BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend returned to Sunderland in May 2026 for the first time since 2005, taking over Herrington Country Park across three days with over 100,000 fans in attendance. We were there for Saturday and Sunday — cameras in hand, ears ringing, absolutely no regrets. Here’s everything that happened.
Saturday 23 May — The Full Picture
Saturday’s main stage opened with Ellie Goulding setting an immediately high bar, before Skye Newman demonstrated exactly why she’s one of the most tipped new artists in the UK right now. James Blake moved things into a tent and brought the entire crowd to a standstill — his voice in that enclosed space was genuinely something else.
Mitski delivered one of the most emotionally charged sets of the weekend to a crowd that knew every word, Nothing But Thieves cranked up the volume at exactly the right moment, and Rachel Chinouriri held her own tent stage with the kind of intimate, packed-out performance that festival photographers live for. On the New Music Stage, Erin LeCount — the self-taught alt-pop artist from Essex who writes, records and produces everything herself — was one of the day’s most talked-about discoveries. Her music sits somewhere between Kate Bush and Charli XCX and sounds like neither, and her Big Weekend set was the kind of thing you tell people about afterwards.
And then there was Lola Young.
Coming back to the stage following her 2025 collapse and subsequent hiatus, Young performed at Big Weekend like someone who had been storing up every last bit of energy from her time away and was releasing all of it at once. Messy— her Grammy Award-winning track for Best Pop Solo Performance — sent the Herrington Country Park crowd into scenes that went well beyond what her billing suggested. Artist of the day. No contest.
Louis Tomlinson followed to a reception that caught even us off guard, the noise levels when he walked out genuinely extraordinary for a Saturday evening support slot. His touring form was evident throughout — sharp, confident, completely in his element.
Zara Larsson then closed Saturday as only Zara Larsson can: brilliantly. The headline set was everything it needed to be, complete with a moment where she was lifted above the crowd that instantly became one of the images of the weekend. Lush Life at festival volume, sung back by tens of thousands of people in the fading Sunderland light, is an experience.
Read our full Saturday recap here
Sunday 24 May — The Big One
Sunday opened with Niall Horan on the main stage — a bold way to start proceedings and one that paid off immediately. New single Dinner Party arrived to a crowd that somehow already knew it word for word, and the tone was set: this was going to be a day to remember.
Over on the New Music Stage, the day got underway with Alessi Rose — the Derby-born alt-pop artist who has spent the last couple of years building a devoted following off the back of her witty, candid songwriting and tours with Dua Lipa and Tate McRae. She was followed by Odeal, the British-Nigerian artist whose R&B, Afrobeats and soul blend has seen him collaborate with everyone from Wizkid to Leon Thomas. Both felt like artists right at the start of something significant.
Holly Humberstone then delivered a New Music Stage set that drew one of the biggest crowds of the day outside the main stage — her voice and her songs built for exactly this kind of moment, and she delivered on every bit of it.
CMAT followed and was an absolute force of nature, Dermot Kennedy delivered the kind of sweeping, cinematic festival set his music was built for, and Jorja Smith caused the scheduling clash of the weekend over on the New Music Stage — the tent overflowing, people gathered outside just to catch the sound.
Myles Smith brought a Brit Rising Star-level quality to his main stage slot before producing the surprise of the weekend: Niall Horan walking back out mid-set to perform their collaboration Drive Safe together. The crowd’s reaction told you everything you needed to know.
Kehlani then delivered a main stage performance that grew and grew before closing with a shower of sparks raining down over Herrington Country Park. “I love you, I can’t wait to come back,” she told the crowd, and on the basis of Sunday’s set, the feeling was entirely mutual.
And then. Olivia Dean.
Four BRITs. A Grammy for Best New Artist. The Art of Loving. Rein Me In at number one. And BBC Big Weekend Sunderland was her first ever UK festival headline set. She delivered every single bit of it — and when Rein Me In arrived, performed in the North East on Sam Fender’s home turf, the crowd response was one of the sounds of the year.
Read our full Sunday recap here
BBC Big Weekend Sunderland 2026 was a genuinely exceptional two days of live music. The lineup delivered, the city delivered, and Herrington Country Park proved itself more than capable of hosting an event of this scale. The North East hadn’t seen Big Weekend since 2005. On this evidence, it shouldn’t have to wait another twenty years.
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