Spitalfields Music Festival 2026

Spitalfields Music has announced the full programme for the 2026 edition of the Spitalfields Music Festival, marking the start of its 50th anniversary celebrations. The festival will take place from 26 June to 8 July across venues and locations throughout East London, with tickets now on sale. The 2026 festival brings together national and international artists from a range of different disciplines, so expect cutting-edge contemporary music, thrilling opera, rarely performed classical works, and a display of the power of music to move, inspire, and reflect the world we live in.

Programme highlights include:

Opening this year’s festival, five artists will contemplate: What does peace look like? Four newly commissioned poems will weave through a programme performed by the City of London Sinfonia featuring music by George Walker, Reena Esmail, Arvo Pärt, and Sibelius with a new commission by Philip Herbert inspired by a quote from UN Secretary António Guterres: “Peace is the missing piece”.

Writer Ali Smith joins forces with the New European Ensemble to present the UK premieres of  four new musical works based on her Seasonal Quartet novels.

Mimi Doulton performs three new commissions by composers Elaine Mitchener, Linda Buckley, and  Krõõt-Kärt Kaev.

Carolyn Sampson stars in a theatrical reimagining of three works from Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre's Cantates Bibliques. 

Broadcaster and writer Gillian Moore CBE is joined by Stephen Colegrave and Dennis Bovell MBE to delve into what made 1976, the year that Spitalfields Music was founded.

Standard Issue make their festival debut with a programme of contemporary music from female-identifying music creators, featuring ecologist Kate Milligan. 

Multi-award-winning trombone quartet Slide Action present a concert featuring world premieres from Rockey Sun Keting, Ben Nobuto, Omri Kochavi, and the winner of the inaugural Henfrey-Spitalfields Prize.

Fresh from supporting Richard Hawley on his 2025 tour, singer, songwriter and composer Tom Hickox, returns.

Award-winning performer-composers Emily Levy and Matthew Bourne present a powerful reimagining of British folk music and to close this year's edition, the festival returns to the Tower of London for a concert in collaboration with the Choir of the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London, featuring Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli.

Further Information: Spitalfields Music Festival 2026