Stainsby Festival

Stainsby Festival Long running Folk and world music festival.
17-19 July 2026 near Heath, Derbyshire. A well-established, intimate, family friendly event in a rural setting.

Entirely Volunteer Run. Three music venues. Local real ales. Crafts, Kids ents, Healing Area. Stainsby Festival is registered charity and a not-for-profit event run entirely by unpaid volunteers, not some faceless corporate. Stainsby is all about live music and performance: hearing, playing, writing, performing, learning. All proceeds go back into the event. Next festival. 18 to 20 July 2025. Stai

nsby has everything: great folk and world music in traditional marquees, crafts stalls, childrens entertainment, music workshops of every kind, a singers competition, storytelling, theatre, poetry, film, philosophy and walkabout events throughout the weekend with camping thrown in. And to cap it all there's a real ale bar featuring locally sourced beers from microbreweries around Derbyshire.You can chill out by day with superb views across Stainsby Pond to Hardwick Hall. You can live it up by night when the festival runs firelight sessions late into the night.

☀️🍻 Happy Summer Solstice and Happy Father’s Day! 🍻☀️The longest day of the year is the perfect excuse to enjoy a drink ...
21/06/2026

☀️🍻 Happy Summer Solstice and Happy Father’s Day! 🍻☀️

The longest day of the year is the perfect excuse to enjoy a drink with family and friends – whether you’re raising a glass to Dad, Mum, or simply celebrating the start of summer.

At Stainsby Festival, our famous Hat Block Festival Bar it the best place place for celebrations with its fantastic range of local drinks, all sourced from within 25 miles of the festival site.

🍺 Real ales from:
• Ashover Brew Co.
• Bentley Brook Brewery
• Drone Valley Brewery
• Eyam Brewery

🍻 Prices start at just £3.90 a pint, with over 15 beers available and none costing more than £4.60.

🍎 Plus ciders, wines, gins and soft drinks.

Best of all, every pint helps support Stainsby Festival, as our volunteer-run bar puts every pound of profit back into the festival.

🎩 The Hat Block – Festival Bar 🎩

“One of the best music festival bars I’ve ever been to.”

Come and see what all the fuss is about!

🎟️ Stainsby Festival 2026
📅 17–19 July

www.stainsbyfestival.org

🚌 FREE SHUTTLE BUS FROM CHESTERFIELD TO STAINSBY FESTIVAL 🚌Getting to Stainsby Festival couldn’t be easier!Our popular S...
18/06/2026

🚌 FREE SHUTTLE BUS FROM CHESTERFIELD TO STAINSBY FESTIVAL 🚌

Getting to Stainsby Festival couldn’t be easier!

Our popular Stainsby Festival Flyer will once again be running a FREE shuttle service between Chesterfield railway station and the Festival site throughout the weekend.

Whether you’re joining us for a daytime session, an evening concert, or making a full weekend of it, the Flyer is a convenient and hassle-free way to travel.

🗓️ Service Times

FRIDAY
➡️ Chesterfield to Festival – 5:30pm
⬅️ Festival to Chesterfield – 30 minutes after the evening concert finishes

SATURDAY
➡️ Chesterfield to Festival – 11:30am
⬅️ Festival to Chesterfield – 5:30pm

➡️ Chesterfield to Festival – 6:00pm
⬅️ Festival to Chesterfield – 30 minutes after the evening concert finishes

SUNDAY
➡️ Chesterfield to Festival – 11:30am
⬅️ Festival to Chesterfield – 5:30pm

➡️ Chesterfield to Festival – 6:00pm
⬅️ Festival to Chesterfield – 30 minutes after the evening concert finishes

🎟️ There is no charge for this service, making it even easier to enjoy a weekend of music, poetry, workshops, food, drink and family fun at Stainsby Festival. Donations to the festival fund will be gratefully received.

Pickup is close to the bus stop at the railways station.
Please note that places may be limited, so arrive in good time.

For tickets and festival information visit:
www.stainsbyfestival.org.uk

It’s official: we’ve got your 2026 Lineup by Sessions here, hot off the press!You can find session tickets on our websit...
12/06/2026

It’s official: we’ve got your 2026 Lineup by Sessions here, hot off the press!

You can find session tickets on our website.

