The best music festivals in the UK in 2025

If there’s one thing that defines summer in Britain, it’s  a weekend-long music festival. Glastonbury might be internationally renowned, but there is a festival for every taste (and budget) across the country in the UK. 

Yes summer music festivals are not unique, but the UK is blessed with ideal festival conditions. The weather is usually kind (not-too-hot summers and daylight that stretches into the night). Many are held in the grounds of stately homes or castles so there is always plenty of soft lush grass to pitch your tent, plus ancient trees for shade. Excellent public transport means you can get almost anywhere by train or coach. And then there’s Britain’s history of gatherings and celebrations, which goes back as far as humans inhabited the land.

All this comes together for a summer of long weekends filled with joy and connection, with live music, dress-ups and fairground rides, plus performance poets, world food and pop-up hot-tubs. The UK’s music festivals really are worth planning a holiday around.

Here are the top music festivals to add a weekend of uniquely British festival magic to your summer vacation in Europe in 2025.

1. Glastonbury

Dates: June 25 – 29, 2025 at Worthy Farm, Somerset
Tickets: Sold out

It needs no introduction (and scoring a ticket feels like winning the life lottery these day), Glastonbury is the world’s largest green field performing arts festival in the world. Founded by farmer Michael Eavis in 1970, the festival is held on a 900-acre working dairy farm in Somerset, but it also reaches a worldwide audience in the millions with a live broadcast on the BBC and online. In 2025, acts as diverse as Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, The 1975 and Rod Stewart, are joining Neil Young as headliners. For those who are desperate to attend but missed out on tickets when they were snapped up back in November, there is the option to volunteer on site (check out the Natural Event for positions in their “poo crew”). 

A handy guide to Glastonbury: survival tips from someone who's done it

2. Latitude

Dates: July 24 – 27, 2025 at Henham Park, Suffolk
Tickets: latitudefestival.com

Headliners announced for the 2025 Latitude festival include Sting, Fatboy Slim and Snow Patrol. The comedy stage lineup includes Bridget Christie, Greg Davies and Reggie Watt taking the main billing for the Comedy Arena. As always, there's going to be plenty of poetry, podcasting and paddleboarding (pack your swimsuit for some lake swimming and book your paddleboarding spot before they sell out). Food also plays a prominent part of the festival lineup, with cooking demonstrations and a pre-bookable festival restaurant experience. Taking the whole family? Head to the Latitude website for some excellent tips on how to enjoy the festival with kids in tow.

3. Boomtown Fair

Dates: August 6 – 10, 2025 in Matterley Estate, Hampshire
Tickets: boomtownfair.co.uk

Boomtown was started by a small team of young partygoers who wanted to put on a festival that brought to life underground music, art and theater culture. In 2025 the theme "Chapter 4: The Power of Now" is part of an ongoing narrative with hundreds of characters roaming the streets, guiding the "citizens" through the labyrinth of adventures waiting to be discovered. This is an immersive festival experience, building a makeshift city from scratch with roving performers from contortionists to mime artists and buskers, plus dance floors and pop-up sound systems playing every musical genre from reggae, roots, and folk to ska, metal, punk and gabber. It is a festival like no other.

The essential packing guide for music festivals

4. Reading and Leeds

Dates: July 21 – 24, 2025 at Richfield Ave (Reading) and Bramham Park (Leeds)
Tickets: readingfestival.com and leedsfestival.com

Traditionally popular with a younger crowd (that’s over 16s mind you, bringing young kids along is discouraged) – many secondary school leavers have their first taste of a summer festival without their parents at this one. Both festivals run across the same weekend, with the musical acts alternating between sites in the north and south of England. The 2025 lineup is outstanding: Chappell Roan, Hozier, Travis Scott, Limp Bizkit, Bring Me The Horizon. Both sites are easy to access via public transport making a day-trip possible if you don’t want to stay all weekend. This year a focus on welfare and safety means Reading might finally shake off its reputation for unruliness.

5. Download

Dates: June 13 – 15, 2025 at Donington Park, Leicestershire
Tickets: downloadfestival.co.uk

Download Festival – "the greatest rock and metal festival of all time" – is back at Donnington Park. The 2025 headliners Green Day, Korn, and Sleep Token top the billing. In 2024, Download (traditionally more of a metal festival) introduced more rock acts to broaden its appeal especially among a younger audience. For a taste of the vibe check out Humans of Download. As always, Big Green Coaches run buses direct to the festival from multiple UK pick-up locations. If you like your rock heavy, this is the festival for you. 

6. Isle of Wight Festival

Dates: June 19 – 22, 2025 at Seaclose Park, Newport
Tickets: isleofwightfestival.com

Referred to as Europe’s answer to Woodstock when it began in 1968, the Isle of Wight Festival has an iconic lineup in 2025 with artists spanning 40 years of music. Sting is playing Friday night, with Faithless closing. Plus there’s The Corrs, Stereophonics, and Justin Timberlake among the list of era-defining acts you’ll see on the island this summer. There’s also plenty here to entertain little ones in the Kids' Zone as well as a family-specific campsite, making this another kid-friendly festival. As you’re heading to an island, plan ahead and pre-book your ferry crossing tickets, from there it’s an easy journey to the festival site.

