The Phoenix Festival 2026

Three full days, no ticket required

The Phoenix Festival started in 2013 as a project of Ozone, a Cirencester youth club whose volunteers raised sixty thousand pounds to get a free festival off the ground. It has grown into the only totally free music and arts festival in the Cotswolds, still run by unpaid volunteers, still pulling a crowd well past twenty thousand into the Abbey Grounds every August bank holiday, now backed by Cirencester Town Council and the Cirencester Community Development Trust.

Two stages carry the music across the weekend. Saturday brings Lilrockit, The Soul Destroyers, Old's Cool and Monkey Mafia, a Cirencester five-piece known locally for sets of rock, eighties, nineties and soul covers, with more acts still to be added to the bill. Sunday hands over to Pavo, Mellowmatic, Blubell, Beggers & Hangers-on and the Nigel Gardener Trio. Monday, the bank holiday itself, is a bonus day given over to the Cirencester Music Academy Stage, putting the area's young and emerging performers in front of a festival crowd. Around the stages there is a Community Arena, a craft and creative zone, food and drink stalls, and a funfair with a big wheel, plus plenty of grass to spread a blanket on.

A festival this size costing nothing to get into is rare, and worth showing up for while it still does.

Free entry.

Saturday 29 – Monday 31 August 2026 · Abbey Grounds, Blake Road, Cirencester GL7 2EG · Gates 11am–10pm, no re-admission after 8:30pm