If more than one of these incredible artists picks your fancy, why not look at joining us for the weekend!

See the link in our bio for further details.

It’s official: we’ve got your 2026 Lineup by Sessions here, hot off the press!You can find session tickets on our websit...
12/06/2026

It’s official: we’ve got your 2026 Lineup by Sessions here, hot off the press!

You can find session tickets on our website.

If more than one of these incredible artists picks your fancy, why not look at joining us for the weekend!

http://stainsbyfestival.org

As we continue to celebrate Volunteer Week, we’re shining a light on just a small selection of the hundreds of volunteer...
05/06/2026

As we continue to celebrate Volunteer Week, we’re shining a light on just a small selection of the hundreds of volunteers who help make Stainsby Festival possible.

From planning and organising throughout the year, to setting up, running, and taking down the festival itself, every single one of our 100% volunteer workforce plays a valued role. Stainsby simply wouldn’t happen without the time, energy, creativity, and care our volunteers give so generously.

Today we talk to Vince - our Head Steward to see what volunteering and Stainsby means to him.

1. What inspired you to start volunteering?
I saw an advertisement in my workplace for another charity.

2. How did you first get involved with Stainsby Festival?
I met a couple of Stainsby stewards in a pub near Tideswell who suggested volunteering at the festival.

3. What does volunteering mean to you personally?
I don’t sing or play music very well but I enjoy supporting those that do. I think I’m paying it back for those who helped me in my youth, at the same time paying it forward, supporting future generations.

4. What has been your most memorable moment volunteering?
Perhaps it was meeting Prince Charles with Raleigh International, or maybe carrying Dick Gaughan’s guitar through Stainsby Festival fields, or the private audience with Rory McLeod in Stainsby’s box office.

5. What do you enjoy most about being part of the Stainsby Festival team?
Using my skills for the benefit of others at the same time enjoying the family atmosphere.

6. What keeps you coming back to volunteer?
There’s always an excellent lineup at Stainsby, excellent beer too, not least the company of dear friends.

7. What skills have you gained through volunteering?
There are too many to list, but chiefly the interpersonal skills.

8. How has volunteering changed you?
I think I’m more patient and tolerant having mixed with volunteers and public I wouldn’t otherwise have met.

9. What are you most proud of achieving as a volunteer?
When Stainsby Festival gained the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

10. What makes the Stainsby Festival volunteer community special?
A wide range of skills fulfilling a huge variety of tasks. Something for everyone.

11. How would you describe the volunteer team in three words?
The best family.

12. What would you say to someone thinking about volunteering at Stainsby Festival?
You’ll never leave.

13. Is there a role or activity you’d like to try next at the festival?
Chief beer tester.

14. If you could sum up your volunteering experience in one sentence, what would it be?
The experience gained, skills acquired, and friendships formed cannot be quantified but they are of more value than any paid job.

Stainsby Festival is 100% volunteer run. Not one person gets paid for the thousands of hours it takes to run our festiva...
03/06/2026

Stainsby Festival is 100% volunteer run. Not one person gets paid for the thousands of hours it takes to run our festival.

During Volunteer week we are asking our hard working team what makes them give up their time and energy to help us run Stainsby Festival.

First up is John Mooney - an essential cog in every volunteers wheel as he makes sure all the volunteers are fed and watered during the festival.

1. What inspired you to start volunteering?
As a kid helping in a hospital shop that my Mum volunteered in. Next Student fundraising and supporting a Student Games at University. I seem to have been volunteering all of my life.

2. How did you first get involved with Stainsby Festival?
My next-door neighbour invited me to come along and help.

3. What does volunteering mean to you personally?
I guess it is a just part of me being me

4. What has been your most memorable moment volunteering? So many to choose from. Perhaps receiving the QAVS (for another charity) and getting to go to 'tea at Buckingham palace’.

5. What do you enjoy most about being part of the Stainsby Festival team?
The Stainsby team is a family that has a common purpose and accepts everyone who wants to be part of that community

6. What keeps you coming back to volunteer?
I have not found the escape tunnel after 20 years.

7. What skills have you gained through volunteering?
I am more patient & calmer – well, I think I am.

8. How has volunteering changed you?
When you see what other people have to put up with in their lives, you realise that somebody has to help. I am ‘somebody’.

