Solfest 2016

A non-commercial music and arts festival with a warm atmosphere set between the Solway Firth and the Lake District mountains in picturesque West Cumbria, as always it features a massive range of musical and cultural adventures.

Solfest returns over August Bank Holiday weekend from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th August, 2016 and offers something for everyone, with music as well as a children's area with workshops to amaze, educate and enthral kids and adults throughout the day.

Line-up

Dreadzone, KOG & The Zongo Brigade, The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Club, Riot Jazz Brass Band, Inner Terrestrial, Zion Train, Tantz, The Mouse Outfit, Baka Beyond, Buffalo Brothers, China Shop Bull, Resonators, Fitty Gomash, Hardfloor, Iration Steppas, La La & The Boo Yaa, The After Hours, King Yoof, Sonny Wharton, Silicone Soul Graeme Reedie, Samson Sound, Jinx In Dub, Radical Dance Faction, Jenna & The G's, Drum Machine, Red Eye Hi Fi, Space Cassette Take Over Ft Age of Glass & Henge, Mighty Oak Sound System, Hallouminati, A Man About A Dog, Celt Islam, Crystal Distortion SP23, DJ Dolphin Boy, Mutanta, Dohnut, Free Wise Men, Maxiroots, Unity Sessions Soundsystem, The Most Ugly Child, Bushrocker Hi Fi, Firepit Collective, DJM, Tanante West African Drummers, Skayaman, Lyons & La Zel, Supa & Da Kryptonites, Axis Soundsystem, Hardwicke Circus, Blast Furness Carnival Band, Jambeater Soundsystem, and The Hey Down Treaders.

Plus Bag 'O' Spanners, Ring The Alarm, Phil Saunders, Vital Techniques, Catherine Ashcroft, John Players Specials, Dirtbox, Operation Sounsystem, Kryso, Rory Connor & Friends, Hypo, Templebys, Fat Albert, Dead Horse Gang, Scogans Run, Sol Y Sombra, Dansi, Trevor Roots, Bill Lloyd, Bad Transmission, Seamless, TZ, Baxter Rhodes & Friends, Good Foxy, Rev Dread, Uncle Carbunkle, Samurai Breaks, Trinity Lo Fi, Trash Manor DJs, D'Bleedin Blaggards, Zom-B, Mosienko Project, Dicky Flowers, The Soul Upsetter, Jagerossa, Samantha Loveridge, Flew The Arrow, Paul Thornton, Hardcore Gnomes, The Urbanizer & Doink, Underground Roots, The Fusion Brothers, The Hobo, Nema-Kuta, Bluejam Youth Music Project, Boomdang, Dub Wild, Galvatron, The Farmer, Simitu, Papa Shanti, The Broux, Ten Foot Wizard, Blanty, Gemma Furbank, Stig of the Dub, Sam Robinson & Friends, Strawberry Jam Sound, Home Grown, Jayney Mac, Panjenix, Professor Pumpernickle, Mr Kipling, Chantelle Barrow, Dubbers, Cumfy, Beach Club & Relic, LSD Licious, Ben Gates Sound Sculptures, and Catholic Abuse Apology.

And also Perch & Dubdadda, Forward Ever, Steve Jahvis, Matty B, Tiqur Humblebeat, Fiah Don, Hustletone, Mister Monster, Little Rocket, Nicky General, Miss Chop, Sista Emma, Dub Jon, Pat Godbert, Nem, Silent Kev, Beaker, Teo C, Spoovoy, Dental Plan, The Too Much Funk Club, Salem Focus & Motiv, Sweet Aerobics, Tom Page, Spincycle, Tim Forrester, Leon Wanless, Andy Hackney, Ryan Hartley, Josh Lee, Ben Jones, Josh, Chilli, Pod, Tim Hamblin, Tim Toil, Adam Broadley, Fallback, Sly, Shakey, Hardfloor, Key Lo, Sam Pemberton, Hey Bull Dog, Beach Master, Home Grown DJs, Spats, EJ, Jayney Mac, Dicky Flower, The Seany and Stu Show, Trash Manor DJs, and Dubbers.

As ever Solfest offers an array of entertainment across practically every musical genre. If you don’t hear something that you like move along to another venue - stages include the Drystone Stage, The Solway Bar, Unity Sessions, Lost’n’Found, Loungevity, The Love Shack, House Of Joy, Melodrome and Stylus featuring everything across the musical spectrum from folk to house, hip-hop to reggae, dub to soul, ska to Afrobeat.

For the line-up details, and stage splits as available see the Solfest line-up page.

Tickets

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The early bird offer has ended, tickets are priced as follows:
Adult Standard - £99
Young People Standard (age 12-17) - £59 (Must be ordered with at least one adult ticket)
Child Tickets (age 6-11) - £15
Babies & Toddlers (age 0-5) – FREE but still need a ticket
Thursday Camping (per adult ticket) - £10
Live in vehicle pass £10

Ethos

The festival policy is "to appeal to four generations of people, from the tiny babies through to the great-grannies and great-granddads (and everyone else in between) and have them all partying together at the same time - and lovin' it!"

Fancy dress

Saturday is fancy dress day at Solfest, this year's theme has not yet been announced.

On site

Solfest is expected to include free camping (quiet and noisy!); free parking; plenty of food from around the world; a licensed bar (or you can bring your own); sculptures; a healing area; adult workshops where you can try things such as belly dancing and wood turning; craft stalls; walkabout performances and theatre; a baby area; fire performances; an acoustic music session tent, and friendly and helpful stewards.

The Solfest Workshop programme offers a wide range of activities to educate and inspire.

For kids

Solfest has an action packed kids area for children of all ages, from the Baby Chill-Out with facilities for feeding, changing and resting.

Plus fun things like painting drop-in sessions, circus skills, musical workshops, craft workshops, ultraviolet sandpit, wood lathes and green woodworking, facepainters, songs and stories, Hula Hooping workshops, water play, bubbles, and other toys and activities.

For older kids and teens expect the return of the Trailer Trash Games Emporium, a mobile youth club featuring activities like table football, table tennis and other games and activities.

Early entry

Last year the 'Shoreside' field (Noisy Camping) was open for public access between the hours of 5pm and 10pm on Thursday evening. There was no access to the main festival field or any of the other camping fields until the Friday.

More information will be here when available.

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