Sunday: The final day of Wychwood 2026 on Cheltenham racecourse. Celebrating The festival’s 20th year with an expansion of the usual 10,000 capacity by 5,000.
Probably an estimated 28,00 to 30,000 people on site across the three days. Busiest day was Saturday. The weather was very kind; red hot for two days and a tad cooler on day three.
Sunday’s bill toppers are The Levellers and The Subways, plus Everything Everything, Maximo Park, Chesney “The one and only” Hawkes, The Dub Pistols and more.
Saturday’s main stage headliner was The Kaiser Chiefs, and Newton Faulkner on the Garden Stage. Also Feeder, The South, The Twang, The Pigeon Detectives, and Adult DVD. Plus some newer bands such as the excellent prospects Drinking With Lucy, and Underscore.
Friday’s headliner ‘Kitchen Disco Queen’ Sophie Ellis Bextor replaced Craig David who was cancelled a few days before, for some unknown reason. The Wedding Present headlined the Garden stage.
A really eclectic mix of bands, artists and genres across the three days, and as every day, there are bands here today who took part in the ‘Apply to play’ competition for a spot on the main stage, including Loophole, who delivered a strong set, as did Pavey Ark.
Comedy band The Horne Section drove people bonkers even before they got onto the main stage early afternoon! Before they came on, and without any explanation, the PA played a looped recording of the classic track by Ace, “How Long Has This Been Going On”, not the full song sung by its writer Paul Carrack, no. Just that one line over and over for about 10 mins, right up to the start of the Horne Section’ s arrival on stage.
It turns out, this related to The Horne Section’s ‘Stand Up To Cancer’ 24-hour record attempt in December 2025, where they sang and played that line the whole time. [Like musical waterboarding!!].
A fair bit of audience participation for their set, including an audience member pulled from the crowd to improvise a song about Chinese five-spice seasoning, and he gets to walk away with a bottle of something as his prize. The crowd loved this lot and they were great fun.
The Burway, and Dub Pistols both turned in enjoyable sets, before the legend that is Mr Chesney Hawkes. Opening with a cover of US band Fountains Of Wayne’s rock song, “Stacy’s Mom”. He dedicates the second song, Nik Kershaw’s lovely “Wouldn’t It Be Good” to 80s kids. Nik of course, wrote Chesney’s big hit “The One And Only”.
After new song, “Nobody Like You”, Chesney jokes with the crowd that he knows the majority of people only know his one song. He asks people to raise their hand if they only know his one song, “The One And Only” and many, many, many hands shoot up. Seeing that he laughs and suggest they not be so honest!
The 55-year-old, who has his 21-year-old son Indiana, aka Indi, in his band on lead guitar, performs decent covers such as “Alright” by Supergrass and “Teenage Dirt Bag” by Wheatus. Mass singalong to “The One And Only” as his penultimate number, before finishing with a song we heard on Saturday night at Wychwood by headliners The Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict A Riot”.
Maximo Park are billed as special guests, on the main stage at 6pm. The alt’ rock band formed in Newcastle in 2000 and have eight studio albums. Singer Paul Smith, guitarist Duncan Lloyd and drummer Tom English are the core of the band, with some touring musicians joining them.
Their set feature a chunk of their current album, 2024’s “Stream of Life”. They opened with “The Coast Is Always Changing”. Paul asks the crowd if they prefer to be called “Wychwood” or “Cheltenham” and are loudly told the former.
Levellers headline the main stage on Sunday. A chunk of the crowd have left the arena as this band start. The folkie stars brought along their own clown (insert your own political joke here!), who danced around the stage and performed on a didgeridoo at one point.
This band are veteran festival stalwarts and have their own festival too. They have a big headline show in a park in Brighton in September, to mark the 35th anniversary of their classic second album “Levelling The Land”, from which they included a few of those songs in the Wychwood set.
