have a slot and there's a DJ set by Dub Pistols which I can't wait to get down to but the biggest draw for me is the fancy dress. This years theme is pretty generic and I think you could probably dress up as basically whatever you wanted if you put a bit of thought into your backstory - Fantasies & Fairytales. Don't forget my shopping and inspiration guides if you are stuck for fancy dress ideas, just click the images below.

Will you be coming to Hogsozzle this year, or any other boutique festivals? Buy your Hogsozzle ticket here and let me know you are coming, I'd love to join you for a dance in the Pig Pen! I'd be interested to hear about more small, friendly weekends we can get booked in for the summer. After the last few months of snow, ice and staying in I'm definitely ready to start planning an epic summer. Don't forget to drop a comment down below if you've read this far, it really means a lot to me when people comment on my blog posts :)

Curious On The Horizon - My Favourite British Festival

I have a guest post up on the Curious Blog! **click here to be magically transported**

I usually start my festival posts with a countdown, but I'm going to forgo that today. The reason being, the sheer pain of getting through another weekend of normality before we are finally let loose at Curious Yellow after a year of waiting is too much,

When I arrived at Curious Yellow last year I took it upon myself to enjoy every single moment that we were blessed with inside those high hedges. I'd looked forward to it so intensely that I was certain it wasn't going to match up to my hopes.

This year, I've tried hard not to let the excitement build too early, but I have to confess, it's hard to help myself. Without a shadow of a doubt, the main draw for me is the gardens that the festival is set in. When we first heard about it two years ago, the location was a secret. I knew there was an avenue of trees from the press release but I didn't know anything about the history or magic of the place.

My recommendation? Don't Google it. To be fair there are so many secrets and angles and ways to explore this unknown little place that you probably won't spoil it, I certainly didn't, but the pictures available online don't do it justice. They don't give an idea of the scale of some of the biggest sculptural pieces and they don't portray the joy you feel as you turn a corner on a boiling hot day, barefoot and with some of your best friends and come across some completely and utterly unexpected, shady, perfectly designed spot that you are certain you didn't see last time you went along the same route.

I've had a top-secret chat with the wonderful Liz, whose ideas for getting the average festival-goer appreciating what us Curious veterans already love are hopefully going to instil the same joy into you that they have with us - pop over to my guest post on their blog by **clicking here**

I hope to see you by some giant Grecian columns in a weeks time, peering around the corner for the next surprise - I'll be the one with muddy bare feet and a massive smile on my face, trying to soak in every single second of the short time we get to take over this wonderful, overgrown, surprise-filled place.

Buy your ticket here.

Dream Weekend at Hogsozzle 2017!!

(This post was written in 2017, even though we are now looking forward to 2018, it should make interesting reading if you are playing to hit up the Hog and I now have a special referral link for ticket buying - please do consider using it if you want to purchase a ticket - click here)

Hiii!! If you haven’t snapped up a ticket to my favourite indie festival yet, I’m going to attempt to convince you to in this post, by telling you exactly what I plan to be doing over the weekend…I can’t tell you how excitedly I am counting down the days until we pitch our tents for the first time this year, unpack our ever-growing festival supplies and start our weekend of ridiculousness with the rest of the Hogsozzlers (check their site by clicking here)…here’s my plan for the weekend;

Friday Evening...

We’ll arrive, almost at the same time, sort out passes and tickets and carry our stuff over to the best spot in the campsite – last year we managed to snag such a good place by showing up early,  even though we needed enough room for 10 tents we managed to keep a special corner all to ourselves and I want to pitch there again this year! I’ve been busy briefing everyone who says they are going to get there first exactly where this prime spot is…

We’ll pitch our tents and unroll our sleeping bags (but we definitely won’t unpack or sort out our stuff!) and then we’ll gather up our drinks tokens and head straight to the beautiful wooden bar on the top of the hill to grab some gin & juice and find out who is playing when. The line-up is filled with better-than-you’d expect music and acts for the price and there are a couple I really cannot wait to see, including Electric Swing Circus, Mirrored Theory, Little Brother Eli and obviously, The Turner Brothers.

Late Friday Night…

I’ll be rolling around on the hill, surrounded by LED costumes (although we’ll be saving the big guns for the Saturday!) drinks and fun art installations, I think the bath full of ballpit balls was super last year and the rocket ship boat has to be making another appearance given the theme, right?

