Breakout viral star Lizzy McAlpine, indie-pop behemoths Bleachers (led by mega-producer and eight-time GRAMMY winner Jack Antonoff), and rapid-rising singer/songwriter Holly Humberstone are headlining this year’s award-winning Barn on the Farm festival, an intimate meshing of community, music, visual arts, and local food and drink where core memories are formed.
The boutique gathering is one of the UK’s leading independent music events, and plays host to big hitters and up-and-comers in equal measure: Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, James Bay, and many more have graced the picturesque stages at Barn on their way to the top, delivering jaw-dropping ‘I was there’ moments that will never be forgotten… Lewis serenading the campsites with his version of ‘Wonderwall’? Pure chills.
And there’s a reason it’s your favourite artist’s favourite festival – somewhere they come back to year on year, even if they’re not performing.
Set in the lush idyll of Over Farm, a working farm just outside Gloucester featuring strawberry picking and ostriches galore, Barn is like no other festival in the UK. It’s a dustland utopia with art installations and hidden secrets aplenty, with rewards for the eagerest explorers, but it’s much more than a unique location: it’s a family, a community of artists and festival-goers alike, where friendships are born and where songs are born. Over the past 10-years-plus of life, Barn has proved itself a cultural hub where new musicians are inspired and where the line between fan and creator blurs ,and entering its second decade Barn has solidified itself as the festival that artists and revellers remember, and continue to return.
This beautiful feeling of found family is something that makes Barn a perfect first festival. It’s 100% independent, run by genuine music lovers instead of a faceless corporate juggernaut, and feels like a breath of fresh air in the festival landscape – to be at Barn is to be at a festival which takes pride in every minute detail, and feels like home.
All three headliners are headlining their first-ever festival at Barn 23 – evidence of an ethos that elevates the best and brightest instead of relying on the same old, same old. This maverick booking streak, which sees the festival excitedly hunting for the Next Biggest Thing, courses through the entire line-up. As well as McAlpine (whose UK Top 10 track ‘ceilings’ has been unavoidable in 2023), Taylor Swift, The 1975, and Lana Del Rey-collaborator Jack Antonoff (with his band Bleachers), and Humberstone (a BRIT and NME award winner, and Ivor Novello and BBC Sound of 2022 nominee), Barn 23 will see performances from established heroes such as The Big Moon, The Academic, Amber Run, and Flyte, plus emerging icons such as DYLAN, Olivia Dean, Wunderhorse, Thomas Headon, Rachel Chinouriri, and flowerovlove.
Jack Garratt will also head up the festival’s new and improved late-night bill with a DJ set on the Friday, and an avalanche of surprises begins with the mysterious Cam Aspen – but you’ll have to be there to witness everything that they have to offer, including this year’s iteration of the Farm Band, a supergroup formed each year during the festival who play a one-off set of covers and originals. Last year’s cast included Maisie Peters, ber, Flyte, Dylan Fraser, JP Saxe, and Barn 23 headliner Holly Humberstone!
Barn On the Farm takes place between 29th June to 2nd July 2023, and day splits and running orders will be announced in the coming months. With Intimate Thursday tickets selling out back in August in under a day, the remaining tickets back on sale consist of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday entry.
