Campo Sancho Festival has announced its full lineup for 2026, marking the ninth edition of the boutique event created by London underground pioneers Sancho Panza.
Returning to Walkern Hall in Hertfordshire from 23rd to 26th July, Campo Sancho has carved out a unique space in the UK festival landscape, combining world class music with an intimate atmosphere and a fiercely independent spirit. Rooted in the DIY ethos that defined Sancho Panza’s legendary warehouse parties, the festival continues to blend underground credibility with community, connection and pure escapism.
This year’s lineup is led by electronic music icon Laurent Garnier, alongside a carefully curated mix of established names, returning favourites and emerging talent including Luke Una, Greg Wilson, Sean Johnston and Tom Sharkett, Decius, Girls of the Internet Soundsystem, Ruby Savage and Jimpster.
At the heart of Campo Sancho are its three distinct stages, each offering a very different experience. Middle Row is the festival’s outdoor daytime stage, shaped by Sancho Panza’s deep roots in Notting Hill Carnival and bringing together sunshine grooves, live performances and feel good dancefloor energy. Snare and Hi Hat delivers the festival’s late night warehouse experience in the field, built around high energy sets and immersive production. Upwoods offers something altogether different, a hidden woodland clearing with a cocktail bar, intimate surroundings and a warm sound system designed for deeper musical journeys.
With a lineup spanning House, Disco, Balearic, Techno, Post Punk and experimental sounds, plus a full family programme featuring circus workshops, arts, wellness activities and talks, Campo Sancho continues to offer a festival experience unlike any other.
Electric Mode spoke with founders Jim Angell and Matt Brown about curating the 2026 edition, preserving the festival’s DIY spirit and what continues to make Campo Sancho such a special event.
Campo Sancho has evolved from Sancho Panza’s legendary roots in London’s underground scene. What parts of that original DIY spirit are you most determined to preserve in the festival today?
Jim Angell: Great first question! We’ve never really lost that DiY element, we’re still very hands on just like we were back in the early 90’s doing warehouse parties. We can probably say our skills and construction knowledge have improved but ultimately it’s still us up the ladder! A festival build is obviously bigger than a warehouse or a carnival stage but the build part is really important to us and something we love doing.
Matt Brown: As Jim has already mentioned we love getting our hands dirty, safe to say it’s in our blood. I think one of the things Campo is managing to achieve is bringing a bit of Acid House spirit to the table in so far as it’s very much a DIY effort, lets give it go type attitude, I think people can see that, I always like to say it’s handmade and built with love.
Looking at the 2026 edition, what was the creative brief or main idea when you began curating this year’s lineup?
Jim Angell: The main idea is simply brilliant music put together in a way that makes sense for the moment and the environment. Generally speaking what you might want to hear at noon on a Sunday is different from 2am Saturday night. I’d say it’s a very collaborative process…. We both suggest artists and slots, find out who’s available and then thumb wrestle for the finished schedule. We’re both super happy with how this year looks.
Matt Brown: We’re always thinking about possible guests to invite, it’s an evolving kaleidoscope of names in a hat, once we have our bigger names sorted we tend to build the rest of the line up around them. We’re already thinking about 2027.
How do you balance booking internationally renowned figures such as Laurent Garnier with championing emerging names?
Jim Angell: It is about trying to find a balance and it’s also about balancing the books! There was a time when we were doing warehouse parties and we wouldn’t say who was playing – people would trust us to provide good music and I like to think there is still an element of that. Truth is we’re as excited about Tia Cousins or Ruby Savage as we are about Laurent Garnier or Luke Una…. we know the music will be amazing!
Matt Brown: We try hard to strike a balance between the older established names and rising new exciting talent, at the end of the day It’s all about the music, always has been, always will be…
The festival is known for its three unique stages, Middle Row, Snare and Hi Hat, and Upwoods. How do you programme each stage?
Jim Angell: This really comes back to the time and place element. Middle Row is our nod to Carnival, it closes at 9pm so it’s essentially a day time party – last year it actually felt like our old Carnival days and that felt super rewarding. Snare and Hi Hat is our night time tent so there’s much more production and visuals and lighting, it’s our warehouse party in a field and that means the music can maybe be a bit more wonky! UpWoods is a bit of both – it’s a lovely clearing in an ancient woodland, it’s got a stylish homemade bar and a really warm Funktion One sound system…. It’s cosy, welcoming and magical!