Levellers “folk rock and anarcho-punk” band formed in Brighton in 1988, consisting of Mark Chadwick (vocals, guitar), Jeremy Cunningham (bass guitar), Charlie Heather (drums), Jon Sevink (violin), Simon Friend (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Matt Savage (keyboards) and Dan Donnelly (guitar, mandolin, vocals).
Their name is from the Levellers political movement. They have performed at the Glastonbury Festival several times, including in 1994 as the headline act on The Pyramid Stage to a record crowd of 300,000 people.
There’s a very good selection of food outlets at this festival, and after Maximo Park we (writer Kerry and snapper Liam), opted for the Yorkshire pudding place which can be seen from the main stage arena, and as it was Sunday we went for the fabulous ‘roast dinner’.
£14 is good value for a festival and when people yell, “rip off” at any festival for food and drinks, if you break down the costs including rent to be there – which is a good percentage of takings – gas/electricity, fuel to get there, tax and VAT, staff wages and the cost of buying the ingredients and drinks, plus the huge cost of trailers and equipment, their profit margins are not that unreasonable.
Our food was very filling and prompted colleague Steve Best to reference the previously mentioned song, “I Predict A Riot”, which he changed to “I Predict A Diet”. Cheeky s*d!
Everything Everything hit the main stage at 7.30pm in matching yellow shirts and trousers; looking like a bunch of bananas! From Salford and formed in 2007, labelled an “art rock” band, they have twice been shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and received five nominations for Ivor Novello Awards.
Three original members in the band including frontman Jonathan Higgs. They have released seven studio albums, with 2022’s “Raw Data Feel” the highest charting at number four in the UK. 2024’s “Mountainhead” is their most recent album (# 9 in UK chart).
Over in the tent on the Garden stage at 8pm, headliners The Subways pulled a good crowd and as Everything Everything finished on the main stage, this tent filled up. A fiery and energetic performance from The Subways as usual for their shows, and one of the best sets of the three days. In 2005 the band dropped their debut album which went off like a missile, “Young For Eternity”, and more than two decades they are still going strong.
The Subways formed in 2002 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, by Billy Lunn [guitar, lead vocals], Charlotte Cooper [bass, lead vocals], and original drummer Josh Morgan [Billy’s brother] who left the band in October 2020. Today, Camille Phillips [from The Ramonas] is the band’s drummer, since 2021.
“Young for Eternity,” was released on 4th July 2005 in the UK and 14th February 2006 in the US. Their second album, “All Or Nothing” appeared in June 2008 and third album “Money and Celebrity” came out in September 2011. Their self-titled fourth album was released on February 2015, and the most-recent album, “Uncertain Joys”, saw light of day in January 2023.
Factoid: The Subways band began as Mustard Seed and then Platypus before The Subways stuck – named after the subway underpass the original trio used to hang out in as youngsters in their home town. They won the Glastonbury Unsigned Performers competition in 2004 and won a slot at the festival.
“Rock & Roll Queen” is the song the band credit for taking them around the world for two decades [they put out a new version of it in 2025], their third single and taken from their debut LP. That belting track featured in Guy Ritchie’s hit movie “RocknRolla”, the US TV drama “The OC” and a Kate Moss Rimmel advert.
They dropped a new 24-track compilation late last year: “When I’m With You”, available in double-vinyl, CD and digital formats. The Subways delivered a cracking set at Wychwood and they need to be on the main stage next time, maybe opening for a suitable big name rock or punk-style act
So, from the string section….
…..to the Horne Section…
Well that’s Wychwood 2026 done and dusted and apart from Friday’s Craig David’s cancellation, everything seemed to go off pretty smoothly. The weather was perfect, the technical gremlins that can affect sound equipment took a weekend off. Most things ran to time.
The kids had a lot more to occupy them this year on site. It was a really well run and chilled vibe, zero signs of any trouble, and there were no poor performances from what we saw and heard. Bravo.
Check out our coverage of day one & two in our “Live Zone”
Photos by Liam Battersby
Words by Kerry Louise & Steve Best
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