Just So Festival 2026

Start Date: 21 Aug 2026

End Date: 21 Aug 2026

Venue: Rode Hall

After a year off, Just So Festival has announced it is back for summer 2026 with lots of fun in-store, including a camp for teens.

Just So Festival is an internationally renowned arts festival dedicated solely to families.

Here is what you need to know about this fun family festival.

Table of Contents

What is the Just So Festival?

Just So Activities Storyteller Ian Douglas in the Spellbound Forest, Just So Festival 2021, credit Andrew Allcock — Credit Andrew Allcock

Just So Festival, which has been running for the past 13 years, with the aim of helping families make memories together in the great outdoors whilst enjoying the very best music, theatre, circus, storytelling and much more.

Run by by female-founded arts organisation Wild Rumpus and is designed for the whole family to get involved in activities, and for grown-ups to rediscover their inner child.

Festival goers can expect childhood nostalgia with activities including yearly activities such as:

A midnight feast under the stars
The Just So Sports Day with parent races and a silly Dad dancing competition,
Kitsch silent disco
Storytelling around a crackling campfire in the woods.
Campfire songs
Theatre shows on a woodland stage
Live music stage
Circus skills and shows

Plus each year Just So brings a whole host of fun new acts, line-ups and activities meaning each festival is always different

Just So areas Dancing at the Footlights Stage, Just So Festival credit Andrew Allcock — Credit Andrew Allcock

The family festival is divided up into different zones. The 2026 festival areas haven’t yet been announced.

However in previous years zones have included:

Spellbound Forest where you will discover the campfire, nature crafts, woodland movies and more
Mind Palace where you will need your thinking caps to learn new things and build new worlds. There will be hands-on incredible contraptions, mechanical creations, giant puzzles and confounding.
Footlights the place to listen to an array of live music and have a boogie.
Bumbly Boo – the silliest, most nonsensical area where you will discover the ridiculous of blancmange workshops, to the most topsy-turvy workshops.
Colourado the Workshop Space think crafting and making and all things colour.
Wild Woods the new Just So playground where it is wild by day and night as you make your own rules for anarchic play performances and workshops.
Peekaboo is the zone for everything babies and toddlers from lullabies to dance workshops under 4’s will have the time of their lives.

Check out >>> Review of Just So 2024

The Just So 2026 Line Up

Review Just So Festival woodland games

The Just So 2026 Festival Line Up has not yet been announced however at the last festival acts included the likes of:

High Wire Spectacular with Chris Bulzini.
Ancient Giants, Inspirate as Giant Puppets Bring Life to the Gods and Demonds from South Asian Tales
Blancmange Battle
Blockbuster Factory Cat and Mouse Theatre – where you don’t have to just be the audience as you become part of the Movie Magic.
The Giant Balloon Show with Dizzy O’Dare – a theatrical experience complete with 80’s music and a Giant Balloon.
Dance Workshops galore including Silly Dancing, Ancient Indian Storytelling and Dance, Angst Aerobics and more.
The Magic Lantern, a beautiful shadow puppet theatre on wheels, The Magic Lantern.
The Runaways Circus House and circus skills
Giant Egg and Spoon Race
Silent Disco from Our Kids Social
A Giant Marble Run
Live music from firm Just So favourites David Gibb Big Band, Bonfire Radicals, The Bobby Socks and more.

And lots lots more…

The Just So Carnival of Animals

Carnival of animals Just So An owl at Just So Festival

A big Just So tradition is the Carnival of Animals.

This is where festivalgoers can choose to dress up as one of seven different animals, including foxes, bees and fish, and compete in games and challenges and to perform acts of kindness (such as recycling and giving compliments ) over the weekend or to win golden pebbles for their team.

The Carnival of Animals comes to a spectacular end as the animals gather and then march together to discover which group will be crowned the overall winners.

Camp Just So – For Teens

For those who love Just So but feel they are a little bit too old, Camp Just So has the answer.

Aimed at young people aged 13-17 years, it is a three-day creative experience prior to Just Festival where they can come and get a slice of that childlike wonder, while also helping us to make the magic happen.

Camp Just So invites you to join the community of artists and creatives, learn new skills, take part in artist-led workshops, make new friends and most importantly, become part of the behind-the-scenes magic that conjures up Just So!

You’ll be right in the thick of building the festival, ready to throw open the doors to friends and family on Friday afternoon!

And then you’ll stay for the festival of course!