orchestra baobab

Shambala Line-Up: 80 new names including Paranoid London, CERN and Zack Polanski

by

Fresh from its landmark transition to become the UK’s first employee-owned festival, Shambala Festival has shared a significant new wave of programming for its 2026 edition, featuring over 80 new artists including Paranoid London, Luke Vibert, K-Lone and Om Unit, plus blockbuster speakers such as Zack Polanski and a UK exclusive from world-leading laboratory, Cern Festival Programme & Big Bang Collective.

The newly announced artists blend festival stalwarts with emerging underground talent, global roots voices and cutting-edge names from the worlds of dance and electronic music. They join an already expansive music billing – featuring the likes of Bob Vylan, Goat, BCUC, Los Bitchos, Hollie Cook, The Selecter and Orchestra Baobab.

Stylistically diverse new additions include acid house heroes Paranoid London, acclaimed Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, London up-and-comer Summer Pearl, Egyptian-Australian multi-instrumentalist Joseph Tawadros, UK-Ghanaian duo Mina & Bryte, Birmingham’s “post-apocalyptic party band” Diddy Sweg, and vintage-tinged festival favourites Electric Swing Circus. 

A renowned late-night haunt, Shambala’s Enchanted Woods are set to rumble with DJ sets from genre-defying collective Ishmael Ensemble, afro-latin bass DJ Cal Jader, K-LONE (Wisdom Teeth), techno pioneer Luke Vibert and Bristol-based electronic legend Om Unit.

The 2026 edition also places a spotlight on co-curation and community, featuring a Decolonise Festival takeover with Bona Rays and steel. at the Rebel Soul venue, as well as the Ladies Bathroom Songwriters Takeover at the Hertz So Good youth-led venue. 

Other ones to watch include Drag Syndrome – an internationally acclaimed drag collective, featuring fierce and brilliant artists with Down syndrome – and Vespa Cougourdon Ourchestra, who promise a wild, anarchic and intoxicating show – complete with homemade gourd instruments.

True to Shambala’s radical roots, its 2026 Talks & Speakers offering is designed to fire up hearts, minds and spirits – with much of this year’s programme taking a close look at the current political landscape through a decidedly hopeful lens. Transition movement co-founder Rob Hopkins explores How To Fall in Love With the Future, while Green Party leader Zack Polanski hosts a live edition of his Bold Politics podcast.

Other highlights include a call to resistance from Led by Donkeys, who return after a packed-out talk in 2025, and a provocative look at sustainable eating in Deer Oh Deer Now What? – which picks up where the meat-free festival’s recent audience debate about introducing wild venison left off. 

In a major coup for 2026, the CERN Festival Programme and the Big Bang Collective also arrive at Shambala for a UK festival exclusive. This residency from the world-leading laboratory brings of-the-moment science and tech topics to the heart of the festival with four sessions across the weekend. 

Following last year’s sell-out show, tickets for 2026 are moving fast. Tier 1 and 2 tickets are now completely sold out across Adult, Elders and Young Adult ticket types, with limited Tier 3 Adult, Young Adult and Green Traveller tickets remaining.

To widen accessibility, Shambala has recently introduced new payment plans, allowing fans to secure tickets for an initial payment of under £30, with the remaining balance spread across weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments until the summer. 

With its genre-defying line-up, commitment to inspiring positive change and deep-rooted community, 2026 is shaping up to be another unforgettable chapter in Shambala’s story.

For tickets, full line-up details and information, visit: https://www.shambalafestival.org/buy-tickets/ 

Shambala Announces Fresh Wave of 70+ Artists for its 2026 Line-up

by

Shambala Festival has today announced a huge new batch of over 70 artists for its 2026 edition, adding even more colour, creativity and left-field brilliance to what is already shaping up to be the festival’s most ambitious line-up to date.

Newly confirmed names include Reggie Watts, the whirlwind of surreal beatboxing, improvised comedy and musical mischief, plus Senegal’s iconic masters of hypnotic Afro-Latin groove, Orchestra Baobab, as well as a brass-fuelled explosion of jazz, funk and afrobeat from Nubiyan Twist.

Also joining the party are sun-drenched psychedelia queens Los Bitchos, bass-heavy Bristol firestarter Grove, and jazz drummer Sarathy Korwar alongside Jamz Supernova, Prima Queen, Avalanche Kaito, Sababa 5, Joshua Burnside, Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver, Malin Lewis, Waldo’s Gift and many more – spanning global grooves, boundary-pushing electronics, folk, funk, soul and joyful voyages of musical discovery. These additions bolster the festival’s already stellar musical line-up, which includes the likes of Bob Vylan, Hollie Cook, Goat (UK festival exclusive), and Emma-Jean Thackray.

True to Shambala’s fiercely independent spirit, the festival continues to put its community at the heart of decision-making. This year, after a decade of being meat- and fish-free, the question of reintroducing meat – solely in the form of sustainable, locally sourced wild venison – has been put to an audience vote, inviting Shambalans to decide whether it should feature on the menu in 2026. 

Shambala removed meat and fish from its menus back in 2016 to spark conversation about the wider impacts of what we eat on climate, ecosystems and communities – a move that helped shift habits and cut food-related emissions to just 6% of the festival’s total, compared with an average of 21% at UK music festivals. Now, this radical rethink comes in response to record-high deer populations across the UK. With overgrazing known to be damaging woodlands, wetlands and biodiversity in the absence of natural predators, Shambala is once again reopening the debate – and asking what truly sustainable eating looks like in 2026.

Shambala MD and Co-Founder Chris Johnson explains: 
“In 2016 we shocked the festival world, and some of our audience, by taking meat and fish off the menu. We did this to reduce environmental impacts, and also to spark debate. It feels time to reinvigorate these important conversations, and also to highlight that we urgently need to eat wild deer to rescue and protect what little is left of our natural habitats.”

The debate is now open to the audience and the results will be shared in early March.  

As ever, Shambala’s stages will be bursting with far more than just music. For 2026, the festival is unveiling a brand new Spiegeltent, set to become a dazzling new home for live circus, cabaret and theatrical spectacles. Festival goers can expect kids’ cabaret and family rave-ups, aerial circus swooping overhead, and genre-smashing bands & DJs – curated by Bristol-based interactive theatre legends Compass Presents, and delivered with a distinctly Shambalan twist.

Other much-loved participatory moments are already locked in for 2026, including the Saturday carnival, which sees the whole festival transformed with creative costumes based around a different theme each year. In 2026 festival goers will put their own novel interpretations on the theme ‘Lyrical Genius’. In a similar vein, Flamboyant Friday has Shambalans all commit to dressing in one colour for the day. This year the Shambalans voted to transform the festival crowd into a vibrant sea of purple.

Following last year’s sell-out, Shambala 2026 is filling up fast. Tier 1 Adult, Tier 2 Adult and Tier 1 Young Adult tickets are sold out, with Tier 3 Adult Weekend and Green Traveller tickets now selling fast. To meet significant demand for young persons’ tickets, a very limited new Tier 2 Young Adult ticket has also been just released at £255, with flexible three and five month payment plans available for all ticket types. 

With its genre-defying line-up, commitment to off-the-wall silliness  and deep-rooted community, 2026 is shaping up to be another unforgettable chapter in Shambala’s story.

For tickets and more information, visit shambalafestival.org/buy-tickets/