From Buxton to Brecon, from Oxford’s medieval colleges to the churches of Kent and Sussex, Britain’s early music festivals form a sonic postcard of green countryside, historic houses, chapels and charming villages. In one of the great cradles of the early music revival, summer unfolds to the sounds of Handel, Dowland, Monteverdi, Purcell and Bach. 
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The nine festivals are presented in the order in which they open, from June to October. The contents below list them all and allow you to go directly to each entry, where you will find the dates, venues, artists and main highlights. Wishing you a wonderful summer of music!
Contents
June 2-July 12 – The Grange Festival
The Grange Festival (Hampshire)
Passion and intrigue, from Handel to Puccini
From June 2 to July 12, 2026
The Grange Festival, now entering its 9th edition, takes place from June 2 to July 12 near Alresford, in Hampshire. In the grounds of The Grange, an elegant mansion, a story of power, seduction and betrayal ignites beneath the Egyptian sun in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, where Caesar’s arrival sparks Cleopatra’s battle for the throne, as love and the struggle for empire collide. David Alden directs this new production, led by countertenor Tim Mead as Cesare and soprano Sarah Brady as Cleopatra. Hugh Cutting, the first countertenor ever to win the British Kathleen Ferrier Award, appears as Tolomeo, and Jess Dandy as Cornelia, under the direction of Christian Curnyn leading the period-instrument ensemble Early Opera Company. Jumping forward a century, Christophe Rousset conducts his own period-instrument ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, in concert performances of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, with Jeremy Ovenden in the title role and Aphrodite Patoulidou as Vitellia. And to extend the atmosphere of passion and intrigue well beyond early music, the festival also presents Puccini’s La Bohème and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.
Official website: www.thegrangefestival.co.uk
June 19-June 28 – Stour Music
Stour Music (Kent)
Alfred Deller’s legacy
From June 19 to 28, 2026
Founded in 1962 by pioneering countertenor Alfred Deller, Stour Music takes place over two weekends, from June 19 to 28, in the medieval All Saints’ Church in Boughton Aluph, a village in the heart of the Kent countryside. Alongside another opportunity to hear Monteverdi’s Vespers performed by I Fagiolini, the programme includes recitals by soprano Ruby Hughes and lutenist Toby Carr, as well as a Byrd and Bull programme by Maciej Skrzeczkowski, winner of the 2023 Bruges Harpsichord Competition. The singers and instrumentalists of Fieri Consort explore Renaissance concepts of feminine beauty through Italian madrigals by Gesualdo and his female contemporaries, while the nine voices of Echo Vocal Ensemble devote a programme to “Reflections on Light”, from John Sheppard to Sarah Dacey. London Baroque places the recorder in the spotlight with Bach’s Fourth Brandenburg Concerto, a Vivaldi concerto for sopranino recorder and works by Telemann. As a grand finale, Manchester Baroque’s Music for Royal Occasions unfolds the splendour of the great baroque orchestra in Handel’s Coronation Anthems, the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne and Music for the Royal Fireworks, under the direction of Robert Hollingworth.
Official website: www.stourmusic.org.uk
June 20-June 21 – Oxford Early Music Weekend
Oxford Early Music Weekend (Oxfordshire)
Baroque dreams and medieval colleges
From June 20 to 21, 2026
As part of the Oxford Festival of the Arts, two days of non-stop early music take place on June 20 and 21 in two of the city’s loveliest medieval colleges: Magdalen and New College. In the Old Library of the former, the Bellot Ensemble’s programme Dreams Under the Wings of Morpheus—a next-generation baroque ensemble supported by the BBC—traces the peaceful journey from sleep to awakening, with Italian and English lullabies alongside scenes by Cavalli and Lully, as well as birdsong pieces by Merula and Uccellini. Music inspired by magic and the stars flows from the fingers of the all-star recorder ensemble Palisander, while the Lowe Ensemble, a British-Spanish family quintet, presents cantatas by Handel and Soler. Handel and Schütz also feature in the Choral Evensong in New College Chapel. A showcase dedicated to young ensembles will highlight Música d’Outrora and the stylus phantasticus, the Italian and Spanish improvisatory style of the early 17th century characterised by freedom, fantasy and dramatic contrasts, as well as Dowland songs and ayres with Dowland’s Foundry. Tenor Nicholas Mulroy and lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, meanwhile, will ask the question: “Who was John Dowland?”
Official website: www.artsfestivaloxford.org
July 3-July 11 – York Festival
York Early Music Festival (Yorkshire)
“Beyond Borders”
From July 3 to 11, 2026
A major early music event since 1977, the festival—whose anniversary theme is “Beyond Borders”—opens in York on July 3 with Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers performed by I Fagiolini with the English Cornetts and Sackbuts Ensemble, and closes on July 20 with Bruhns’s St Mark Passion by Solomon’s Knot. In between, audiences will hear Dowland’s Lacrimae, marking the 400th anniversary of the composer’s death, performed by the Rose Consort. The festival also presents Imago Mundi, an immersive reimagining drawing on voice, lute, and duduk, a recital by renowned lutenist Thomas Dunford, and a programme of Bach and Beethoven preludes by clavichordist Steven Devine. B’Rock Orchestra and Vocal Consort present Da Pacem, a meditation on the absurdity of war, combining music composed during the Thirty Years’ War with sonic fragments drawn from more recent conflicts. Other highlights include A Gentle Air with Helen Charlston, Paul Agnew, and Sergio Bucheli in 17th-century French secular songs, as well as a programme by The Sixteen devoted to music from the Spanish Golden Age. For very young audiences—and for those who still are at heart—Mini Magic Flute offers forty minutes centred on a prince’s quest to find a princess, with opera singers, an accordionist… and, of course, a dragon!
