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

5 Amazing Things We Loved At Hogsozzle 2018

What an incredible time we had at Hogsozzle this year, I must try not to gush too hard in this post because even two weeks later I'm still buzzing from the fun and frolics.

I definitely over packed for this one...

We arrived in convoy late on Friday afternoon, much later than my plan-loving brain had reckoned on. This meant we didn't have our pick of the pitches, and with 7 tents in our group we needed a large area to spread out. We eventually had to camp right at the entrance, which I was pretty miffed about at first but it turned out swell, we could see and hear everything that was going on and felt right in the action.

And the weekend began! There were so many amazing things at this years Hogsozzle, I honestly believe it was the most fun I've had at a festival for several years, the food, music and company was all spot on. Instead of the usual run down of what we did every second of every day, I want to change up my review style and I'm going to instead share 5 of the best things about Hogsozzle this year.

1. The Once In A Blue Moon Cafe

You have no idea the actual joy I had in my heart as I rounded the corner in the hidden wooded area and saw the first peeks of a tent I recognised from Curious Yellow last year. The Blue Moon cafe people really know how to run a festival chill-out zone. They they sell amazing vegan and vegetarian hot food that has actual nutrients in, they open early for breakfast and they take debit cards - in addition to a fab line up of smaller musical and comedy acts and I believe an open mic. The tent is beautiful too, I found out from them last year that it was custom made for them in India with a wonderful starry ceiling and lots of soft seating.

Late on Saturday we headed over to their fire pit and had a lovely vegan curry full of vegetables and for pretty good price of £7 for the 'deluxe' version with yoghurt and a flatbread. I also have to thank the guys for finding and keeping hold of my phone at one point in the festival! I can't wait to spend more time snuggled up in a corner with a rum, listening to music and chatting with friends at Curious Yellow in a few weeks time! If you want to find out more about the Once In A Blue Moon cafe, they have a website here.

2. Costumes and Crowns 

As always, the fancy dress at Hogsozzle was on point! I spent most of the morning before we set up fixing up my LED crown, my first light-up festival piece that I'd made myself and it was a dream. I did a DIY on how to make your own which you can see by clicking here. The best thing about it was that it lit up the portaloos which were pitch black otherwise!

These photos are from In Squared Photography's album of Hogsozzle pics, click here for more.

The theme this year was Fairytales and Fantasies and people really went to town with some mega costumes! There was so many giant sequins, wonderful facepaint and men in shiny leggings. 

3.  The Curious Yellow Takeover

I can't believe how lucky we are to be involved in two festivals like this that had such a fab crossover. Saturday night in the dance tent was all about Curious Yellow, which I've posted about lots and is coming up in just a few weeks. The DJ's took over with their unique dance vibe for the whole night and went down a storm. Seeing Greg and Dan from the Curious Yellow crew at a festival so completely different to the one they run was so fun and we found out that the Hogsozzle boys  will be attended Curious Yellow in return!

I don't have any photos of the guys as it was really dark in the dance tent and everything looked drunk and blurry by then, if anyone has one of their set-up let me know :)

4. Friends

This was the first time we have been to Hogsozzle without the band playing, so it was all for fun and no stress about instruments or missing band members. It meant everyone could relax and enjoy the weekend so we took a pretty large group of friends with us, some of whom we don't get to see very often and it really made for an amazing experience. Hogsozzle is small enough that you can't really lose anyone, so every corner we turned there was a friendly face covered in glitter greeting us and we had some epic dance tent moments with our crowd. We've talked about Hogsozzle a lot at home so it was really good to show our gang all of the fun there is to be had and make some amazing memories to kick off the summer with!

5. The Paint Fight

So, four years in and I haven't actually taken part in the paint fight. Party because by the Sunday all of my clothes are already wet and muddy and I'm losing my voice, which means I don't especially want to breathe in a bunch of paint dust. This year I planted myself in a prime spot at the top of the hill, near the bar, overlooking the main arena. The incredible Rumpsteppers revved everyone up and it was one of the most epic paint fights I've ever seen, the color just kept on coming every time the beat dropped and everyone came away looking like they were from another planet - next year I promised myself I will definitely get involved, as long as the showers are working! Even though I was pretty far back most of my clothes have remnants of paint powder on them - a word of warning if you are reading this in 2019 and getting ready for your fist Sozzle - don't wear your best clothes for the paint fight!!!!

