Boardmasters, Newquay, Cornwall
At Boardmasters, days can be spent watching the country’s top pro surfers do their thing in the UK’s biggest surf competition, the Boardmasters Open, and noodling around the art installations, workshops, skate and BMX comps of the festival area on Fistral beach. Tickets for the main shows – featuring the likes of Loyle Carner, Slowthai, Jorja Smith and Jamie XX – have sold out, but you can still sign up for the resale list and there is availability for some of the after-parties at local club venues Berties and Sailors (from £13), as well as surf lessons (£36pp) and snorkelling and SUP safaris (£57).
• 11-15 August, boardmasters.com
Fringe by the Sea, North Berwick, Scotland
More than 200 individual music and comedy events, wellbeing sessions, family shows and talks on topics such as the environment are jammed into the programme for Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick on the East Lothian coast, north-east of Edinburgh. Basement Jaxx and Mica Paris, playing her new album, and comedians Reginald D Hunter, Ed Byrne and Phil Kay will take to the stage. Look out too for talks by writers Irvine Welsh, Maggie O’Farrell and Lemn Sissay. Family wildlife walks hosted by the Scottish Seabird Centre, a “sketch and wander” art-class walk and street-dance workshops are among the more active elements. Specially arranged late night ScotRail trains will run back to Edinburgh from North Berwick, so festival-goers could stay in the city.
• 6-15 August, ticket prices vary for each event (some free), fringebythesea.com
Travelling Feast, Cornwall
For a fun new festival created by Cornish chef and restaurateur Paul Ainsworth, the food trucks of Michelin-starred chefs move between three different Cornish locations, like a circus of fine food, with different live music each night. Tom Kerridge’s Humble Pie truck, James Martin’s Ice Cream truck and a big red bus serving dishes created by Niall Keating, Atul Kochhar and Rick Stein are part of the procession, with many of the chefs, plus Angela Hartnett, doing live cooking demonstrations. The festival spends three nights in each spot: Boconnoc Estate in Lostwithiel, Scorrier House near Redruth, and the Royal Cornwall Showground in Wadebridge, with music by the likes of Sister Sledge, Sugarhill Gang, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Danny Rampling and Norman Jay. Guests can book tickets with three nights’ glamping at one of the sites, or opt for an “Adventure ticket”, which includes access to two festival music nights, four nights’ camping at Roscarrock Manor Farm, a brunch boat trip around Padstow, and daytime yoga and foraging.
• 6-20 August, day tickets from £42 adult, £21 child; tickets including three nights’ camping from £135 adult, £104 child, travellingfeast.co.uk
Solfest, Solway Coast, Cumbria
Held on a spectacular site with views across the Solway Firth to the peaks of Dumfries and Galloway, and of the Lake District to the south, the family-friendly Solfest connects the dots between rural setting and rocking entertainment. North Lakes Country Park, four miles from the Cumbrian coastal town of Silloth, is the venue; Basement Jaxx, Razorlight, the Amazons and Maximo Park the headliners – plus there’s a significant kids’ area and food stalls offering bao buns and wood-fired pizza.
• 26-29 August, some tickets have sold out, but remaining weekend tickets cost from £127 adult, £36 child, including Thurs-Mon camping, day tickets from £37 adult, £11 child, solfest.co.uk
Sea Shanty and Folk Music festival, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
Audience participation and pirate costumes are encouraged at Weston-super-Mare’s Sea Shanty festival, which brings the life-affirming pleasure of listening to salty sea shanties in coastal pubs to the Somerset seaside resort. Dozens of singers and groups take part, many with intriguing and fishily pun-tastic names, such the Baggyrinkle Swansea Shantymen, Back Beach Boyz and the Barnacle Buoys, performing across 60 venues including pubs, bars, the Grand Pier and the smart Italian Gardens.
