Fairport Cropredy Convention 2026
13 August to 15 August
About Fairport Cropredy Convention 2026
Fairport Cropredy Convention 2026 will be staged over the weekend of 13 to 15 August 2026. The annual festival of folk and rock music, headed by British folk-rock band Fairport Convention is held on the edge of the village of Cropredy near Banbury in Oxfordshire.
2026 festival lineup
Thursday
- Fairport Acoustic – 4.00pm
- Banter – 4.35pm
- Soft Machine – 6.00pm
- Matt Bragg – 7.10pm
- Turin Brakes – 7.55pm
- Le Vent Du Nord – 9.40pm
Friday
- Cropredy Primary School Folk Class – 12.00pm
- Danny & The Champions of The World – 12.45pm
- Danny Bradley – 2.10pm
- The Celtic Social Club – 3.40pm
- Marshall Gilmour Webbs – 5.15pm
- Breabach – 6.55pm
- Spooky Men’s Chorale – 8.40pm
- Richard Thompson with Zara Phillips (plus S Nicol, D Mattacks & D Pegg) – 10.30pm
Saturday
- Gerry Colvin Big Band – 12.00pm
- Rob Jones & The Restless Dream – 1.20pm
- The Haar – 2:.55pm
- Barbara – 4.35pm
- Hayseed Dixie – 6.10pm
- Will Pound & Jenn Butterworth – 7.55pm
- Fairport Convention & Friends – 9.30pm
Tickets
Please see important booking information below.
Booking information
Prices:
- Adult 3-day tickets only – £240.00
- Teens (12 to 17 inc) 3-day tickets only – £95.00
- 3-day camping – £65.00 per vehicle for the weekend
- 3-day parking – £15.00 per vehicle for the weekend
- Backpackers and Bikers camp for free.
- Children under 12 years of age may attend free of charge if accompanied by a ticket holding adult.
Tickets issued will be e-tickets unless ordered over the phone or by post to the festival office.
History
During the 1970s, Daves Pegg and Swarbrick lived in the village of Cropredy. In 1979 Fairport decided to call it a day and, having opened up for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in the early afternoon, tore across the country in their van to do an outdoor Farewell concert at Peewit Farm on Station Road in Cropredy.
A year later, they decided to reconvene with some friends for what would become their annual reunion. Although they had performed in Cropredy before, 1980 is the year Fairport recognise as the first Cropredy Festival. The festival has continued (on various sites, including Broughton Castle) up to the present day, increasing in size from a couple of thousand to its current capacity of 20,000.
Cropredy is a music festival – it could never be pigeon-holed as a folk festival. Along with the finest in folk and folk-rock – Lindisfarne, Julie Fowlis, Steeleye Span, Ralph McTell, Cara Dillon – the Cropredy audience has witnessed the likes of Alice Cooper, Robert Plant, Status Quo, Steve Winwood and Buzzcocks. Basically, whatever music Fairport like is what ends up on the bill.
And, bucking current trends, the Cropredy Festival has always stuck to the one-stage idea. The advantage to the customer is that they won’t miss anyone. The advantage to the performer is that no matter how far down the bill they are, they are guaranteed to be performing in front of at least 10k people. Beats being stuck in an ‘Unsigned’ tent in some remote corner of a forgotten field for sure.
The Cropredy ‘Fringe’ – entertainment provided by the two pubs in the village – act as satellite stages. Indeed, many of the acts that have appeared at the festival have performed at The Brasenose Arms and The Red Lion on their way.