Matt Brown: In broad terms, we try and keep Middle Row stage, (our main outdoor stage which closes down at 21:00 just before the Snare and Hi-Hat springs into life) a bit more funky, a bit more warm up sunshine vibes, whilst always keeping an eye on the dance floor. We are putting on a couple of live acts this year, namely Desius and Girls of the Internet (Soundsystem) . Having the new Upwoods area which also runs in the daytime till 23:00 has given us the space to try out new things on Middle Row. The Upwoods stage is in a magical woodland setting, this seems to be developing into an anything goes area, which is very exciting.The Snare and Hi-Hat is our night time warehouse party session, Friday we’ve always tried to keep it on more of a Disco tip, this year we have Dicky Trisco, Ruby Savage and up and coming Tonno Disko from Italy, think that box has been well and truly ticked! Saturday night we have extended sets from Luke Una and Laurent Garnier, no words needed here… Sunday night is Sancho resident Freddy Love and me and Jim to close, this really is a very special moment for us.
Upwoods in particular feels almost mythological in its atmosphere. What is it about that space that shapes the kind of music and experiences you programme there?
Jim Angell: We originally saw UpWoods as an opportunity to do something different from our main stages – those lines have perhaps blurred a bit but it’s certainly a world on its’ own. This year on Friday we have Brighton collective Camp Bliss coming back with Stompaphunk, they bring spoken word and live elements and a bit of a block party. We’re honoured to have Sean Johnston with his ALFOS imprint plus Tom Sharkett live covering all 9 hours on Saturday – what a musical journey that promises to be. On Sunday we have Pete Herbert doing his Music for Swimming Pools experience with Nancy Noise, Phil Mison and Andy Wilson…. you’d be hard pushed to create a more balearic gathering! Sooo…. You could argue it’s 3 pretty contrasting events that will stand alone but hopefully they also make sense of the day that they’re playing.
Matt Brown: As i’ve already mentioned this stage is set in a magical woodland setting, what started out as a cocktail bar in the woods and a place to chill has now metaphorised into a wonderful little area with a lovely sound system, it has far exceeded my initial expectations, i’m looking forward to getting stuck into Upwoods as we add and develop this space for this year.
Campo Sancho is described as ‘friends and friends of friends in a big warehouse party in a field’. How do you actively maintain that intimacy as the festival continues to grow in reputation?
Jim Angell: Bottom line is we will never be a big event. Our license stops at 1,500 and that is very deliberate. The friendly feeling that everyone experiences at Campo is massively important to us.
Matt Brown: What has made and keeps anything that Sancho Panza does special is the people that come, we’ve always been blessed with an amazing array of like minded people, that basically want the same things us, great music played on incredible sound systems, our festival is an intimate experience, where size really doesn’t matter.
What was a particularly unexpected or magical moment from last year’s festival that reaffirmed why you do this?
Jim Angell: We talk about Campo being the fields’ of magic and there’s good reason for that… there is without question some cosmic good energy in that place. Stand out moments were Crazy P closing Middle Row on Saturday, Luke Una closing it on Sunday, Optimo in the Snare + Hi Hat on Saturday, Get Gospel choir, I could honestly go on and on….
Matt Brown: Campo 2025 was easily my favourite to date and for so many reasons, the vibe was spot on, we’ve really got the site working to it’s potential now (but there’s always room to learn and improve and to add), we have an incredible team of people onboard to help pull the thing together, which just adds to the whole experience, the build is one of the best bits!
I caught snippets of lots of sets which is always a little bit unfulling, as there’s always something do! So I was on a mission to fully enjoy Saturday night, I found myself a quiet spot near the amps out of the way and duly had my mind blown by the incredible set played by Jonnie Optimo, it really was a masterclass in DJing and programming, a stand out set for me in the history of Campo and one I was able to tune into and enjoy.
The 2026 lineup spans House, Disco, Balearic, Post Punk and experimental sounds. How intentional is genre diversity versus instinctive booking?
Jim Angell: Hopefully it’s just about great music – when a tune grabs a hold of you, you’re not necessarily thinking about the genre you’re listening to, you’re just been taken somewhere special and enjoying the moment…. we just want there to be as many of those moments as can be squeezed into one weekend!
Matt Brown: We love it all, we try and give a good cross section of the many different styles of music that we’re into.
