The Long Road Review 2026
For the sixth time, I woke up on the morning of the August bank holiday with the vow that I’m too old for this now and I’m never sleeping in a tent EVER again. Yet I know that come the weekend of August 27th to 30th in 2026 I will be back at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire for the seventh edition of The Long Road Festival.
#TLR7 will see Thursday night camping being available as an option for ALL guests staying on site which like the operation of The Rhinestone Stage on Friday night this year for the first time shows how much the event listens to feedback and continues to want to enhance the fan experience at the event.
This year’s brightest and shiniest new toy was The Hitching Post which gave a much craved focal point for the toe-tappers in the country music family. Whilst line dancing is not my cup of tea, the space looked fantastic and became our favourite late night spot over the weekend where it also played host to a string of live performances, plenty of mischief when the Girls In Low Places were given free reign on Sunday evening and a highly contested Homegrown Talent contest which saw Liam Price victorious as he booked his slot to play at next years CMA Fest in Nashville.
#TLR7 will see Thursday night camping being available as an option for ALL guests staying on site which like the operation of The Rhinestone Stage on Friday night this year for the first time shows how much the event listens to feedback and continues to want to enhance the fan experience at the event.
This year’s brightest and shiniest new toy was The Hitching Post which gave a much craved focal point for the toe-tappers in the country music family. Whilst line dancing is not my cup of tea, the space looked fantastic and became our favourite late night spot over the weekend where it also played host to a string of live performances, plenty of mischief when the Girls In Low Places were given free reign on Sunday evening and a highly contested Homegrown Talent contest which saw Liam Price victorious as he booked his slot to play at next years CMA Fest in Nashville.
Beyond that, the festival site saw very limited change so all of our old favourites stages were back in all of their glory. Whilst I am a purist with that a belief that a music festival should be all about the music itself and as long as the bars don’t run out of beer, there isn’t really anything else there for me, the one “extra” at The Long Road which I do buy into and actually becomes the central point for everyone is the community. This festival in a lot of cases will be the first time that someone has ever been to a festival but that person is aged anywhere between 4 and 84 where they are welcomed in the same way regardless of their background but we are all there for the same reason which is the music yet it is the people that you meet and share it with that create the real memories for you.
Full disclaimer here, when you “work” at a festival, you don’t see anywhere near as much music as you would like to and this is partly due to others things going on but also it is due to missing 35 minutes of a 45 minute set because you are catching up with friends old and new (along with taking a liking to the excellent choice of alcoholic beverages on offer) on the way to a stage.
From our content standpoint, I had a really fun chat with Larry Fleet, laughed a lot with Mackenzie Carpenter who I got to meet in real life for the first time after only speaking with her previously over Zoom, caught up with our good pal Evan Bartels who shared amongst other things a big update on new music, covered a lot of ground during a really cool chat with Fancy Hagood and also had a comprehensive and serious sit down with the boys from Midland. All five of these interviews will be online HERE in the coming days along with all that we did prior to the festival including the likes of: Charles Wesley Godwin, Alyssa Flaherty, Erin Kinsey (who it was also so fun to meet IRL for the first time after only being Zoom friends), Ashley Monroe, Sykamore and the artist that I spent the most time with at Stanford Hall.
Full disclaimer here, when you “work” at a festival, you don’t see anywhere near as much music as you would like to and this is partly due to others things going on but also it is due to missing 35 minutes of a 45 minute set because you are catching up with friends old and new (along with taking a liking to the excellent choice of alcoholic beverages on offer) on the way to a stage.
From our content standpoint, I had a really fun chat with Larry Fleet, laughed a lot with Mackenzie Carpenter who I got to meet in real life for the first time after only speaking with her previously over Zoom, caught up with our good pal Evan Bartels who shared amongst other things a big update on new music, covered a lot of ground during a really cool chat with Fancy Hagood and also had a comprehensive and serious sit down with the boys from Midland. All five of these interviews will be online HERE in the coming days along with all that we did prior to the festival including the likes of: Charles Wesley Godwin, Alyssa Flaherty, Erin Kinsey (who it was also so fun to meet IRL for the first time after only being Zoom friends), Ashley Monroe, Sykamore and the artist that I spent the most time with at Stanford Hall.
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Halle Kearns and I first met in Berlin last year where somehow we became friends, then eighteen months later she returned and I became somewhere between a help and a hindrance to her at the festival. I made children cry, got constantly asked if I was aware where she had left her guitar and then she had to confirm to me how she walked through front of house to end up in Buddy’s wearing high heels. Yet somehow she was the queen of the festival! She’s the most incredible human being on this planet who delivered so much warmth and positivity across the entire weekend that lead to the very last minute. Shout out to Mr Steven Shirley and the rest of Team Alyssa Bonagura for bringing the goods on Sunday, these boys did so good and it was awesome to have these guys on board.
Halle is obviously very central to this post, and it was so cool having people come to say how incredible her sets were and how engaged she was throughout the whole event. HK wasn’t the only highlight of the weekend: Alana Springsteen was once again queen of the festival, Fanny Lumsden flew the flag for Australia, Erin Kinsey brought the fire once more, Sykamore proved to be the perfect start to our weekend, Mackenzie Carpenter brought the full band energy and Trousdale justified our top billing at this year’s event. Liam St John, Larry Fleet and Evan Bartels brought further memorable moments whilst Maya Lane and Simeon Hammond Dallas were amongst the artists showing the strength of homegrown talent over the three days.
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2026 is going to be bigger and better, Baylen is already plotting big things and Thursday entry is only the beginning. There is very little if anything that needs to be improved around the site (beyond the annoyance we have with the craft beer bar behind the Interstate not serving any lager, so maybe put cans behind there would be one of the few areas of where change would be good) even if I would like them like most festivals to consider their policy on chairs and particularly large trolleys which people seemed to transport them around but I’m just going to judge silently for once rather than get on my soapbox about how I do NOT like chairs at festivals. We cannot wait to be welcomed back again in twelve months time for what is once again set to be one of the most chilled out events of the year which above all is the most fun and inclusive festivals on the entire UK circuit, filled with the best music and the most wonderful community.
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The Long Road Festival will return to Stanford Hall in Leicestershire in 2026 between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of next year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
