New Forest Folk Festival 2026

[Will S]

I am going to NFFF this year for the first time. Who else from here is going to be there?  I know that a number of folk do tend to go.

[Andy]

Well, Wendy and I Steward there, Angela and Chris will turn up, Darran Kellett (sometimes with Debbie) and Pastie Boy also usually turn up. Issy is also Stewarding this year. Gill will be along. Many other familiar faces from TAW and Cropredy will be there.

Basically you won't go far without seeing a TalkAWhiler.

Have fun, we do, every year!

[Poor Will (Bill)]

We will be there as per usual

[Swamp Donkey (Keith)]

I’ll be there too. Loverly little festival and great line up. Looking forward to meeting up with many TAW friends.

[Nick Reg]

Consistently has one of the best line ups , and if you factor in the price (especially the early bird offer) by far the best value around . The following years line up is announced in full at the current years festival, so you know exactly what you are getting. The cost for us this year is exactly half of what we have paid for cropredy and Shrewsbury is even more expensive. Its also the friendliest festival by a country mile. The one problem it has is the waiting on the holding field on the Wednesday, they have to find a better way of getting people in more quickly. Apart from that it is outstanding , easily my favourite festival.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Consistently has one of the best line ups , and if you factor in the price (especially the early bird offer) by far the best value around . The following years line up is announced in full at the current years festival, so you know exactly what you are getting. The cost for us this year is exactly half of what we have paid for cropredy and Shrewsbury is even more expensive. Its also the friendliest festival by a country mile. The one problem it has is the waiting on the holding field on the Wednesday, they have to find a better way of getting people in more quickly. Apart from that it is outstanding , easily my favourite festival.

Agree with all of the above!

[Andy]

Consistently has one of the best line ups , and if you factor in the price (especially the early bird offer) by far the best value around . The following years line up is announced in full at the current years festival, so you know exactly what you are getting. The cost for us this year is exactly half of what we have paid for cropredy and Shrewsbury is even more expensive. Its also the friendliest festival by a country mile. The one problem it has is the waiting on the holding field on the Wednesday, they have to find a better way of getting people in more quickly. Apart from that it is outstanding , easily my favourite festival.

We have to do that because, despite saying in all publicity on every medium possible that the camping field opens at noon, people start queuing before 8am.

Some years ago, both locals and the Police got justifiably bent out of shape when the queue went back to the A36 and not only blocked Sherfield English Road (the lane where the entrance is) but the A36 IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.

So we let you in, park you on the field out of the way until the camping fields are ready to open... at Noon.

Don't like it? Turn up at 13:30. There will still be plenty of room on the fields and you will not be put in the queuing field for 3 hours or so.

We endeavour to be very efficient in the way we deal with the queuing field, even extending the festival-internal-use-only WiFi so that our ticketing machines can (mostly) cope with sorting people out in advance.

Again: if you don't want to queue, don't arrive until we're OPEN.

Any queries on this, contact me.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Consistently has one of the best line ups , and if you factor in the price (especially the early bird offer) by far the best value around . The following years line up is announced in full at the current years festival, so you know exactly what you are getting. The cost for us this year is exactly half of what we have paid for cropredy and Shrewsbury is even more expensive. Its also the friendliest festival by a country mile. The one problem it has is the waiting on the holding field on the Wednesday, they have to find a better way of getting people in more quickly. Apart from that it is outstanding , easily my favourite festival.

We have to do that because, despite saying in all publicity on every medium possible that the camping field opens at noon, people start queuing before 8am.

Some years ago, both locals and the Police got justifiably bent out of shape when the queue went back to the A36 and not only blocked Sherfield English Road (the lane where the entrance is) but the A36 IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.

So we let you in, park you on the field out of the way until the camping fields are ready to open... at Noon.

Don't like it? Turn up at 13:30. There will still be plenty of room on the fields and you will not be put in the queuing field for 3 hours or so.

We endeavour to be very efficient in the way we deal with the queuing field, even extending the festival-internal-use-only WiFi so that our ticketing machines can (mostly) cope with sorting people out in advance.

Again: if you don't want to queue, don't arrive until we're OPEN.

Any queries on this, contact me.

Excellent explanation!

[Nick Reg]

Consistently has one of the best line ups , and if you factor in the price (especially the early bird offer) by far the best value around . The following years line up is announced in full at the current years festival, so you know exactly what you are getting. The cost for us this year is exactly half of what we have paid for cropredy and Shrewsbury is even more expensive. Its also the friendliest festival by a country mile. The one problem it has is the waiting on the holding field on the Wednesday, they have to find a better way of getting people in more quickly. Apart from that it is outstanding , easily my favourite festival.

We have to do that because, despite saying in all publicity on every medium possible that the camping field opens at noon, people start queuing before 8am.

Some years ago, both locals and the Police got justifiably bent out of shape when the queue went back to the A36 and not only blocked Sherfield English Road (the lane where the entrance is) but the A36 IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.

So we let you in, park you on the field out of the way until the camping fields are ready to open... at Noon.

Don't like it? Turn up at 13:30. There will still be plenty of room on the fields and you will not be put in the queuing field for 3 hours or so.

We endeavour to be very efficient in the way we deal with the queuing field, even extending the festival-internal-use-only WiFi so that our ticketing machines can (mostly) cope with sorting people out in advance.

Again: if you don't want to queue, don't arrive until we're OPEN.

Any queries on this, contact me.

I was not complaining just saying I wish a better way could be found. I do understand the reasoning but it needs to be communicated. However, you are not strictly correct. I arrived way after opening time and was on the holding field for over two hours. There were some pretty miffed people and the stewards were getting some unnecessary abuse (not from me). People were wandering about trying to find out what was happenning , perhaps this could be explained on the way in.

[Andy]

You may have arrived way after opening time but you're still behind all the people who turn up early.

Thus your wait.

Ire should be reserved for the people causing the problem, not those of us dealing with it.

We explain this every year to anyone who asks.

[Nick Reg]

You may have arrived way after opening time but you're still behind all the people who turn up early.

Thus your wait.

Ire should be reserved for the people causing the problem, not those of us dealing with it.

We explain this every year to anyone who asks.

That is totally different to what you said earlier. Are you trying to make me look wrong when I did exactly what was asked?

[Andy]

That is totally different to what you said earlier. Are you trying to make me look wrong when I did exactly what was asked?

Sorry. That's the problem with typing away on a phone. It just gets abbreviated and less clear than it should be. Now I'm on a PC, so here we go.

My point was really that there's more and more people every year who turn up early, which is very frustrating for everyone. Not just the organisers, not just those who turn up early (for no real reason) but those who get stuck in the queue behind them.

The more people that turn up early, the longer it takes to clear the "waiting field". Which then means that the threshold time for driving straight in gets later and later. I advise our Stewards who aren't working that day to not turn up until after 16:00 (although we have an area to camp, as opposed to the general punters).

I would suggest that we hand out explanatory leaflets to everyone that turns up early but a) that's a waste of trees; b) would give the festival organisation a load MORE litter to clean up than we already have.

Anyone claiming not to know why, having turned up before we're open, they're stuck in a field has some of my sympathy. The people THEY then delay have a lot more of my sympathy.

Anyone abusing Stewards has no sympathy at all from me. NFFF is a bloody great festival with so many people working so hard to make it so great. Such people need to get a grip.

I will shut up now.