On 2 December, the UK Festival Awards, powered by Festival Insights, celebrated the best that this industry has to offer. In 2025, over 450 festivals entered, something that truly showcases how festivals continue to innovate and thrive.
Northampton’s Shambala Festival were one of the winners on the night, taking home awards for Independent Festival, Medium Festival and The Sarah Nulty Community Impact. Elsewhere, Sheffield’s Tramlines Festival walked away with the Inner-City Festival Award, while Between The Trees took the Micro Festival of the Year Award. We also honoured those who work to make our festival spaces more sustainable, with the folks behind Radio 1’s Big Weekend winning our Green Award. We had plenty of other winners on the night too, and you can find a full list of those here.
We were also truly honoured to present Matthew Phillip, CEO of Notting Hill Carnival, with the Industry Recognition Award.
Notting Hill Carnival started as a meeting of friends and family in the London west end, where communities came together to show solidarity through food, dance and, arguably most importantly, clash over the power of their hand-crafted sound-systems.
From a young age, Matthew recognised the power of Notting Hill Carnival. This yearly celebration of Caribbean culture is more than just a gigantic street party. It’s helped birth music genres, builds friendships for life and inspires new generations to look after their neighbours. But perhaps most importantly, it’s stayed true to its roots.
Today, Matthew is responsible for keeping this cultural beacon alive, so we couldn’t have been prouder to present him with our 2025 Industry Recognition Award.
While the UK Festival Awards are over for another year, we’ll be back in 2026. See you there.