So that's it, my top 5 favourite things from Hogsozzle this year! There was so much more I could talk about but I don't want to repeat myself from previous years. If you want a fully detailed run down on everything that was Hogsozzle 2018, I found this great post by That Festival Blogger, who I didn't get to meet this time but I'm certain that our paths will cross again by the end of the summer! I want to give a shout out to the Hogsozzle boys for an epic, unforgettable party, Frosty for the paint fight photos, Hayley and Ian for driving, Patawawa for being awesome and also for bringing back the biff with me and all of my lovely friends for making it a beautiful weekend full of love and amazing memories <3

Next up, Curious Yellow in two weeks and I'm BUZZING! I'll be sharing some of our costume ideas for the fruit theme over the next few weeks, if you haven't got your ticket yet, snap one up quick because it's going to unmissable - use the code 10turner2018 on their website (click here) for a tenner off.

Photo credits: Alex Krook, Tasha Rhodes, Ian Frost and In Squared Photography

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 :)

New Years Eve at the Ceridwen Centre with Sweetcornbread

I was dreading NYE this time round. The last few years had been underwhelming, my bank account was empty after Christmas and to be brutally honest, our plan to spend the weekend halfway up a mountain in Wales did not fill me with excitement. How stupid I was!

The idea was for Sweetcornbread to play a five hour set at the Ceridwen Centre's Alternative New Year's party, which was being held on their farm in Carmarthenshire. They had played there before as the band have friends that live and work at the venue. For once, I didn't have the usual pre-gig strops from my bassist boyfriend, this should have been my first clear indicator that it was going to be a little special.

The five hour drive was killer, I'm not going to lie. Most of it was in the dark and being squashed up in the back with the instruments and our supplies for the weekend didn't do much for comfort. At one point we stopped at a Welsh service station and I feel like I could be forgiven for thinking we had landed on Mars - who knew Mcdonalds chips could get any thinner? Why do they have a completely different version of the cheese bites? We arrived at the Pen-Y-Blanc farm in the pitch darkness - all I knew was there was a lot of steep hills to traverse and we were going to be staying in The Old Dairy.

We were welcomed warmly and shown to our space. I've shared with the whole band and their girlfriends before and it was tight and noisy with a very intimate feel to the toilet so I was expecting the worst. I needn't have worried! The Old Dairy had lots of room for us, the farm owners bought double mattresses and there was water, snacks, tea and coffee on tap as well as under floor heating and some beautifully equipped, far-away-from-the-living-area washing and toilet facilities. I wish I had taken a picture of the ENORMOUS stack of giant floor cushions in the room because they were literally the cosiest thing ever!

I started to notice other little things. The signs in the toilet, the biodegradable toiletries, the recycling bag - the farm operates on an extremely green basis and they have a green septic tank - I fell a little in love. I had a brief chat with the owners son-in-law and he said  the farm has solar panels and various recycling and green facilities and continue to work to improve their sustainability.

We spent the first evening in a local pub, the John Y Gwas. I have to say our hosts were a dream and the pub itself was exactly as you may expect from a village that seemed to cling on to the side of a mountain. The toilets were something out of Stephen King's It and the locks were on the outside of the doors - only in Wales! We made plans to visit the beach the following day and retired to our cosy Dairy.

I took quite a few photos at Poppit but my favourite part of the beach trip was the 20 minute drive through tight, winding Welsh villages. At the time we went my phone was out of action but I must make a note to try harder to get candid snaps of things I want to blog about - a goal for 2018!

Back at the farm and we got ourselves ready for the night, with the band resting and some of them downing double Lemsips to counteract the bastard flu everyone seems to have now we are back (I've avoided it so far, but I tend to be the last to the party anyway) At the Dairy, wafts of the most fragrant lamb tagine were starting to drift over from the kitchens and I set upon a large bottle of gin - it's a blur from then onwards...

Dodgy panorama of the band trying to sort out their set list, mostly I've included this because Jim's head looks hilarious.

One of these individuals was determined not to have a nice picture with the band *eyeroll*

The party went down beautifully and the band were a smash - despite a slightly awkward countdown for midnight itself which started way too early! The band played a set of covers and original tracks and got the tipi rocking!

We loved the photobooth - I got pretty attached to this red wig at one point.

 I've popped some photos of some of the farm and accomodations below but their website is definitely worth a look  if you are looking for a green (or just beautiful) venue for your wedding - click here. They have all the facilities you could possibly want for your big day - including a stunningly private mountainside wooden hot tub, fired by logs and with incredible views over the valley. I really wanted to give it a go but we didn't start the fire off early enough and we had to leave - I would have been more than happy to spend another few days soaking in the cooked breakfasts, fresh air and genuine warmth of Simone and Roger and everyone at Ceridwen. Thank you so much for showing me that New Years Eve doesn't have to be rubbish when you step out of your comfort zone.

 The hot tub of dreams

Gypsy caravan under winter storage - I believe this is used for the bridal suite for weddings - so romantic.

My favourite - a lovingly restored bus with all mod cons, position overlooking the beautiful valley.

Thank you all at the Ceridwen Centre for an amazing weekend!

Katy x