The arts, music and culture festival Abandon Normal Devices will return from 25-27 September 2026 in Barnsley, Yorkshire. The festival will take over the town for a weekend of art and installations featuring collaborations with a wide-spectrum of artists and creative technologists who “push the boundaries of immersive experiences,” says the festival. Previous editions of the festival took place in Liverpool, Castleton, Peak District, and Grizedale, Lake District. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Abandon Normal Devices (AND) (@abandon_normal_devices) Tadeo Lopez-Sendon, Chief Executive for Abandon Normal Devices, said: “Since 2009, AND has transformed landscapes across the North into living…
Author: Jack Needham
Jack Needham
Festival Insights | Head of Content
The first names for Reading & Leeds Festival have just been announced. In 2026, Charli xcx, Chase & Status, Dave, Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C. and RAYE will all co-headline the 27-30 August weekender. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reading & Leeds Festival (@officialrandl) For the first time in the event’s history, says Festival Republic, Leeds Festival will also host a headline act on Thursday in Kasabian. Also appearing across the weekend is grime royalty Skepta, ultra-pop star JADE, rap trio Kneecap, NY-rock band Geese and more. 24 hour pre-sale starts at 9am on 2 December for Reading…
Liverpool’s festival for new music, Sound City, has announced up-and-coming talents Westside Cowboy, Brooke Combe and The Molotovs for its 2026 edition. The two-day festival will also welcome Jalen Ngonda and Keo as its headline acts, who will be joining the likes of Brooke Combe, Cherryholt, Blossom Calderone and more. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sound City (@liverpoolsoundcity) The multi-venue festival will start with a conference on 1 May 2026, with the music taking place from 2–3 May. The new additions comes after Sound City recently opened its Apply To Play portal for 2026, which acts as a platform…
Fatboy Slim, Wolf Alice and Courteeners are set to headline Sheffield’s Tramlines Festival in 2026. Other big names across the 24-26 July weekend include Blossoms, Wet Leg, Kaiser Chiefs, The Coral and more. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tramlines Festival (@tramlines) The festival will celebrate its 17th edition in 2026, and began as a multi-venue festival across Sheffield. It now takes up residency at the city’s famed Hillsborough Park. Also announced for the three-day festival is the ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ songman Rick Astley, indie trio The Enemy and Sheffield’s own Reverend & The Makers.…
Y Not? Festival returns to Derbyshire on 30 July to 2 August 2026 with The Reytons, Two Door Cinema Club and The Streets as its headline acts. Kaiser Chiefs, Dizzee Rascal, Scissor Sisters, The Libertines and more have also been announced for the long-running festival. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Y Not Festival ⚡ (@ynotfestival) Adding to an already stacked line-up are the likes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Happy Mondays, Snuts, Rizzle Kicks and more. Now in its 19th year, the four-day festival will return to its longstanding home of Pikehall, near Matlock, Derbyshire. For the full…
London’s All Points East festival has announced the US rock duo Twenty One Pilots as its next headline act. The duo will perform on Sunday 30 August 30 2026. The festival, which takes place 22-30 August in east London’s Victoria Park, will also host Lorde, Deftones and a two-day headline performance from Tyler, The Creator. View this post on Instagram A post shared by All Points East (@allpointseastuk) Performing alongside Twenty One Pilots through the day will be the alt-rock duo Nova Twins, Cornish rock troupe Wunderhorse, rapper REN, Canadian Hot 100 act BBNO$ and the Lynn Gunn-fronted PVRIS. General…
It’s hard to predict the future, but some of us can try. For the festival industry, that comes in Future of Festivals. The person behind this is Robert Stolt. Robert is the CEO of Future of Festivals, which welcomes over 8000 delegates, more than 350 exhibitors and 150-plus speakers to Berlin each year. He’s also Project Manager at the German festival Tag Am Meer Festival, an annual celebration of house, reggae and roots music held on the island of Rügen. Future of Festivals is a coming together of figures from across the industry. It’s an event that welcomes businesses from across…
Rhythm + Waves is set to make its debut in 2026 on 27-28 June in the south Portugal region of Algarve. Taking place over two days and across three stages, the first edition of Rhythm + Waves will feature headline acts Gunna, Ken Carson, Chase & Status, D-Block Europe and special guest A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rhythm + Waves (@rhythmandwaves) DnB stalwarts Andy C and Hybrid Minds, UK garage icon DJ EZ, dubstep originator Skream and juke and footwork DJ SHERELLE also join the line-up. The festival also host British rapper Lancey Foux and Atlanta’s Destroy Lonely. Rhythm…
It’s official. Well, ish. The rules for ticket touts and resale sites are about to change. Massively. We reported this week that there will be a ticket tout crack down. On 19 November, the UK Government officially announced plans to make it illegal for concert tickets to be resold for more than their original cost. Theatre, comedy, sport and other live events are also part of the ruling. “Ticket touting has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years,” the Government statement read. “Touts buy large volumes of tickets online, often using automated bots, before relisting them on resale platforms at hugely…
In a move made by the UK Government, ticket reselling for live events is set to be banned in a bid to stop touts and resale sites from selling tickets to fans at massively inflated prices. The news comes several months after Ticketmaster agreed to provide greater transparency in how tickets are priced and sold after tickets for this year’s Oasis tour were adjusted in real time through algorithmic dynamic pricing. As reported by The Guardian, the proposed measures “could form part of next year’s King’s speech,” and that the publication understands that “reselling a ticket at anything more than…