Very, Very late Friday Night…

We’ll make our way back to camp and dig out our camping-friendly supplies, plastic bottles and disposable cups and make friends with our neighbours. This is essential as if we do manage to land the camping spot of dreams, we are pretty far from the main walkway so we won’t get the usual through traffic, we’ll need to ally with our neighbours for when supplies are running low later in the weekend – crashing other people’s tents and finding out what festival hacks they remembered to bring with them is always fun. This year I’m all about the bulldog clips for hanging things up in your tent, I really don’t want to ruin another camera/phone/charging device, last year cost me a fortune in replacement devices and I still haven’t got a decent camera for this year’s adventures.

Early Saturday Morning,

Our make-up will be running, the tents will be full of glitter and mud and chances are, we will have misplaced either a band member, an instrument or something else of value. We’ll climb onto the pile of bags in our tents (because we obviously didn’t bother sorting anything out in the daylight) and drift into a troubled sleep, half an ear waiting for the announcement that the food places are opening up…

Saturday Morning,

We’ll start the day munching on whatever breakfast foods we can get our hands on, hopefully sitting inside a big old rusty helicopter, because, where else could I possibly want to eat my breakfast? The first year we went to Hogsozzle the breakfast offering was…disappointing, to say the least. Last year they scored an absolute double whammy with the Cauldron and The Wingmen – I haven’t worked out if they are coming again this year – I believe they have now set up a bricks and mortar store in Sleaford but I can’t find them online – what’s happened to those guys? 

Saturday Daytime

We’ll pop to the nearby Tesco and pick up supplies, including lots of water because I can totally make it 27 degrees in my dream weekend right? We’ll eat ice cream and if there’s any surviving remains of our carefully packed picnic, we’ll probably eat that too, rolling around in the sun and slowly getting our costume bits together for the big costume night.  We’ll head over to the Hog Roast as many times as we think we can get away with and I’ll try to avoid looking in it’s big burnt eye as I chow down on the best pig of the year…

I seriously cannot wait to see the costumes this year, did you see that these guys won the costume competition last year? I mean really, who else could it have possibly been? So weird.

 People really go all out for this one and I’ve spent the last few weeks in a dedicated Facebook chat group with the fellow Turner Brother friends and girlfriends trying to come up with ideas for our costumes along the Best Theme Ever – COSMIC DISCO!! I’m pulling together loads of DIY ideas to share soon so we’ll be spending Saturday afternoon glittering up, slipping into our homemade costumes and basically coating every part of our bodies in as much cosmic silver body paint as possible as well as eyeing up the competition from our fellow campers…

Saturday Evening,

One by one, we will emerge from  our cramped tents like cosmic butterflies, all light-up bras, sparkly crop tops and giant moonboots (I hope!)

 We’ll dance the night away under a perfectly clear sky, knocking back jagerbombs, rushing from the main area to the hot, sweaty dance enclosure to the Pig Pen to the brand new Yurt, taking in as many costumes, acts and experiences as possible – I definitely plan to reach peak excitement and festival fun tonight!

Late Saturday Night…

I’ll lose all my friends and become completely disorientated, eventually finding my way back to our campsite (which is basically home by this point, even though I’m still sleeping on top of a pile of bags and other peoples groundsheets and all the water has run out and there’s someone’s mud-filled shoe in place of my pillow…) The other girls are telling me they will be having a sane one tonight but I’ll still be going until sunrise.

Sunday Morning…

Sunday is the day I’m looking forward to most! There’s a huge paint fight to get involved in (I’ll be hunting down a cheap white unitard on Amazon for this!) and it’s the day of The Turner Brothers performance on the main stage – the boys have been regulars at Hogsozzle for the last few years and I can’t wait to see them back on stage after a break over the winter, it’s been months since I heard them live and I know for a fact they have some fab new material – I’ll be taking over their Instagram and hopefully live streaming the whole thing, if I haven’t damaged all my charging devices by this point!

Sunday Night…

We’ll dance long into the night but since I’ll have finally unrolled my sleeping bag properly by this point I’ll almost certainly be in need of more than 40 winks so I’m picturing dozing, half out of my tent, partly listening what the true hardcore festival revellers get up to on their last night…

Sunday morning…

We’ll realise we’ve spent all our money and lost all our stuff but I’m definitely going to use this morning to cajole everyone into our second annual group photo for the records, as well as packing up all our stuff and beginning the countdown to the next festival on our schedule this summer, The Curious Yellow…

Phewwww, I kind of feel like I’ve relived the last two years there and it’s definitely got me so pumped for this year – if this sounds like a great weekend to you, pop over to the Hogsozzle website and grab one of the last few tickets before it’s too late – don’t forget to say hi, we’ll be the ones with the best camping spot and the flashing LED bras :)

Buy tickets here: Hogsozzle 2017

I’m working on a blog post about using biodegradable glitter this year, so you have any ideas for brands and shops that sell glitter that won’t harm birds or the environment, please do drop me a comment below!