BBC 6 Music Festival moves to Newcastle for 2027

Five days in March

BBC Radio 6 Music announced on 28 October that its 2027 festival will be held in Newcastle, from Monday 15 to Friday 19 March, ending four years in Greater Manchester. The station said there will be five days of live performances and DJ sets across the city's independent and grassroots venues, with the full line-up and the venues to be announced next year.

It is the festival's second visit to Tyneside. The 6 Music Festival began in 2014 and spent its first decade moving around the country, BBC News reported, before settling in Greater Manchester in 2023. Its 2015 edition was held in Newcastle and Gateshead, so the move brings it back to the North East after 12 years.

Samantha Moy, head of BBC Radio 6 Music, said the city and region have "such a rich musical legacy and a thriving creative community", which would make for another wonderful setting.

The choice of small venues over one big hall is the notable part of the announcement. In Manchester the headline nights were built around Victoria Warehouse in Trafford, with smaller club nights around them. For 2027 the station has so far named no arena or concert hall at all, only the city's independent rooms, and has said nothing yet about how many tickets there will be.

Evie Lake reported this first for BBC News. Checked against BBC Radio 6 Music: 6 Music Festival 2027 announcement (BBC News, BBC Tyne).

What the city and the station said

Lauren Laverne, the 6 Music breakfast presenter, grew up in the North East and has fronted the festival before. She said she knew how much music means to people in the region and the part it plays in local culture and communities, and that she could not wait to join listeners, artists and presenters there.

Jim Mawdsley, principal advisor for events and culture at Newcastle City Council, said that since the festival was last in the city, "Newcastle has become a true music city". He pointed to the Mercury Prize, which has shortlisted three Newcastle acts in the last two years: Sam Fender, Jade and the jazz band Knats.

Mawdsley also spoke of a collaborative spirit among the city's musicians, called music a vital part of the city's cultural life, and said the council wanted 6 Music listeners to see how lively the city had become, according to BBC News, which reported the announcement through its BBC Tyne newsroom.

A run of big music events

The festival is the latest national music event to choose Newcastle. The Mercury Prize moved from London to the Utilita Arena in Newcastle in 2025, in partnership with the city council, and returned there on 22 October 2026, when Raye won for This Music May Contain Hope. The prize added a week-long Mercury Prize Fringe this year, with more than 30 events in venues around the city.

The city also hosted the MOBO Awards in 2025. And in summer 2027 St James' Park, Newcastle United's ground, stages two Sam Fender homecoming stadium shows on 3 and 5 June, followed by Fontaines D.C. on 1 July.

Two of the three acts Mawdsley named have gone a long way from the city's small rooms. Sam Fender won the Mercury Prize in 2025 for People Watching, and Jade's That's Showbiz Baby! was on this year's shortlist. Knats, whose album is called A Great Day In Newcastle, played an evening at the John Marley Centre during this year's Mercury Prize Fringe, a reminder that the city's music life runs well beyond its arena.

The 2015 festival on Tyneside

The last time the festival came to the North East, in February 2015, it ran over three nights with more than 40 artists and DJs across six stages. Laverne announced it in a live broadcast from Newcastle University's students' union and called it a trip back to her home in the North East. Paul Rodgers, then head of programmes for 6 Music, said the station was building on the success of the first festival, held in Salford in 2014.

The opening night, on Friday 20 February 2015, was at the O2 Academy Newcastle, with Interpol, The War On Drugs, whose Lost In The Dream had been 6 Music's album of 2014, Mogwai, then marking 20 years as a band, and Sleater-Kinney, playing their first UK show in almost ten years.

The two following nights moved across the river to the Sage Gateshead, with music on four stages each night. The Saturday bill included Hot Chip, Royal Blood, The Fall, Jungle, Maximo Park, Kate Tempest, Gruff Rhys, Django Django, Father John Misty and The Cribs, plus a Northern Soul night hosted by Craig Charles. On the Sunday, The Charlatans, Jamie T, Neneh Cherry, Young Fathers, Wire, The Maccabees, Glass Animals and Public Service Broadcasting were among the acts. Several of them used the festival to play brand new material.

