Winters End Progressive Rock Festival

01/05/2026

The excellent Buzz Elliot devoted his last show to the Winter's End that's just been and the Summer's End to come! Most of the bands are featured and it makes for a cracking show!

Progressive rock radio shows and podcasts.

16/04/2026

That was it, then: Winter's End 2026 done and dusted and what a fantastic weekend it was!

Not surprisingly, Mr and Mrs Lambe were as invaluable as ever. Gill looked after tee-shirt sorting and the seating reservations and Stephen looked after far more than I can be arsed to list here! The truth is, I would enjoy this whole process far, far less without his involvement. Cheers, Lambsie!

As always, our exceptional tech crew – Gabe & Rob on sound, Ian on lights and stage manager Graham – did us proud. The new video screens also added a new dimension to proceedings.

The kitchen team, Henry, Tom and Lauren, were as awesome as ever and I would stand by my assertion that we have the best festival food anywhere! Ieuan, Shonagh and Lydia behind the bar kept everyone topped up throughout the festival with loads of laughs and surprisingly little swearing!

A big shout-out has to go to Paul and Miles for manning our little record shop and to everyone who brought stock to sell. The guys sold loads of vinyl, CDs and DVDs, raising an impressive £500 for the festival! We will carry on doing this, so do bring your surplus records!

Astrid - 'the merch fairy' - does so much more for us than sell the merch. She is an invaluable member of the team.

Tristan on the door made sure everything ran smoothly there, which can be a bit of a bu**er of a job when you'd rather be on the inside, watching the bands!

Thanks also to t'other Graham, who makes sure that the bands flying in arrive and get home OK!

Finally, to every musician and to every music lover who attended, these festivals are for you and would be nothing without you. Thank you for being there 🙏

Next up:
Summer's End – October 15-18 2026 - tickets on sale @ www.summersend.co.uk
Winter's End 2027 – April 8-11. Early bird tickets on sale @ www.wintersend.co.uk

The Summer's End Progressive Rock Festival is the UK's oldest and best-loved prog-rock festival

08/04/2026

Winters End 2026
Timings
All Timing subject to change. Music curfew is 11 pm

Thursday 9th April
Doors 7 pm
Darkfish 7.45 to 8.30 pm
Wall Of Floyd 9 to 10.30 pm

Friday 10th April
Doors 6.30 pm
Ashwing 7.15 to 8.30 pm
Karnataka 9 to 10.30 pm

Saturday 11th April
Doors 12 noon
The Mighty Ra 12.30 to 1.30 pm
Sammary 2 to 3 pm
Credo 4 to 5.10 pm
Alan Reed and The Daughters of Expediency 6.15 to 7.30 pm
Franck Carducci and the Fantastic Squad 9 to 10.30 pm

Sunday 12th April
Doors 12 noon
Living In Shadows 12.30 to 1.30 pm
Ihlo 2 to 3 pm
Doris Brendel 4 to 5.10 pm
ChimpanA 6.15 to 7.30 pm
Oak 9 to 10.30 pm

02/04/2026

A week today we'll be welcoming the awesome Wall Of Floyd to Chepstow's Drill Hall for a night of classic Pink Floyd.

Support comes from the brilliant Darkfish: original electronic soundscapes.

The is the opening night of the Winter's End prog rock festival - check out the rest of our lineup here - www.wintersend.co.uk

30/03/2026

T-Shirt pre-orders are now open!

Please place your orders for the WE26 tees as soon as possible as due to circumstances beyond our control (Huw!), we're a few days late getting these into the system.

The shirts are high quality soft-touch cotton unisex, screen printed two-colours front and one on the back (the traditional list of bands).

Shirts are £25 each and available to order at www.wintersend.co.uk :)

29/03/2026

Following a few requests, here are the draft timings for Winter's End.

Thursday - doors 19:00
Wall Of Floyd 21:00
Darkfish 19:45

Friday - doors 18:30
Karnataka 21:00
Ashwing 19:15

Saturday - doors 12:00
Franck Carducci & The FS 21:00
Alan Reed & The Daughters Of Expediancy 18:15
Credo 16:00
Sammary 14:00
The Mighty Ra 12:30

Sunday - doors 12:00
OAK 21:00
ChimpanA 18:15
Doris Brendel 16:00
Ihlo 14:00
Living In Shadows 12:30

29/03/2026

Less than two weeks to go until Winter's End 2026 kicks off!

Tickets available at www.wintersend.co.uk

14/03/2026

We're very disappointed to announce that The Thomas Bradley Project are no longer able to join us Winter's End. We'd like to wish the guys all the best and hopefully we'll welcome Thomas and co another year.

The good news is that taking their place will be the awesome The Mighty Ra! The Welsh wizards of prog will be opening proceedings on the Saturday.

We're immensely grateful to the Ra for stepping in at short notice!

The lineup now looks like this:

Thursday April 9
The Wall Of Floyd
Darkfish

Friday April 10
Karnataka
Ashwing

Saturday April 11
Franck Carducci & The Fantastic Squad
Alan Reed & The Daughters Of Expediency
Credo
Sammary
The Mighty Ra

Sunday April 12
Oak
ChimpanA
Doris Brendel
Ihlo (presented by Prog Magazine)
Living In Shadows

Tickets are available at www.wintersend.co.uk

05/01/2026

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that we've had to swap slots for Doris Brendel and Held By Trees, so Doris will now be joining us for Winter's End and Held By Trees will be performing at Summer's End.

This was due to a scheduling issue for Held By Trees and we (and the band) are immensly grateful to Doris for agreeing to perform for us in April :)

19/08/2025

We are thrilled to be able to announce the complete lineup of Winter’s End 2026, which will take place in Chepstow Drill Hall on from April 9th to 12th, 2026.

The festival is an exciting mix of styles from the very broad church of prog and sees some old favourites return and some fabulous first appearances.

Our headliners are Karnataka, returning to the festival for their fifth appearance, France’s Franck Carducci & The Fantastic Squad making only a second appearance (the last was 2017) and OAK, prog geniuses from Norway, appearing here for the first time (though the sharp-eyed may notice the Airbag connection!).

Festival organiser Huw Lloyd-Jones commented:
“It’s so important to get the right balance between familiar and new, comfortable and challenging and I really think this lineup nails it. I’m very excited for it and I hope our audience will be too!”

Tickets are available now at www.wintersend.co.uk

Thursday April 9th
The Wall Of Floyd

Friday April 10th
Karnataka
C Sides

Saturday April 11th
Franck Carducci & The Fantastic Squad
Alan Reed & The Daughters Of Expediency
Credo
lhlo (Prog Mag Presents)
Thomas Bradley Project

Sunday April 12th
OAK
Dim Gray
Held By Trees
Sammary
Living In Shadows