How important is storytelling in your curation and do you think of the weekend as a narrative arc from Friday through Sunday?
Jim Angell: We do think like that but the truth is you never know what’s going to happen. We book artists and DJ’s on the strength of what they are known to do or what we’ve seen them do in the past – we then provide an amazing sound system and an open minded and up for it crowd – the result is what it is and thankfully, that’s been pretty magical thus far.
Matt Brown: As Jim has said, we try and imagine what the flow of music will be from the Djs we’re thinking about and then try get it into an order we feel should work, each day has a beginning, a middle and an end, hopefully when you get to the end of festival your overriding feeling is that music worked brilliantly from start to finish.
Campo Sancho has a strong intergenerational feel, especially with its family programming. How do you approach designing an event that works for both children and seasoned festival goers?
Jim Angell: There’s a whole programme of activities for the kids so they are looked after but equally they respond to good music and good energy so if they want to dance on a stage that’s been programmed more for the adults, they’re very welcome! A lot of Campo regulars have literally grown up at the event so maybe they were in the circus tent 10 years ago and now they are up front right in front of the DJ booth… that’s a truly wonderful thing.
Matt Brown: We’re all older now, a lot of us have kids of our own, we always wanted to try and get this event working in a way that if you wanted to bring your children you can, they add a truly magical element to the weekend, one of my favorite times is in the morning when all the party heads are snoring away (hopefully) having a wonder around seeing the little ones in the Panic Circus tent learning how to unicycle or in The Kids Factory arts and craft tent or playing table tennis in the Teen Spirit tent or just running around just having fun. My girls have grown up with Campo, I’ve witnessed first hand their evolution from small children to teenagers as they’ve grown with the festival, they’re now down the front with their mates. It warms my heart.
What role does improvisation or “happy accidents” play in shaping the festival experience once you are live on site?
Jim Angell: It’s all about the happy accidents! That’s part of the fun of being a festival producer…. It obviously helps that the fields are magic!
Matt Brown: Being able to roll with the punches is essential, having a great team onboard obviously helps.
Artists such as Sean Johnston and Tom Sharkett are bringing extended immersive sets. Are long form performances becoming more central to Campo Sancho’s programming?
Jim Angell: Generally that’s not necessarily a direction we’re going in but we’re very happy to have Laurent, Luke and Sean all doing long sets….. it’s kind of their super-power so who are we to deny them!
Matt Brown: There are some DJ’s that simply need more than 2 hours to be able express themselves properly, we will always try and accommodate this…
How has the UK festival landscape changed since you first started and where do you see Campo Sancho sitting within it now?
Jim Angell: There’s more and more festivals, it’s becoming quite crowded but equally it’s brilliant that one of the most northerly parts of Europe has so many outside gatherings every year…. The small independent festival scene is like the old warehouse party scene with more trees and better toilets!
Matt Brown: It’s now big business for some companies which is sanitizing and dumbing down the whole industry, booking the same big name/instagram names, who come with their pre-prepared soulless sets.
We pride ourselves on being totally independent with no corporate involvement at all. You pay your money and make your choice, each to their own I suppose.
What does success look like for you personally after the final track ends on Sunday night?
Jim Angell: A lot of really happy people embracing, appreciating life, themselves and each other.
Matt Brown: Lots of happy smiling people, job done…
If someone is attending Campo Sancho for the very first time in 2026, what is the one thing you hope they take away from the experience?
Jim Angell: A whole load of joy and a few new friends.
Matt Brown: That it’s still possible to find a positive friendly party, we need this more than ever now.
Finally, which artists on this year’s lineup are you most excited about and why:
Jim Angell: Honestly…. all of them…. have you seen the line up?!
Matt Brown: Tonno Disko, Jimpster and Luke and Laurent obviously, I’m so happy with what we’ve put together, I think as a musical whole I couldn’t ask for more.
What stands out most about Campo Sancho is its commitment to doing things differently. In an increasingly crowded festival landscape, Campo has stayed true to its independent roots, prioritising community, musical integrity and genuine connection over scale.
From its carefully curated programming to its family friendly ethos, Campo Sancho continues to create a space where discovery, freedom and shared experience sit at the centre of everything.
Campo Sancho Festival returns to Walkern Hall in Hertfordshire from 23rd – 26th July 2026, with tickets on sale here.
