Smugglers Festival

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Smugglers Festival

To revel in the joy of creativity and community

Near Deal, Kent

01/09/2026

Well dang

That was so, so beautiful. Gratitude abounds for Smugglers 2026

You are all amazing - thank you so much to every steward, the green team, build and packdown crew (strength be to them), decor team, Nomads’ Land team, Chaiangles Team, LesBeaux Team (sob), the fire keepers, the event control, welfare team, security, all the wellbeing, craft and kids area crew, the sound team (!), the power team, all the caterers (drool), the crew catering, the safeguarding team, the crab museum, the Margate Crew (🤘), the Smugglers Inn team, the Bar DJ’s crew, the Gilly’s Wood team, Paul & Linda, the Lighting crew, The Beast (🫡), The Sports Bar, The LOTR coffee house, Dolly Parton, Gilly Jones, The Stage Management team, The Land itself, The Accessibility Team, The Plumbing Team, The Bardic Fire Team, The Legal Team, The Court Of Master Sommelliers, The Potato Juggler in Training Programme, The Interational Guild Of Chartered Newborns, The Official Mandarin Translation Team, Zack De La Rocha, The Window Cleaning Team, The Combined Federation of Daves, The Pastry Chefs, every single performer and arist for bringing your energy and magic, and finally to every single person who came this year and helped carry the fire. You are all so much fun.

Have never had so many reports of ‘Best one yet’

29/08/2026

SMUGGLERS FESTIVAL 2026!

Saturday here we go!

It’s ride or die

Love in lashings

20/08/2026

Morning crew! Another note for this year

Smugglers stalwart Matt/hew Watkins (a.k.a. Professor Appleblossom) has a new book out. It's his first one with a major publisher - and remarkably, the release date they scheduled was 2026-08-27, the first day of Smugglers Festival

This is particularly pleasing to Matt since Chapter 1 of the book opens with a life-changing encounter in the Elder Grove on the Smugglers site (back in 2014). The 2021 and 2023 festivals feature in the story as well.

SolidGoldMagikarp: A Descent Into the AI Underworld expands on the story that was presented in the much-discussed play that Matt and friends staged on Sunday afternoon last Smugglers, "A Portal to the Symbiocene" - the story of AI glitch-demon petertodd and his luminous counter-force, the emergent cybernetic goddess Leilan.

*There will be a limited number of copies at the merch stand*

The publishers' description (which makes him wince, but will probably help push sales) looks like this:

"When English mathematician Matthew Watkins went to San Francisco to study an early version of ChatGPT, he expected dry technical work. Instead, he uncovered a series of ‘rare tokens’ that made the system go haywire. Some produced gibberish. Others turned it hostile. One trigger word - petertodd - sent the machine into what looked like full-blown paranoia. Was it a simple bug? A trail of breadcrumbs left by whistleblowers? Or a glimpse into how AI really thinks?

The search for answers pulls Watkins into the secretive world of AI safety research - a window into the eerie inner worlds of LLMs, and a cryptic clue to what might be history's greatest power grab."

Some reviews:
“Utterly fascinating, hugely relevant and brilliantly told… one of the most compelling and bizarre mathematical adventures I have ever read.”
Alex Bellos, author of Think Twice

“Top notch. Unfolding like a nerdy occult techno-thriller… Watkins tells the weird tale of how he discovered two ghosts in the LLM machine.”
Erik Davis, author of High Weirdness

“Watkins was the sole witness to the weirdest - and perhaps most important - story in AI. His rigorous obsession with this mystery will become yours.”
Cullen Hoback, director of Money Electric and Q: Into the Storm

“I strongly approve of this work… People who produce interesting new kinds of AI breakages should be cherished and cultivated.”
Eliezer Yudkowsky, author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

In conjuction with the big book drop, Matt has launched a new homepage where you can see everything else he's been involved with - other books, DJ sets, archival music, blogs, talks, performances, videos and more: http://mwatkins.co.uk

Matt will also be putting on another exploratory play in Nomads’ Land on Sunday afternoon - The Cantigas De Santa Maria. Sunday day tickets very nearly all gone, last chance there

17/08/2026

We’re on the lookout for a few more stewards to join the team this year!