9. What are you most proud of achieving as a volunteer?
I love to see charities grow and enhancing the lives of the beneficiaries.

10. What makes the Stainsby Festival volunteer community special?
Good question, I think it is the feeling of being part of a big family.

11. How would you describe the volunteer team in three words? Family AND friends

12. What would you say to someone thinking about volunteering at Stainsby Festival? Try it, you have nothing to lose.

⏰ LAST CALL FOR POETS ⏰Before the Sunday midnight chime,Before the fading end of May,The Stainsby Festival calls for ver...
30/05/2026

⏰ LAST CALL FOR POETS ⏰
Before the Sunday midnight chime,Before the fading end of May,The Stainsby Festival calls for verse. To rise and find its way.

By midnight on the thirty-first,Your poems must take flight,Sent into the waiting world, Before the close of night.

We’re honoured beyond measure, That Roger McGough will join us to see,As one of Britain’s most beloved poets,Guiding this debut poetry spree.

✨ Shortlisted voices will gather and read Their words beneath festival skies, Winning poems will live online, And in programmes where memory lies
✨ One poet will earn a residency, At Stainsby in twenty-twenty-seven’s light

Bring us poems heartfelt or strange, Political, joyful, tender or wild, Funny truths or personal storms, The voice of elder or child. Any subject, any song — Just keep it under forty-two lines long.

To enter, send your words away📧 As .doc, .docx or .pdf To [email protected]

And please remember to include:• Your name and address• Poem title(s)• Your Ticket Tailor reference number

A few important rules remain:• Judged anonymously — leave your name off the poem itself• Original unpublished work only• No AI-generated entries• Entries close 11.59pm Sunday 31 May 2026 — no exceptions

For every detail, every thread,Visit the festival website instead:
https://stainsbyfestival.org/poetry/

Now sharpen your pencils,
Open the door,
And let your poems
Walk into the world ✍️

The Stainsby Festival National Poetry Competition. Judged by Roger McGough Our Stainsby sonnet.From fields of song and t...
16/05/2026

The Stainsby Festival National Poetry Competition. Judged by Roger McGough

Our Stainsby sonnet.

From fields of song and tents in rain,
Where folk and friendship still remain,
A new voice rises, proud and clear —
Stainsby’s poetry prize is here.

Guiding words with wit and grace,
A legend joins the festival space.
Roger McGough will read and choose
The poems carrying heart and muse.

From Liverpool’s beat to Derbyshire skies,
He’s spent a lifetime making words rise.
Now poets everywhere are called
To share the lines they’ve bravely scrawled.

A festival built by love, not fame,
Still keeps community at its flame.
Music, laughter, art and rhyme —
Stainsby keeps the spirit of time.

So sharpen pencils, lift your voice,
Send in your poems, make your choice.
Because somewhere between the beer and song,
A perfect poem might just belong.

Full details of the Poetry competition and how to enter are on the website.

Entries open until May 31st 2026.

https://stainsbyfestival.org/poetry/

Only one day left of the EarlyBird offer - Stainsby Festival 2026Ends midnight Bank Holiday Monday 4th May. Weekend tic...
03/05/2026

Only one day left of the EarlyBird offer - Stainsby Festival 2026

Ends midnight Bank Holiday Monday 4th May.

Weekend ticket includes camping
£90 v £105 saving £15 (plus booking fee)

https://stainsbyfestival.org

🎫 EarlyBird EXTENDED 🎟️🌺Beltane /Bank holiday special🌼We could spin a yarn where the boss has gone away, or that we are ...
01/05/2026

🎫 EarlyBird EXTENDED 🎟️

🌺Beltane /Bank holiday special🌼

We could spin a yarn where the boss has gone away, or that we are sleeping on the (unpaid) job..

However, Stainsby Festival isn’t like that.

We simply want as many people to join us on the Field of Dreams, at the best possible price.

This offer WILL end midnight Bank Holiday Monday, 4th May.

Stainsby Festival
17th-19th July 2026.

Volunteer-run, not-for-profit folk and world music event held on a greenfield site.
Independent and Still Thriving After More Than 50 Years.

https://stainsbyfestival.org

✨

Address

Brunts Fields, Hawking Lane, Stainsby
Chesterfield
S445RN

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