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MASSIVE thanks, as ever, to everyone who filled out our Shambala 2026 feedback survey. Here’s what we learnt!
MUSIC
Your favourite musical acts were…
- GOAT
- Bob Vylan
- Joshua Idehen
A solid year for Solasta, which played host to all of your top 3!
HOTLY REQUESTED GENRES:
Our most popular requested genre was for more punk and heavy, guitar driven acts. On it!
We also saw a solid amount of requests for DnB, Jungle, Trance & Techno. Understood!
You lot love that we keep the party going so late, all weekend (hi 5am license, we love you) but we’ve heard you over sound levels, particularly at Solasta and in The Enchanted Woods – we’re working hard on this for 2027, so watch this space.
YOUR FAVOURITE VENUES…
As usual, The Enchanted Woods smashed it out the park and took the top spot – nice one, Morgan & team!
Roots Corner was in second place, with Swingamajig and Compass’ shiny new spiegeltent tied for third.
Huge love and respect to all of our venue teams, for creating such magic this year, you’re all absolute rockstars, we bloody love you!
YOUR NON-MUSICAL FAVES…
A vintage year for The Shambolympics, which you lot voted your favourite activity!
“Possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life”
There was also a LOT of love for the Lyrical Genius carnival.
Whilst the usual procession was sadly rained off, the pivot to that impromptu, daft, musical-costume-bingo-catwalk-extravaganza was peak Shambala silliness. Absolute gold, well done all.
Special mentions also go to the incredible tree projections in the Closing Ceremony, and *that* amazing Led By Donkey’s talk.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
You lot had a lot of lovely things to say about our food offering this year, and really appreciated each trader offering a £7.50 main meal and £4.50 kids meal option.
“Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal no notes!”
“Amazing! Found myself considering whether I should go vegetarian as I didn’t miss meat/fish at all”
And, for seemingly the billionth year in a row, your favourite trader was…. DOSA DELI! Giant onion bhajis 4eva.
Interestingly, we have seen more of you voting to bring back meat than in previous years – but a big old majority still want Shambala to remain strictly vegetarian – we’ll be keeping meat firmly off the menu.
HOW DO WE COMPARE?
Most of you didn’t do any other festivals this year – but of those of you that did, 87% said Shambala was the best festival you attended in 2026 – which is absolutely bloody lush – especially considering the weather did not play ball. Massive thank you, you bunch of sweethearts.
WHY DO YOU COME?
You love our independence. So do we. You love that there are no big corporate sponsors or tacky brand activations. So do we. You love the emphasis on sustainability and the way the site is left spotless. You love the music, and the frankly ridiculous amount of things to do – but most of all, you just love the vibe and the atmosphere. SO. DO. WE.
The vibe and the atmosphere is completely down to you, you adorable, thoroughly silly human beings. Never change.
FAMILIES
Families were happy, with over 91% stating that there was more than enough to keep their kids happy.
“Great for families, so much for kids to do in the daytime, they love it, and always can’t wait until the next year! They usually cry when shambala ends they are so sad it is over for another year!”
(…and lots of you that don’t have kids mentioned how lush it is having the youngsters about, which is very cute to hear)
“As a non kid bringer, I love how kid friendly the festival is. It makes everyone behave so much more considerately”
SITE SERVICES
You lot rated our showers, toilets, stewards, bars and security really highly, which is ace. Some of you felt that the busier toilet blocks needed emptying a bit more often – we’ve heard you.
You love that we offer free shower blocks in general camping, but do find the queues can be a pain at peak times.
We’ve also clocked that those of you of a smaller stature struggled to sit on the high-up loos in Dragon Fly camping – our wonderful loo provider has a solution and is on the case for next year, so this won’t be an issue moving forward.
There was a LOT of love for peequal’s brilliant squatting urinals.
We’ve heard that some of our newer attendees did struggle to find the Recycling Exchanges this year – we have plans in place to ensure signage is unmissable for 2027 to get this fixed.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Getting in: Some of you were queuing for longer than you’re used to, to get in – particularly those in campervans. We are genuinely really sorry – we had to do a big old switcheroo on the gates this year for various reasons, and it did lead to some teething issues, but rest assured there are plans in place to ensure this is sorted for 2027.
It was very bloody muddy: A lot of rain. A fair bit of lightning. Rumbly thunder. A bit of sun. An epic double rainbow. More rain. Bit more rain. And then it rained again.
This made a lot of things harder. Harder to find somewhere to sit, when you can’t sit on the floor. Harder to get into some of the covered venues, because everyone’s sheltering from the rain. Much harder to get around if you have mobility issues. Our site team worked really hard to try and keep ground conditions decent, but it was quite possibly the wettest Shambala on record, and things were undeniably tricky and sticky in our heaviest footfall areas. The irony of our months of heatwave and drought planning is not lost on us.
It was ace to see so many of you raving through the downpours and not letting the weather dampen your spirits – and it’s been incredible how many of you reported this years’ Shambala was one of your favourites, regardless of the mud bath.
Thank you to those of you who said such kind things about our crew, and their efforts to keep things moving…
“Shambala crew are the best bunch of committed friendly people keeping the vibe despite the weather. Really saw them working extra hard to keep us all safe and dry!”
“The weather didn’t impact everyone’s enthusiasm. The staff were all amazing”
Charging for the app, and wifi: Whilst you lot rated on shiny new app really highly, some of you were miffed about having to pay £1.99 for it. Likewise, some of you weren’t best pleased about having to pay for wifi access. Some of you suggested we just put the extra costs on the ticket price – which we understand, but as these are optional extras, we don’t like the idea of raising the ticket prices to cover the costs of something not everyone needs or uses. Whilst the app and the paper programme do both come at an extra cost, we promise to always continue to provide the basis listings timetable of all our main stages and venues via email, so there’s a free way to see what’s on where.
And, finally, here’s some of our very favourite things you said…
“The vibe – fun, silly, random – and leaving the real world behind for a few days. The mix of stuff – going straight from d&b maypole dancing to a dub set to a ceilidh”
“The gathering of like-minded thinkers and feelers joining together to form such a beautiful and safe feeling community”
“The festival is brimming with love and a united celebration of how joyfully weird and wonderful humans can be”
“After struggling with feelings of sadness and hopelessness in the world for some time, Shambala has left me with feelings of hope. The festival has changed me as a person for the better and I owe all of you my gratitude for that.”
“the vibe and how difficult it is to explain it to people who haven’t been… And the visuals this year were amazing!”
“Meeting such an amazing group of inclusive people, seeing people dressed in the most random, bizarre outfits and being totally accepted by everyone”
The sense of community. Turning everyone purple felt like a mad idea originally. I thought it could be hard to find people. However, it really brought everyone together”
“The non corporate progressive attitude that spreads from the company, right through to every person in attendance.”
“Everyone banding together through the adverse weather and managing to have a proper silly time”
“The common thread of connection, challenging fascism through collective action, knowing your neighbour’s, compassion for those we don’t agree with, and finding joy”
“Seeing people just absolutely love each other. No toxic masculinity, cuddles, kisses, dancing, singing”
“curating of music was spot on this year”
Huge thanks again to everyone that took the time to feed back – and for everyone that was a part of Shambala 2026 – not a year we’ll be forgetting in a hurry!
Let’s do it all again!
The weather certainly hasn’t put you lot off, with tiers 1 & 2 flying out on launch day, and less than half of tier 3 tickets remaining. Payment plans are available on absolutely everything – and there are serious savings to be made if you’re under 25, over 70, or up for ditching your car and travelling sustainably.