Greenbelt Festival has announced that 2026 will be its last at Boughton House. It is now looking for a new home and has taken the long-term strategic decision to move from Kettering home, ensuring the future of the festival for the next generation of Greenbelters.

The festival team says that rising infrastructure hit harder each year and whilst attendance grows each year, the Greenbelt team has to “dip into its reserves” to balance the books.

In a statement, the organising team said: “The problem of rising costs is one facing plenty of smaller, independent festivals, and has resulted in many having to close over the last few years. It’s a problem Greenbelt is future-proofing itself against by making the decision now, with healthy finances and a decade of success at Boughton behind it, rather than a few years down the line.Derek Hill, managing director of Greenbelt, said: “Through careful stewardship since we moved to Boughton, we’re now in a stronger financial position than most of the past 30 years. But we can’t be complacent.

“Boughton has been a tremendous home to the festival for the past ten years. We’ve learnt how to build the festival in that space as leanly and efficiently as we can, but the uplift in production costs mean we are beginning to need to dip into our reserves most years. As stewards to a 52 year-old festival, our first responsibility is to the next generation of Greenbelters and the legacy we’ve been handed (and want to hand on). So it’s time to move.”

Paul Northup, Greenbelt’s creative director, said: “Leaving somewhere you love will always involve a degree of heartache. We know that Greenbelters will be a little shocked and maybe feel a deep sadness on hearing this news. It’s so tempting to stay at a site we’ve made our home over the last decade and to keep polishing and refining the festival we make there. But the long-term numbers tell us a different story. And Greenbelt has always been braver and more creative than that.

“While the search for a new home can now begin in earnest, we also begin to prepare and plan to make next year’s Greenbelt the best it can possibly be – as a tribute to our time at Boughton and as a fitting act of celebration for the conspiracy of hope we’ve all built there.”

The festival team already has a set of criteria that will frame the search. The festival team is determined to get its next move right; giving itself the breathing space to consider all options thoroughly. In keeping its options open, it’s even possible that Greenbelt might take a fallow year in 2027.

Image: Jacob Lowe