Brockwell Park's Wide Awake festival is finally officially cancelled (but we're still sad about it)

After months of wondering if it might still be happening, the festival's team has confirmed South London’s Wide Awake will not happen in 2026.

The eclectic alternative music festival “is just taking a break for 2026,” a spokesperson confirmed to MyLondon.

Wide Awake traditionally sits among a string of day festivals that, this year, includes Field Day on May 23rd, Cross the Tracks on May 24th, City Splash on May 25th and the two-day Mighty Hoopla on May 30th and 31st.

This year’s run of festivals is significantly short than last year’s. In 2026 it starts on May 23rd and runs on until May 31st. Back in 2025 it extended on until June 8th thanks to the two-day Lambeth Country Show, which was confirmed not to be happening this year back in December 2025, with increasing costs blamed.

There is another potential reason for Brockwell Live’s slimmed-down schedule this year, though. The festivals faced a legal challenge last year, resting on the claim the events affected large areas of Brockwell Park for 37 days, which is significantly longer than the 28 days allowed without specific planning permission.

While the 2025 shows actually ran for significantly less than a month, additional days were obviously required to set the site up and pack it all down again.

Last year’s Wide Awake festival highlights included CMAT, Peaches and Kneecap, who this year will play Crystal Palace Park instead on June 27th — alongside another Wide Awake 2025 act, Fat Dog.

While there’s not a like-for-like replacement for Wide Awake happening in London this year, there are a few events that might be of interest to fans of the festival.

Kneecap day at Crystal Palace Park aside — whose line-up also includes The Mary Wallopers and Biig Piig — Rally at Southwark Park is worth a look. The currently-revealed chunk of the line-up includes Blood Orange and Daniel Avery. Its next wave of tickets goes on sale on February 27th.

All Points East also segments the diversity we associate with Wide Awake into more genre-themed days, headlined by Lorde (August 22nd), Deftones (August 23rd), Tyler the Creator (August 28-29th) and Twenty One Pilots (August 30th).

For more festival and gig ideas, check out our big 2026 gig list.

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