There’s a moment every year when a festival lineup drops and people stop scrolling. DonnyFest ’26 had one of those moments. And the more you look at the bill, the better it gets.
A Lineup That Actually Delivers
Let’s be straight about something. A lot of festivals promise a brilliant lineup and then pad it out with filler. DonnyFest ’26 is not doing that.
From the Main Stage headliner right down to the buskers playing the Mark Loraine Busker Stage, this bill has been put together by people who actually care about music. And sitting just below Jamie Webster at the top of the bill are three artists who would comfortably headline their own tours.
Sea Girls. Ash. Newton Faulkner.
If you know, you know. If you don’t, let’s fix that right now.
Sea Girls: The Band Who Refused to Go Quietly
Sea Girls are one of those bands that the British music press slightly slept on, which means they quietly went about building one of the most loyal fanbases in indie music without anyone making a big fuss about it.
Formed in London, the four piece have been releasing genuinely brilliant guitar music since the mid 2010s. Their debut album “Open Up Your Head” arrived in 2020 and landed straight in the UK top ten. Follow-up records pushed them further, cementing a sound that sits somewhere between the melodic punch of Bombay Bicycle Club and the anthemic energy of Two Door Cinema Club.
Live, Sea Girls are a proper force. They’re the kind of band where you arrive slightly unfamiliar and leave knowing every word somehow. Their songs have a hook quality that gets into your head immediately, and on stage that quality becomes something electric.
At DonnyFest ’26, they’re appearing as special guests on the Main Stage. Expect big choruses, a lot of energy, and a crowd that will be absolutely buzzing by the time they walk off.
If you’ve not yet added Sea Girls to your listening, their tracks “Do You Really Wanna Know”, “Transplant” and “Damage Done” are brilliant places to start.
Ash: Three Decades of Doing It Right
Some bands have longevity. Ash have something better than longevity. They have legacy.
The Belfast trio have been making sharp, melodic rock music since the early 1990s, and they remain one of the most genuinely beloved acts in British and Irish music. Their debut album “1977” is one of the great British rock records. Full stop. No argument. “Goldfinger”, “Girl From Mars”, “Oh Yeah”, “A Life Less Ordinary” – these are songs that have been playing at parties, in cars, and through festival speakers for thirty years and will be doing exactly that for another thirty.
What makes Ash so special though, and why they’re such a perfect fit for DonnyFest, is that they’ve never lost the plot. They never chased a sound they weren’t. They never tried to reinvent themselves into something unrecognisable. They just kept writing brilliant guitar music and playing it loud.
Seeing Ash live in 2026 is not a nostalgia trip. It’s a reminder that great songs are great songs regardless of when they were written. They still perform with the energy of a band who have something to prove, and their catalog means every moment of a set can spark something in the crowd.
As special guests on the Main Stage alongside Sea Girls, Ash at DonnyFest ’26 is one of those bookings that makes you realise the people putting this festival together genuinely know their music.
Newton Faulkner: The Acoustic Stage Headliner With Something to Say
Newton Faulkner is proof that you don’t need a full band and a massive rig to hold a crowd.
The Surrey born singer-songwriter has been making warmly intelligent acoustic music since his debut album “Hand Built By Robots” in 2007, which went straight to number one and produced one of the most recognisable acoustic tracks of the last twenty years in “Dream Catch Me”.
But reducing Newton Faulkner to that one song would be doing him a serious disservice. He’s spent nearly two decades developing a guitar style that is genuinely unlike anyone else, using percussive techniques, fingerpicking, looping, and a natural warmth in his voice that makes even his most complex performances feel completely approachable.
Live, he’s brilliant. Genuinely funny between songs, technically jaw-dropping when he gets going, and possessed of an ability to make an audience of thousands feel like they’re in someone’s living room having a proper conversation.
Headlining the Acoustic Stage at DonnyFest ’26, he’s the perfect counterpoint to the bigger sounds elsewhere on the site. When you need a moment to breathe, to sit with something that actually means something, Newton Faulkner is your man.
Why These Three Acts Make DonnyFest ’26 Different
Here’s the thing about a lot of northern festivals right now. They either go full nostalgia, leaning entirely on acts from twenty or thirty years ago, or they chase trendy bookings that look good on a poster but don’t necessarily translate to a brilliant day out.
DonnyFest ’26 is doing neither.
Sea Girls are a contemporary British indie act at the peak of their powers. Ash are a legendary act who still perform with real fire. Newton Faulkner is a genuine craftsman who offers something completely different to everything else on the bill. Together with headline act Jamie Webster, they create a programme that spans generations, genres, and moods without ever feeling confused about what it is.
This is a festival that knows its audience. It knows that the same person who grew up on Ash is now discovering Sea Girls. It knows that the crowd singing along to Jamie Webster will also want a moment of quiet reflection with Newton Faulkner later in the day.
That kind of curation doesn’t happen by accident.
And That’s Just the Top of the Bill
It would be easy to focus entirely on the headline acts and miss what’s going on across the rest of the DonnyFest ’26 lineup. So here’s a quick reminder that the rest of the bill is equally as good.
The Dance Stage, headlined by Fergie, features Livin Joy, Klubfiller and MC Storm, Rob Tissera, Tom Collins, and Kevin and Perry Go Large. The Main Stage and supporting stages also feature Lucy Spraggan, The Magic Numbers, Tom Hingley, Chris Helme, Kyle Falconer of The View, ADMT, Billie Clements, Ian Redman and MC Cover of Ultrabeat, The Kairos, Fever Dream, The Outcharms, and the In-Here Brothers.
And then there’s the Busker Stage, where you’ll find Bradley Rivers and Co, Shire Cross Duo, Sienna Craven, Ellie Telford, One and a Half Men, Bethany Grace, Joe Harkin, Chloe Blood, Katie Conroy, River Drive, Scarlett Kirwan, Harri Larkin, Mary Bolt, Daz Cadwallander, Ukulele Bailey, and Fraser Morgan.
That is a full day of music with nowhere to hide and absolutely no reason to be bored.
When and Where Is DonnyFest ’26?
DonnyFest ’26 takes place on Saturday 6 June 2026 at the Eco-Power Stadium in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Presented by PassLogistics, it’s a proper full day festival with four stages, food vendors, two bars, a fairground, a merch tent, VIP options, and everything else you need for a brilliant day out.
Doncaster is well connected by rail from Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Hull, and beyond. The Eco-Power Stadium is close to the town centre and easy to reach whether you’re travelling in or already local.
How Do I Get Tickets?
Head to the official DonnyFest website to grab your tickets. With Sea Girls, Ash, Newton Faulkner, and Jamie Webster all on the same bill, alongside one of the strongest supporting lineups in the north this summer, this is not a festival that will hang around on the shelf.
Sort your ticket now, mate. You’ll thank yourself on 6 June.
Andy is a Co-Founder of Donny Music Festival. Experienced in the events industry, there’s no one better for organising huge bands and artists to play in DMF – Doncaster’s biggest party!