• 6-8 August, entry to venues (except the Grand Pier) is free, wsmshantyfest.com
Summer sessions at Lula beach shack, Hayle, Cornwall
Live music from bands and DJs will liven up firepit feasts and sunset sessions on Friday and Saturday nights through the summer at Lula, a popular beach shack bar and restaurant at North Quay in Hayle, west Cornwall. Acts lined up to play include True Foxes, Jenna Witts and Bailey Tomkinson, and three feast nights (also with music) will have food inspired by America’s deep south, with a special dish cooked over the firepit as well as ribs and sustainable Cornish seafood from the day’s fishing boats. The nights are first come, first served, with food from 5pm.
• 23 July-11 September, £3 entry, lulashack.co.uk
Broadstairs Folk Week, Kent
Traditional folk music remains at the heart of Broadstairs Folk Week, and there’s morris dancing aplenty in the Edwardian streets of this characterful seaside town. Although the usual ceilidhs and dances of the 55-year-old event are cancelled this year, workshops on unusual instruments, from flamenco guitar and ukulele to mandolin and Appalachian clog, will go ahead, and a wide range of gigs using those instruments and many more are to be hosted at the Broadstairs Memorial Recreation Ground. Extras include a kids’ creative club at the bandstand each morning, and a craft and music fair with a Shepherd Neame bar on the clifftop Victoria Gardens overlooking the seafront. A festival campsite takes over the grounds of a local school.
• 6-13 August, ticket options range from individual gig tickets (from £12 adult, £7 child) to festival day tickets (£39/35 adult, £20/18 child) and full-week tickets with camping (£274 adult, £110 child, £699 family of four), broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk
Taste East Devon food and drink festival
East Devon has become one of the UK’s finest regions for eating and drinking, and the stellar lineup of delectable-sounding events at the new Taste East Devon food and drink festival goes to prove the point. All are within 30 minutes of the sea, at top restaurants or from artisan producers, and some are very close to the shore. Wine-tasting at Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines’ Lympstone Manor on the River Exe estuary, seaweed foraging and a week of seafood specials at Exmouth’s Point Bar & Grill are among those to look out for. In those rare hours when you’re not stuffing something in your mouth, following a cycling trail along the Exe is a recommended daytime activity – though you can still indulge your taste buds with a picnic from Topsham’s smart Darts Farm. More details and events to be announced.
• 11-19 September, prices vary, tasteeastdevon.co.uk
Dreamland Summer Social, Margate, Kent
Margate’s vintage-style seaside theme park, Dreamland, throws a curveball with its season-long Summer Social , featuring live DJs, street-food stalls, Margate’s biggest beer garden and the Olympics and other sports on a massive screen. Eight of the park’s rides will be open to visitors, including a new one, a restored 1960s ghost train. There’s also a summer concert series with gigs featuring Billy Ocean, James, Ministry of Sound Disco and more. Don’t miss the giant inflatable sculpture of Tina Turner’s head, a nod to the Turner prize, by art collective Cool Shit.
• Until 23 September, free but book ahead, dreamlandsummersocial.co.uk
Victorious, Southsea, Portsmouth
Revellers partying in front of the Seaside Stage at Portsmouth’s Victorious festival will see cruise ships drifting past in the background as they dance. The seafront is just one of the venues for this wide-ranging coastal event: at Southsea Castle and lighthouse, DJs play at the pop-up champagne bar, there’s a world music village hosting workshops on tai chi and drumming, plus big acts on two main stages, and an acoustic stage with hay bales to sit on. The Streets, Annie Mac, Richard Ashcroft, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Royal Blood and Fontaines DC are among those on the bill, plus there are comedy gigs and literary events. Young festival-goers can try Jedi training and meet CBeebies presenter Maddie Moate in the kids’ arena.
• 27-29 August, weekend tickets from £140 adult including camping, day tickets from £35 adult, £8 child, victoriousfestival.co.uk
Homeward Bound, Brighton
A new sea-themed extravaganza of folk music, food and culture celebrates the natural environment and the fishing and maritime industries of the stretch of south coast between Shoreham and Newhaven, which takes in Brighton and Hove. Talks and exhibitions, sea shanty sessions at local pubs, and food stalls serving fresh scallops and hot buttered mackerel buns are expected to be in the mix, with specific details to be announced nearer the time.
• 2-3 October, homewardboundfestival.com