There was a late show at The Boiler Shop in the Stephenson Quarter with Jamie xx and Four Tet, joined by the 6 Music presenters Mary Anne Hobbs and Gilles Peterson. Alongside the night shows, a free daytime festival ran in small venues in the Ouseburn valley, including the Cluny, The Cumberland Arms and The Star and Shadow, with talks, comedy, an independent record shop fair, music films picked by Don Letts and sets from BBC Introducing acts, including bands from the North East.

Those who could not get in were not left out entirely. The station broadcast live from every venue across the weekend, aired other sets in later shows, put highlights on the BBC Red Button each night and kept performance videos on iPlayer for 30 days.

The Manchester years

Since 2023 the festival has been based in Greater Manchester, with its headline shows at Victoria Warehouse in Trafford. In March 2024 the headliners were Young Fathers, Gossip and The Smile, the band formed by Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, as Mark Savage reported for BBC News. The Smile played a one-off set with the London Contemporary Orchestra, Young Fathers performed with the NIA community choir from Hulme and Moss Side, and Gossip used the festival to play their first new music in 11 years, ahead of their comeback album Real Power.

That 2024 festival ran from 7 to 10 March. Further down the bill were the Irish singer CMAT and the folk rapper Hak Baker, while BBC Introducing ran an open decks night for new DJs and a night of up-and-coming bands including Porij, OneDa and Witch Fever.

In March 2025 the headliners were Ezra Collective, Mogwai and Kae Tempest, across four days from 26 to 29 March. Ezra Collective, who were first played on 6 Music in 2016, performed with members of the London youth organisation Kinteka Bloco in a show celebrating youth clubs. Mogwai played two songs with the Stockport brass band KNDS Fairey Acid Brass, and Kae Tempest closed the festival with songs nobody had heard before, BBC News reported.

The 2025 edition had its surprises too. Fat Dog brought out Jessica Winter, and English Teacher, the 2024 Mercury Prize winners, were joined by Richard Hawley for a cover of Joy Division's Transmission. Hawley, from Sheffield, said some people might call it sacrilege, but he thought it was "respectful and honourable". The opening night was a BBC Introducing show at YES on Charles Street, and the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham spoke ahead of the event about the amount of new talent coming through in the region.

The 2026 festival featured Bloc Party, Courtney Barnett and Jacob Alon. In 2025 the station also ran a dedicated BBC iPlayer channel from 17 March, covering that year's festival and revisiting highlights from earlier ones.

How tickets have worked

6 Music Festival tickets are sold through the BBC, usually a few days after the line-up is announced. In 2015 each night went on sale at 10am on three days in a row: the Friday at the O2 Academy at £25, and each Sage Gateshead night at £35, plus booking fees. The late show at The Boiler Shop was £15, and the daytime events were free, with tickets given out by ballot.

That year the BBC capped sales at four tickets per person for the night shows, with about 1,600 tickets for the O2 Academy and about 3,400 for each Sage night. There was no local priority for the night shows, but the BBC said a greater share of the free daytime tickets would go to people from the North East.

In 2024 tickets went on sale on 18 January, two days after the line-up, through the BBC 6 Music website. In 2025 they went on sale on the Thursday after the line-up was announced. BBC News described the 2025 festival as drawing thousands of people to sold-out shows across Manchester.

For 2027, no prices, venues or booking dates have been announced. We will add the shows to NeedATicket if they are listed on StubHub, and track their prices every hour like every other event.

What happens next

Based on recent years, the line-up for a March festival has been announced in January or early February: the 2015 line-up came on 27 January, the 2024 line-up on 16 January and the 2025 line-up on 4 February. In 2015 the presenters revealed the acts on air through the day, starting with Laverne's breakfast show.

In the meantime, Newcastle's 2027 calendar is already busy. Live prices for the Sam Fender and Fontaines D.C. shows at St James' Park are below this story, checked hourly, and you can set an alert below to hear when prices drop.

Tickets today

What StubHub lists now, checked hourly. Prices are listing prices; StubHub adds its booking fees at checkout.