Review & Photos: Thousands flock to Shambala Festival for their annual 'Adventure In Utopia'

Thousands of festival goers headed to Kelmarsh Hall at the weekend, for three days of ‘Adventures In Utopia’ at the Shambala Festival. And, it was a tale of two Shambalas really. Two (mostly) glorious days of sunshine sandwiched between one day of torrential downpours.

However, neither the heat, rain nor subsequent mud could do anything to (metaphorically) dampen the spirits at Shambala.

Last year I alluded to it and this year confirmed it - Shambala is not only the best festival in the county – it’s also probably one of the best in the country.

It was a busy weekend for festivals in Northants with Greenbelt taking place for the last time at Boughton House, the inaugural Roseshire festival at Chester House and CarFest relocating to Silverstone.

However, there’s nowhere quite like Shambala. Nowhere where such an eclectic line up of music, performances, spoken word, comedy, poetry, craft and wellness activities, entertainment, silliness and fun all come together.

The opening day was headlined by Bob Vylan – back at the festival to play on the Solasta stage having previously performed in 2024.

The duo have had what you can probably describe as a busy 12 months since last year’s Glastonbury performance – winning defamation and deportation cases and seeing off police investigations.

Throughout - continuing to show their support for Palestine, its people and being vocal critics of the war against them.

While frontman Bobby Vylan spoke at length about what they’ve been through, the ‘most violent boy band in Britain’ put in an incendiary performance of rap infused punk - which also included debuting numerous new tracks.

Elsewhere during the day, hundreds packed into the Talu tent to hear the team behind Led By Donkeys talk about their guerilla projects and political street art.

In the Rebel Soul tent, Green Party leader Zack Polanski was joined by Femi Oluwole for a live edition of his podcast Bold Politics which also drew a capacity audience.

For the opening day, the Shambala site was transformed into a sea of purple as people dressed up in the colour as part of the event’s ‘Flamboyant Friday’ theme while on The Common, the first heats of the Shambolympics got underway with more fantastic competitive games.

Curated by Village Circus and hosted by Monsieur Bonbon, Robin Clyfan and DJ Max Galactic – across the weekend thousands watched teams compete in games including disco dodgeball, slip and slide rounders and egg catching.

Other highlights of the opening day included Coventry two-tone legends The Selecter and in the early hours of Saturday morning in the Data Mine, techno / house duo Paranoid London performed a set using field recordings captured from climate-threatened landscapes including Finland’s Bothnian Bay and Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea.

Each year, festival goers are given a theme for the Saturday carnival and despite downpours, thousands of people either individually or as part of a team, got creative to represent ‘Lyrical Genius’.

While the traditional parade around the site was postponed because of the weather, people gathered on The Common with Monsieur Bonbon highlighting some of the best outfits on display before the team behind ‘Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls’ were crowned winners.

Elsewhere, music highlights of Shambala’s second day came via the psych rock excellence of Goat who headlined the Solasta stage and Soweto’s BCUC while Northampton’s MiXXlab DJs ensured a local touch with performances throughout the day on The Next Stage.

The final day of Shambala saw rain give way to mud which came with its own perils as people navigated the site.

Penguin Café, Emma-Jean Thackray, Holly Cook and Los Bitchos all drew huge crowds on the main stage.

While other highlights included Prima Queen on The Next Stage and Vanity Fairy in Compass – Shambala’s incredible cabaret Spiegeltent.

Following the traditional closing ceremony of fireworks and projections, it was down to Dakar’s Orchestra Baobab to bring Shambala to a close – at least on its main stage, as partying continued across the site into the early hours.

Without a small army, it’s impossible to do Shambala justice and truly reflect on everything the festival has to offer.

It’d be amiss not to mention the Enchanted Woods, the huge range of activities in the Healing Meadow, different crafting opportunities ranging from pottery, ironmongery and weaving, the Playtopia area for children and the huge range of excellent vegetarian and vegan food on offer.

Also, despite walking past queues at its entrance throughout the weekend, I still never really got to the bottom of what lurked behind the doors of The Silver Factory!

Shambala will return in 2027. Festival devotees or curious first timers can sign up for presale tickets at https://www.shambalafestival.org/join-the-shambala-2027-pre-sale/ More photo galleries from across the three days at Shambala as well as a look at what else was on offer away from the big stages will follow in the coming days.