The best UK festivals in August

The last big swing of summer brings another bumper month of music festivals to look forward to

If the weather isn’t exactly what you want it to be, if the kids are slightly starting to annoy you, and if you’re already mildly sick of having your clothes smell like a BBQ… just think how you’re going to feel next month when it’s all over. September is back to school and back to normal life, which means August is your last chance to spend your weekends dancing in a field (without looking crazy).

Bingley Festival

If you don’t have a bucket hat, you’ll need one. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Ian Brown, Travis, Jake Bugg, Razorlight, The Cribbs and The Zutons bring the swagger back to Yorkshire. Oh and if you can get there on Thursday you’ll also see Happy Mondays and The Boo Radleys.
Bingley, Yorkshire | 3 – 6 August | Get tickets

Wilderness

Choose hot-tubs. Choose swimming in the lake. Choose yoga supper clubs, disco dodgeball and forest bathing. Choose soul flow workshops, cacao ceremonies and rechilding talks. Drag Queen wine tasting, creative writing breakfast clubs, and politics in the woods. Choose a festival where you forget to even look up who’s headlining (The Chemical Brothers, Christine And The Queens, and Fatboy Slim…).
Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire | 3 – 6 August | Get tickets

Boomtown

Boomtown turns 15 this year, which means 2023 is going to be extra special. The line-up won’t be revealed until just before the festival starts, but you can expect “Chapter Two: The Twin Trail” to pick up where last year’s “Gathering” left off, overfilling the weekend with storytelling, electronica, and apocalyptic visions of near futures and parallel worlds. Also, The Prodigy, since they’ve already been leaked as one of the headliners…
The Matterley Estate, Winchester | 9 – 13 August | Get tickets

Trentham Live

Five mini-festivals in one, this year’s Trentham has booked five days and nights of back-to-back music to keep everyone excited. McFly, Feeder, Chase and Status, Kaiser Chiefs and Olly Murs all get their own headline slots, all with great big-name support. Book for a single day or make a week of it.
The Trentham Estate, Staffordshire | 16 – 20 August | Get tickets

Camp Bestival Shropshire

Primal Scream, Rudimental and The Human League grab the top spots on the poster, but there’s far too much else going on at Bestival to fit on a single piece of paper. Think roller discos and fancy dress, raft building and tree climbing, Mr Tumble and Dick And Dom, Sam Ryder and Melanie C. Also East 17 are singing Christmas songs, which is never a bad thing in August.
Weston Park, Shropshire | 17 – 20 August | Get tickets

All Points East

All Points East brings some of the biggest names in music to Vicky Park again this year, with six huge days to choose from. Stormzy gets the first slot (backed by Kehlani, Sampha and many, many more), The Strokes get Friday night (with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Angel Olsen and The Walkmen) and Haim take bank holiday Monday, alongside Girl In Red, FKJ and Confidence Man. Add in Field Day, Jungle and Dermot Kennedy and you’ve got London’s most impressive line-up of 2023.
Victoria Park, London | 18 – 28 August | Get tickets

Folk In The Park

Sutton’s grassroots music venue, vegan café and community hub, The Sound Lounge, hosts another one-day celebration of folk. Expect Nick Lowe, Del Amitri, Dana Gillespie and the London Blues Band, Geraint Watkins and the Mosquitoes, Iain Matthews, some really great plant-based food and one of the friendliest crowds in South London.
Manor Park, Sutton, | 19 August | Get tickets

Gone Wild with Bear Grylls

Everyone who turns up at Gone Wild gets a short pep talk from Bear Grylls, half a bottle of water and a sharpened stick, before being turned loose into the wilds of the campsite without a map. Thankfully, you also get a weekend full of outdoor family activities, a range of great street food stalls, luxury camping options and a line-up including Scouting For Girls, Feeder, Ministry Of Sound Disco and Sugababes. Also you do get a map. Powderham Castle, Exeter | 24 – 27 August | Get tickets

Connect

Connect’s third year at the Royal Highland Showgrounds sees the festival welcome its strongest roster yet – topped by the likes of Primal Scream, Fred again.., boygenius, Loyle Carner, Franz Ferdinand, Young Fathers, Roisin Murphy, MUNA, Raye and Public Service Broadcasting. Overlapping the end of the Fringe by a few days, there’s nowhere buzzier than Edinburgh this August.
Royal Highland Showgrounds, Edinburgh | 25 – 27 August | Get tickets

Manchester Pride

There’s so much going on in Manchester over Pride weekend that you might forget there’s also a massive festival taking place. Come for the parade, the film showcase, the art projects, community hubs and nightlife, but stay for the city’s biggest, queerest, most diverse festival bill to date – headlined by Pabllo Vittar, Jake Shears, Natasha Bedingfield, Jodie Harsh, Bimini, Danny Beard and the inimitable Gok Wan.
Manchester | 25 – 28 August | Get tickets

Reading & Leeds

The big one. The one so big that it needs two separate sites, each with two sets of main stages. The poster has crammed in far too many names to even squint at, but Sam Fender, The Killers, Billie Eilish, Foals, The 1975 and Imagine Dragons get the big fonts. If you’ve just got your GCSE results, there’s nowhere else you’ll want to be.
Richfield Avenue, Reading and Bramham Park, Leeds | 25 – 27 August | Get tickets

Find all these August festivals and more 2023 and 2024 UK festivals in our exclusive Festival Guide