7. Camp Bestival

Dates: July 31 – Aug 3, 2025 at Lulworth Castle, Dorset
Tickets: campbestival.net

Very much aimed at families, this multi-award-winning festival by the Dorset coast, is in the estate of Lulworth Castle. Expect pre-bookable bell tents, fancy-dress parades, a kids roller disco, sound meditation and a pop-up sauna. Along with top musical acts (Basement Jaxx, Sugarbabes, and Tom Jones among them), there is also plenty of comedy, theater, talks and activities, plus a specially curated lineup of kids entertainment including The World's Biggest Bouncy Castle, a pirate sandpit, junkyard-robot making, and a spectacular fireworks display. If you can’t make it in person, Josie and Rob Da Bank have also published a Camp Bestival at Home activities book this summer.

8. Green Gathering

Dates: July 31 – August 3, 2025 in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales
Tickets: greengathering.org.uk

A non-profit low-impact festival, Green Gathering is “powered by sun, wind, people and passion for change”. Held over four days in Chepstow (about 30 minutes from Bristol or Cardiff), you'll enjoy a lineup of around 100 local acts from solo singer-songwriters to radical punk bands, plus folk tunes, swing, dance, ska, reggae, cabaret and poetry. In 2025 the lineup includes Billy Bragg and Martha Tilston. But one of the best reasons to head to this award-winning festival is the information and skills-sharing on everything to do with low-impact and off-grid living, including solar set-ups, traditional Greek windmills, health, healing, and permaculture. As well as music and workshops, there's an abundance of activities for children including face painting, hula-hooping, upcycled crazy golf, and forest school experiments. Teens are often overlooked in the family-friendly festival space, but not here where there are workshops for 11–17 year olds plus music-making, trapeze, juggling, and grown-up crafts.

9. End of the Road

Dates: August 28 – 31, 2025
Tickets: endoftheroadfestival.com

About 13,500 people descend on Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset for the late summer End of the Road festival. This is one for fans of indie rock, folk and alternative music. EOTR has a reputation for its welcoming atmosphere and eclectic program of music, comedy and literature. The 2025 lineup includes Caribou, Self Esteem, and Father John Misty. The comedy stage will feature well-known entertainers like Stewart Lee, Grace Campbell, and Adam Buxton. Authors giving talks range from Booker Prize-winner Samantha Harvey to Stuart Murdoch – the lead songwriter for the iconic Glasgow-based band Belle and Sebastian. If we're heading into autumn and you haven't made it to a festival yet, grab your tickets before it's too late.

But wait, there’s more…

10. Love Supreme, a three-day event at Glynde Place in East Sussex, is on July 4 to 6 with a lineup that includes jazz and funk artists like up-and-coming Jacob Collier, plus Maxwell, Smokey Robinson and Nile Rodgers & Chic.

11. Wilderness always delivers a weekend of pure hedonism at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire. Running from July 31 to 4 in 2025 with Basement Jaxx, Supergrass, Wet Leg and Orbital on the headline bill.

12. Parklife Festival is set in one of the largest municipal parks in Europe, the 600-acre Heaton Park in Manchester on the weekend of June 14 to 15, 2025. Headliners include 50 Cent, Charli XCX, Jorja Smith.

13. TRNSMT Festival is on in Glasgow Green (July 11 to 13) with Snow Patrol, Gracie Abrams, 50 Cent, Wet Leg, and Kneecap among others. 

14. We Out Here, on in Dorset this August 15 to 18, celebrates British club culture with a cross-genre lineup curated by BBC Radio 6’s Gilles Peterson. It's the best of clubbing in the UK countryside.

15. British Summer Time (BST) in London’s Hyde Park is held over multiple dates from June 27 to July 13 with Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Stevie Wonder, Zach Bryan, and Neil Young among the headliners in 2025.

16. After the inaugural Wild Fields in 2024, a socially-conscious festival "amplifying the voices of green industry leaders and climate activists", will be held again but not until October 2025.  Food, talks and a range of artists are to be announced soon.

Tips to avoid being scammed by festival fraudsters

Alas scam websites are rife in 2025. Make sure you check you’re buying festival tickets from a genuine ticket-seller by looking for a proper address, not a PO box number. Read the terms and conditions carefully including whether you can resell if you need to cancel. Always pay with a credit card to minimize your risk. And check the actual payment pages are secure by looking for a padlock symbol in the address bar.

If you’re planning to attend any of these festivals, including Glastonbury, as a volunteer be aware: there have been reports of bogus schemes where companies claim to be recruiting for festival volunteering teams, then ask for a deposit to secure a space that doesn't exist. It's best to email or call festival organizers to be sure you’re signing up for the real deal – and not being taken for a ride.