Lancaster Music Festival

Lancaster Music Festival returns, featuring more than 500 events to enjoy.

New venues include Lancaster Castle’s keep and chapel and the Westfield War Memorial Village among more than 50 others hosting more than 300 acts playing a wide variety of music.

Lancaster’s very own symphony orchestra, the Haffner, will launch one of the UK’s biggest city centre music festivals.  Festival favourite, violinist, Laure Chan, will join the Haffner as a soloist.

Lancaster Castle, featuring the beloved Melodrome stage, is one of many returning festival venues and there will be plenty of music to be heard in the city centre’s streets and squares too.

Festival highlights include musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music, performing as the Silver Chamber and playing a unique combination of progressive metal with a chamber orchestra.  Fans of alternative rock will have several chances to catch Norwegian band, Dobbeltgjenger, as they will play six shows over the weekend while Glaswegian psychedelic surf-punk band, Maz & the Phantasms proved so popular at previous festivals that they will be making a welcome return.  International music is always an important element of Lancaster Music Festival’s offer and 2026 is no different with its Songs From Home theme featuring music from Northern Europe, Canada, China and Africa plus the return of flamenco as well as drumming, singing and dance workshops from around the world.

In collaboration with the Weavers Uprising Bicentennial Committee, the festival will also commemorate an important event in Lancashire's history, the 200th anniversary of the weavers uprising, in a programme of talks and music entitled events Rise Up, featuring The Commoners Choir leading a trail to Lancaster Castle.

Talks, walks and musical stories will be another theme at the festival featuring a live Lovely Eggs book club, talks and panels led by Lancaster University lecturers, an interactive session pairing beer with music and musical history trails.  And among the many more participatory events is an invitation to join in with the kazoo orchestra and a ceilidh in Market Square while the healing power of music will be explored with a new programme of events entitled Healing Frequencies offering a range of sound journeys to help clear the mind.  

Before the award-winning festival begins, the LMF Academy will offer song writing workshops, culminating in performances on the youth stage during the festival.  And even younger children can get involved with the festival thanks to some early years interactive shows featuring the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing a live version of CBeebies Music Storyland show and More Music’s new show, Dare.