Official website: www.ncem.co.uk
July 9-July 26 – Buxton Festival
Festival international de Buxton (Derbyshire)
Early music in the Peak District
From July 9 to 26, 2026
From July 9 to 26, the beautiful spa town of Buxton, on the edge of the Peak District National Park, hosts its 26th international festival. Harpsichord virtuoso Mahan Esfahani presents a brilliant selection of works by Handel and Scarlatti, while the Sacconi Quartet performs Mozart and Smetana in the elegant setting of the neoclassical St John’s Church. There’s more Handel with three performances of Amadigi di Gaula, with countertenor Jake Ingbar in the title role and Rowan Pierce as his beloved Oriana. Vache Baroque brings its production of the first opera composed by a woman, Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero, premiered in 1625. While there’s a substantial baroque offering, there’s a rich musical feast for other palettes as well, with Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Verdi’s La Traviata, Le Dernier Sorcier—Pauline Viardot’s recently rediscovered operatic fairy tale in two acts—and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. For those interested, each opera is preceded by a lecture. The programme also includes a jazz weekend and guided walks in the surrounding countryside. Something to delight every audience.
Official website: www.buxtonfestival.co.uk
July 15-July 18 – Lewes Festival
Lewes Baroque Festival (East Sussex)
Lute songs and Handelian pastoral
From July 15 to 18, 2026
For its 7th edition, the Baroque Festival in the picturesque Sussex town of Lewes takes place from July 15 to 18. Throughout the weekend, distinguished guests perform in the historic setting of St Anne’s Church. Harpist Jean Bray makes seven centuries of music resonate, from Hildegard of Bingen to baroque flamenco, while a four-string ensemble presents London Theatre Restor’d: Incidental Music for Plays by 17th-Century English Composers. The programme also includes 18th-century lute and flute duos by the Flauguissimo Duo, as well as an intimate concert of English and French lute songs. Soprano Charlotte La Thrope and tenor Hugo Hymas, accompanied by lutenist Kristiina Watt, present a programme centred on love and desire, bringing together works by Dowland and Monteverdi with rarely heard airs de cour by Ambruys and Lambert. As a grand finale, St Michael’s Church, dating from the 13th century, hosts Handel’s Acis and Galatea, with tenor Nick Pritchard as the hero, Elspeth Piggott as his beloved, and Andrew Davies as the villainous Polyphemus.
Official website: www.lewesbaroquefest.org
August 28-September 6 – Vache Baroque
Vache Baroque Summer Festival (Buckinghamshire)
“Sounds and sweet airs that delight”
From August 28 to September 6, 2026
As part of its ongoing commitment to opening baroque music to younger and more diverse audiences, Vache Baroque organises a summer festival around La Vache, a country house near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, from August 28 to September 6. The flagship production, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, is staged under a circus tent, with sweeping open views over a lake and woods of magical appearance. Shakespeare’s words intermingle with music composed for the play in the late 17th century, live electronic spatial sound devices, and a complete Purcell masque. Also featured is Water Music, a high baroque concert on the theme of the ocean with violinist Sophia Prodanova and soprano Isabelle Peters, enriched with spatial sound recordings created by award-winning sound recordist Chris Watson for an experience more immersive than usual. Since it’s never too early to start loving baroque music, a morning family concert is also offered: Splash!, a combination of magical scenes from The Tempest, vocal and instrumental music devoted to water, and surround sound recordings. There may even be a blue whale!
Official website: www.vachebaroque.com
September 26-September 27 – Banbury Festival
Banbury Early Music Festival (Oxfordshire)
Dowland and Burney in the spotlight
From September 26 to 27, 2026
Organised by three local early music specialists who are both passionate and professional, the Banbury Early Music Festival lights up the historic town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, on September 26 and 27. Music unfolds there from the 1400s onward, ranging from the Linarol Consort of Viols and Epitaph For A Green Lover: Music from the Songbooks of Margaret of Austria by soprano Héloïse Bernard, to the baroque chamber music quintet Ensemble Augelletti, via lutenist Lynda Sayce, the Gonzaga Band led by cornettist Jamie Savan and the Renaissance wind ensemble Blondel. A Performers’ Platform will also offer half-hour slots and an attentive audience to student ensembles, alongside workshops and a market stand selling second-hand instruments.
Official website: www.banburyearlymusicfestival.com
October 16-October 19 – Brecon Festival
Brecon Baroque Festival (Powys, Wales)
Total solar eclipse
From October 16 to 19, 2026
From October 16 to 19, the Brecon Baroque Festival returns to Brecon, on the edge of Brecon National Park in Powys, Wales. Since 2006, it has established itself as a fixture of the early music calendar under the inspired direction of violinist Rachel Podger. Each edition gives young musicians the opportunity to take part and perform alongside artists at the height of their craft. The full programme of concerts and workshops, organised at Brecon Cathedral and Theatr Brycheiniog and framed by walks and lectures in and around Brecon, will be announced in July and will undoubtedly prove worth the wait. Watch this space.
Official website: www.breconbaroquefestival.com
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