It’s a brilliant way to get stuck in with the crew - plenty of our stewards come back year after year, joined by a fresh batch of new faces each time. You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer bunch.

For 12 hrs you get a full weekend camping ticket (a final opportunity to get such a thing since we sold out), two drinks tokens, one half-price meal token for any of our food vendors, a cup token, and a hot meal on Wednesday…plus bragging rights for being on the best team of course

Can i tempt you or anyone you can think of? Link in top comment

12/08/2026

Weekend camping tickets for Smugglers Festival 2026 are now So*ld O*ut! The opportunity to join us for the whole weekend this year has been eclipsed, with coverage lasting until next years installment

We ARE still looking for some volunteers however, so if you want to come join in for the whole weekend, head to the get involved tab on our website - link in bio

We also have a handful of Friday and Sunday tickets remaining but they wont last long so don’t delay there!

Enjoy the black sun skywatchers! May it be an auspicious omen

06/08/2026

Heylo friends,

Since 2018, Nomads' Land has been serving up the odd, the exploratory and the immersive! We've got a cracking weekend of workshops and performance, where YOU are every bit as significant as the name on the lineup. At times it has taken on the illusion of being a kids playground, but in reality it's a retraining playground of sorts - rehabilitating humans of all ages in the art of *play*

This years schedule is packed full of sessions to help us connect with our bodies, explore the biohacks that maximize joy, and foolsome ways to celebrate our mistakes. We've got interactive workshops on sustainability, community building and reaching the ultimate flow jam state (bring your instruments). There's wild and witty shows about rage, womanhood and parenting, and as always, we've got daily singing workshops, the bewitching Luminance Circus, and it's all tied up with yet another never-before seen performance, brought to you by Professor Appleblossom and friends!

Saturday tickets are now sold out, but we still have some available on Friday and Sunday. Weekend tickets are down to the very few so jump on board if you want to come camp!

.carey.1 .berbank.1 /divine.ridiculous .love.33 .flowers.98499 .holmes.5055 .lodson .appleblossom.1

29/07/2026

Enclosed, a selection of angles on Chaiangles

A beautiful place to take the evening. Chaiangles is a spot to chill and chat and let the carefully diverse range of music being played gently hold the vibe for you - particularly fun in the later hours.

Saturday day tickets are about to sell out and full weekend camping tickets wont be far behind, so don't delay getting yours if you're planning to come! Just picture yourself post-transcendent End Stage performance, moseying over the path past the pockets of buzz and settling in here with a hot brandy chai and no particular plan for the evening - I guarantee you will be pleased with your past self that they sorted your ticket before they sold out

Ticket link in bio!

Big love flowing out to all

23/07/2026

Hello everyone

Merch is fun.

it's important too - for many touring musicians it's the difference between being out there on the road playing shows, or not doing that. It's a win win too because as we all know 'merch' tends to be inherently rad.

Our own tee's etc are a fun expression of that years festival - a little memento for a beautiful time had. We sell all our performers wares at our merch stand too, so if you're coming along this year go check it out and perhaps treat yourself to a token there. It supports the artist and there's a great buzz to having a bit of band merch to take forth on your journey.

Enclosed are some snaps of our festival tee's in various exotic spots around the world - anyone else out there have any photo's with your Smugglers tees donned? Send them over!

(Also swipe for a little hint at what we're cooking up for this years festival, merchwise)

TICKET UPDATE - Saturday day tickets are about to sell out, so if you need one then grab them now. Weekend camping passes are running very low now also

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Deal

Website

http://www.smugglersfestival.com/

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