The 7 Best UK Festivals

20th Jan 2020

Nobody loves a festival like us Brits and there are some great ones available, regardless of your music taste, whether it be rock, dubstep or reggae. We have listed the best festivals in the UK below.

1 – Glastonbury

With almost 200,000 making their way over for Glastonbury, it is now recognised as the largest greenfield festival in the world. You know you’ve made it big once you’ve play here, while the headliners are always the globes greatest performers, including the likes of David Bowie, the Cure, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Oasis, Blur, Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder, Metallica, Radiohead and Ed Sheeran.

Date: Last weekend of June

2 – Reading & Leeds Festival

One for the younger audience, you definitely feel a bit old if attending beyond the age of 25. The rock gigs take place simultaneously over the bank holiday weekend, while they see a soft increase in ticket sales each year, nowadays hitting around 90,000.

Date: August Bank Holiday Weekend

3 – Isle Of Wight Festival

Considering the sparse population on the Isle of White, the council were caught a bit off-guard back in 1970 when the crowds came in their thousands. For this reason, the festival stopped, however it started back up again in 2002 and it is growing rapidly.

Dates – Thurs-Sun late June

4 – Bestival

This one is actually pretty young compared to some of the others, having only started in 2004. It grew quickly, with audiences of around 60,000 nowadays. There is an incredible amount of acts that perform each year at Bestival, while it’s now becoming more well known for bizarre acts and performances taking place as it is for the music.

Dates – Late Summer or September (4 days)

5 – RiZE Festival

Based in Chelmsford and Staffordshire, there are some real big headliners each year at RiZE. So why haven’t you heard of it before? It’s the new name for what was the V Festival, one of the biggest events in the calendar each year, as Virgin pulled out of its name sponsorship. It’s also gained a lot of respect for offering plenty of craft beer, which is becoming hugely popular in the UK.

Dates – mid August

6 – Boomtown Fair

This one is my favourite, offering plenty of drum and base, dubstep and reggae. Rather than going for the conventional yearly date as the title, Boomtown has very creatively given it a chapter title. In 2018, the chapter name is ‘Chapter 10: The machine that cannot be stopped’, which seems pertinent considering its growth each year.

Dates – mid August

7 – British Summer Time Hyde Park

Well no guesses where this one is based. There seems to be a growing number of London based festivals, however this one stands out as a little different as it takes place over 2 weekends. Despite only starting in 2013, the big name venue and AEG Presents backing, it has managed to attract such superstars as the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Black Sabbath, the Libertines and the Strokes. Oh, plus Taylor Swift if you like her.

Dates – Early/Mid July