Welcome to Homeschool – a new online music festival featuring 100s of our favourite acts!

We were supposed to be starting festival season this May. Events filled with great new artists and established names, kicking off a summer packed with more of the same.

Obviously, things change. Thanks to our good ‘mate’ COVID-19, all of that is firmly cancelled. That doesn’t mean we have to sit in and be bored though. Musicians have been taking to the live streams, performing from their own homes. Adversity is the mother of invention, and all that.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been calling up our favourite artists and asking them to film us lo-fi sets from self-isolation. Recorded on phones, in front rooms and with whatever is lying around, we’ve gathered them together – hundreds of them – to create a music festival of our very own: Homeschool.

Held over the three days of the bank holiday weekend (8th-10th May), these performances will be played out across multiple stages showcasing some of the most exciting artists on the planet. Broadcast in a shared-experience, linear style, you’ll be able to swap between a Main Stage set to see what’s going on over in Hype, or tweet about the new track you’ve just seen your faves drop unexpectedly. You just need to provide the drinks.

Fresh from the release of new track ‘Oh Please’, Tom Grennan will bring a special set to the festival this May, delving across beloved numbers from his acclaimed debut ‘Lighting Matches’ and a glimpse into the future too. A Dork mainstay, Murph of The Wombats fame will be beaming direct from Los Angeles as Love Fame Tragedy whilst a slew of revered favourites will be bringing their own sets to the Homeschool stage. From the colourful pop of Bad Sounds, the sweet indie hooks of Bloxx, the earnest tales of Cavetown and the joyous shine of Alfie Templeman all the way to listening party icon Tim Burgess, the soaring anthemic tones of The Xcerts, US kaleidoscope-pop movers Grouplove, the unmistakable electro-harmonies of IDER and the foot-to-the-floor guitar strings of Vistas and The Sherlocks – there’s something for everyone.

Packed with countless acts all set to become your new favourite act, there are unmissable performances across the board from artists who’ve become mainstays in tip lists and magazine pages all over the place. Try Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, FEET, Phoebe Green and Rachel Chinouriri. Try APRE, ZUZU, KennyHoopla, Taylor Janzen and Sad Boys Club. Try Maisie Peters, Larkins, Nimmo, Lady Bird and Lauran Hibberd. Try Dizzy, Drug Store Romeos or Weird Milk. Homeschool is packed full of unmissable names bringing incredible sets direct from their front rooms to yours.

Complete with showcasing a range of incredible performances, Homeschool is also raising much needed awareness of the incredible work of frontline medical staff and volunteers here in the UK – encouraging donations to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal throughout the weekend. More information on the appeal can be found here.

You’ll be able to watch all the action on a dedicated, specially built website, homeschoolfest.com, with various extra ‘stuff’ happening across the weekend on social media and beyond. You can check the first list of names – there’s over 100 of them – below. More will be announced in the run up, too. Staying in is the new going out, right?