We thought we’d get 2026 off to the best of starts with our very own New Year’s Honours list, and share with you a sprinkling of our first, early names for this year’s festival, Let It All Go.
With just a few days left before our earlybird ticket deadline of midnight on January 6th, we wanted to start giving you an idea of what’s in store this year, as we say goodbye to Boughton and hello to the next chapter of our festival.
We’re sharing a clutch of names now – for music, ideas and visual arts – and then below these you can see why we’re so excited about each of these early additions to this year’s festival.
Music from twins, tribes and trailblazers
Arrested Development
Iconic hip hop trailblazers who wear their social conscience and faith firmly on their sleeves. Fronted by artist and campaigning troubadour Speech, the band have been on our wishlist for so many years. We’re so excited that we made it work for them to close our last festival at Boughton House with their incredible festival show.
Fulu Miziki
Hailing from the capital of the DRC, KInshasa, Fulu Miziki describe themselves as a chaotic, eco-friendly, afro-futuristic punk ensemble – and having been caught up in their irresistible live performance at Deershed Festival last summer, we’d have to agree! We can’t think of a more fitting band to help us Let It All Go.
Grace Petrie
A firm festival favourite during our time at Boughton House, Grace Petrie simply had to return to help us celebrate the end of this particular chapter of Greenbelt’s journey. One of the UK’s foremost protest singer-songwriters of the modern era, Grace comes to us with a full band show and her passionate musical call for a fairer, more just society.
Daraa Tribes
Daraa Tribes come to us from Morocco with their fusion of ancestral tribal music and Saharan Blues, in a trance-like echo and reminder of our very first year at Boughton House, when the majestic Tinariwen graced our mainstage.
Dustbowl Revival
With their superlative live show reputation preceding them, we’re thrilled that Dustbowl Revival will make their Greenbelt debut this year. The musical styles they conjure are giddyingly diverse, but always with a laser-sharp focus on politically-charged storytelling. If you enjoyed Fanny Lumsden last summer, be sure to get down to the front!
Penguin Cafe
We knew our last year at Boughton needed some really special moments. And Penguin Cafe are very special indeed. Penguin Cafe continue the grand tradition of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra (50 years on from their first release on Brian Eno’s record label), maintaining the same commitment to their avant-chamber pop / jazz / folk / global music.
The Proclaimers
Twins Charlie and Craig first performed at Greenbelt way back in 1988, when the Radio 1 Roadshow came live from the festival. You’ll forgive us for wanting to milk a bit of festival nostalgia by having the brothers back – for the first time since 2012 – complete with their wonderful band and live show, to bring us a singalong set packed full of absolute tunes.
Withered Hand
We’re delighted that next summer will see a Greenbelt debut from Edinburgh-based cult-indie songwriter Withered Hand (Dan Willson). First emerging as part of Scotland’s Fence Collective in 2009, he comes to Greenbelt (after years of folks telling us we should invite him), armed with songs that mine a deep vein of spiritual curiosity, woven through with mesmeric melodies.
XRay Vez
Last, but by no means least, on the music front, we’re pleased to announce XRay Vez as an early booking for the Rebel Rouser stage. Epitomising ArtMouse Productions’ nose for grassroots talent with something to say, XRay Vez is the stage name for London-based Veronique Hawksworth, known for her humorous pop songs with a DIY punk twist.
Ideas from Belle, Bill, Barbados… and beyond
Belle Tindall-Riley
After being enthralled by Lamorna Ash at Greenbelt last year, we are pleased to welcome Belle to the festival this summer, in connection with her new book The Sacred Ache. A staff writer at the Centre for Cultural Witness, in the book Belle examines the avenues a new generation is exploring to scratch their spiritual itch and suggests how the Christian Gospel might still be the thing they’re looking for.
Bill McKibben (remote)
After first welcoming Bill McKibben to Greenbelt in the early years of our Boughton season, we’ve wanted to bring him back. But both he and we preferred not to do transatlantic flights again. So we’re delighted that Bill is one of the first big-name speakers who will be joining us remotely on our No Fly Zone stage this summer. After founding 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, Bill now works with his charity Third Act, organising people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice.
Charlotte Church
We’ve been asking her for years, so we’re so thrilled that this multi-million record selling artist will spend a day with us this summer – leading a singing circle, in conversation about her life, work and passions, and surprising us with a special pop-up performance too. Charlotte has been increasingly taken up with activism in recent years, at the same time as resourcing education and wellness projects in her native Wales.
Helen Lewis
Also a good few years in the asking, we’re delighted that writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis will join us at the festival. Helen is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a regular on the Private Eye Podcast. She’s made many compelling documentary series for both TV and radio at the intersection of culture, politics and belief. She is singularly insightful, extremely funny and totally unafraid in her writing and commentary.
Jordan Stephens
After having to pull out last summer (when he landed a leading role in a play), Jordan promised he’d come to Greenbelt as soon as he could. And it turns out that’s this summer! Not only a successful musician and performer with the resurgent Rizzle Kicks, Jordan is a thinker, writer and speaker on issues around mental health and masculinity – and it’s in that guise that he comes to Greenbelt to share his heartfelt wisdom and insight.
Nick Lowles
Nick has spent a lifetime fighting racism, fascism and extremism – first with the antifascist magazine Searchlight and then with HOPE not hate, the organisation he founded back in 2004. He comes to us to speak about his 2025 book How To Defeat The Far Right, at a critical time for the country.
Omar Barghouti
Continuing our commitment to inspiring and growing solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice, we are honoured that Palestinian human rights defender and a co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement will be joining us. Regularly cited and published in respected news media around the world, Omar literally wrote the book on what BDS could mean for the Palestinian struggle.
Sonita Alleyne
Resonating with our threads of programming around black lives matter, decolonisation and reparations, Sonita is the first woman to lead Jesus College, Cambridge since its foundation in 1496, having been born in Barbados and brought up in East London. She works tirelessly with a number of charities focussed on children in education, and was at the centre of a dispute to remove a memorial to Tobias Rustat – known to have been deeply embedded in the Transatlantic Slave Trade – from her college chapel.
Visual arts with real emotional power
Malak Mattar
Since Gazan artist Malak Mattar was last with us in 2022, she’s completed her MA in Fine Art at Central St Martin’s, becoming the first Palestinian artist to have a solo final show there. Her artwork has formed the backdrop to Brian Eno’s Together for Palestine fundraising gig at Wembley Arena in September last year, and she’s been named in Dazed’s Top 100 cultural figures of 2025. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do with this incredibly talented artist – seeing her work and hearing her story.
Migration by Musson+Retallick
After coming to Greenbelt in their youth, Neil Musson and Jono Retallick went on to train separately as fine artists, later teaming up to create internationally-renowned, large-scale site-specific artwork. Jono returned to the festival last summer and was blown away, so we’re utterly delighted to have persuaded the duo to bring their simply titled but incredibly powerful piece, ‘Migration’ to the grounds of Boughton House, to confront us with the hidden stories of the millions of migrants making perilous journeys across our globe.
We hope this early light dusting of names has got you excited about this year’s festival, with many, many more to come…
We can’t wait to Let It All Go with you at Boughton in August. Make sure you start 2026 off the right way with our earlybird deadline, and bag your tickets by midnight on 6th January.