Whilst major festivals are great fun and give you the chance to see some huge acts, they can have their drawbacks and not everyone enjoys such big events. Across the UK there are loads of smaller festivals with incredible line ups that often fly under the radar if you’re not local to them, so we’ve rounded up a few of our favourites for 2025.
FEEL THE NOISE – Wolverhampton – 19th April 2025 – variable capacity
Feel the Noise is a brand new multi-venue festival taking place in Wolverhampton city centre. Festival goers will be given a wristband that will give them access to some of the city’s best music venues, with each venue having different acts playing throughout the day. So far they’ve announced their first wave of artists, including The K’s, The Clause, and The Covasettes, with many more names still to be announced.
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WIDE AWAKE – London – 23rd May 2025 – 25k capacity
Wide Awake is a one day festival taking place in Brockwell Park, South London. The festival was founded by Keith Miller, who is also responsible for gigs put on in iconic venues across London, including Moth Club and the Shacklewell Arms, both of which many of our favourite bands have performed in. Previous line ups have seen Lambrini Girls, The Dare, Caroline Polachek, Amyl & The Sniffers, and IDLES to name a few, so it’s safe to say Keith knows how to curate a standout line up for alternative music lovers. Our favourites on this year’s line up are CMAT, English Teacher, Gurriers, and Kneecap.
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DOT TO DOT – Bristol & Nottingham – 24th – 25th May 2025 – variable capacity, up to 2k
Dot to Dot festival is a multi-venue festival that runs for one day each in Bristol and Nottingham, this year it’s on the 24th of May in Bristol and the 25th of May on Nottingham. The festival showcases some of the best up and coming talent the UK has to offer and has featured acts such as Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Cribs, Bloc Party, Florence + the Machine, Cage the Elephant, Wolf Alice, Fontaines D.C., and Wunderhorse on previous lineups. The line up is slightly different between the two cities to allow for local acts to have a spot on the bill. Our favourite acts due to perform this year are Basht, Cardinals, and Keo.
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GOLDEN TOUCH – Portsmouth – 13th & 14th June 2025 – 500 capacity
Golden Touch festival is an indoor festival held at Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. The festival aims to highlight the best local talent, as well as offering performances from their favourite artists around the UK. Across the years Golden Touch have hosted The K’s, Vistas, The Royston Club, Corella, The Clause, and many more. This year is the first time the festival will run over two days instead of one, so we’re excited to see how that changes things. We only have the first wave of artists so far, but our must see acts this year include Fickle Friends, Somebody’s Child, The Clause, Balancing Act, and Pentire.
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ON THE BEACH – Brighton – 18th – 20th & 25th – 27th July 2025 – 10k capacity
This two weekend festival on Brighton beach is spread across two weekends with the genres varying depending on the day. This year for indie fans they have Bloc Party headlining on Sunday 20th July, celebrating 20 years of Bloc Party and performing Silent Alarm in full, and Kaiser Chiefs headlining on Sunday 27th July, celebrating 20 years of Kaiser Chiefs and performing Employment in full. Supporting Bloc Party on the 20th they have Everything Everything, Mystery Jets, English Teacher, Liz Lawrence, Feet, and Martial arts. Support for the Kaiser Chiefs is yet to be announced but we’re certain it will be packed with some amazing indie names.
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