First Light Festival 2026

There’s nowhere more appropriate to mark the start of summer, and festival season, than First Light Festival. Taking place on Lowestoft beach – the most easterly point in the UK - on 20-21 June, the multi arts festival will mark being the first place in the UK to see the sunrise and mark the summer solstice with a celebration of music, culture and arts. 

During the two-day event (20 & 21 June), X stages and venues directly on and next to South Beach host an eclectic mix of artists, including:

Sunlight Stage – the main festival stage on the beach welcomes international artists with music from across the globe to Lowestoft, including: 

• Jamz Supernova - BBC 6 Music radio host, DJ and podcaster 
• Dutch disco / boogie / 70s funk from Another Taste 
• UK Powerhouse Soul & Funk Artist Ashton Jones 
• Neo Soul and R&B singer songwriter and producer Lizzie Berchie 
• Folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Seth Lakeman 
• ShunTA! with their original, lovingly-crafted arrangements of music from the Balkans 
• Modern interpretations of traditional West African Mandingue songs and rhythms from N’famady Kouyaté 

First Word Stage - spoken word and comedy, including:  

• Poet Luke Wright with a one-off work-in-progress show, tackling masculinity and the way politics seeps into everyday life. 
• Bradley Taylor (‘A wry observer of the first quarter of the twenty first century ‘– Craig Charles)  
• Poet and Playwright Inua Ellams (Barber Shop Chronicles) 
• Elf Lyons (Winner - Best Comedy - Sky Arts Awards 2025)   
• A greatest hits compilation - with some new stuff - from 'comedy's poet laureate'  (The Independent) John Hegley 

Talks and Interstellar Ideas tent, including hearing from:  

• Patrick Grant (The Great British Sewing Bee)  
• Universe of Music with the Sky at Night’s Chris Lintotto and musician Steve Pretty 
• Author Ashley Hickson-Lovence (The 392, Your Show and Wild East) 
• George McKay (The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock) 
• Julian Barnwell – discovering the HMS Gloucester shipwreck 

Tickets are now on sale for events taking place at Lowestoft venues after the sun goes down on Saturday (20 June): 

• Keep dancing with Jamz Supernova as an After Party DJ set at The Venue on Claremont Pier 
• Intimate soul and jazz with vocalist and songwriter Polly Gibbons at The Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club 
• Acoustic and classical Moonlit Soundscapes featuring virtuoso violinist Harriet McKenzie and Bosch – featuring Stevie Wishart in a quartet of the UK’s most eclectic and innovate improvisers playing instruments never combined before… all at St Peter & St John Church  
• East Point Pavillion brings late-night glamour with cabaret performances – a first-time feature of the Festival 
• First Light’s ever popular Silent Disco 

First Light Festival is known for its visual arts programming, which this year includes The Long Wait  by renowned sculptor Laurence Edwards, whose bronze forms have become a much-loved feature in the festival landscape. The sculpture will be installed for the Festival but remains on the beach throughout the summer. Elsewhere visitors will find the Kittiwake Hotel Project, a sculptural response to nesting sites out at sea built for the kittiwake bird population and the New to Moon installation of contemporary art and Easterly Artists showcase in Kensington Gardens. 

Camping, Campervans and Glamping

First Light also offers the unique prospect of camping on Lowestoft Beach during the Festival.  Only possible that weekend and making this the only opportunity to camp on a beach anywhere in England, this wild camping option puts guests a stone’s throw from the festival site while those in campervans will be able to take in the view from a special cliff top parking area.