The EskFest story began back in late 2015 when founder Tom Smith sent word around to some of his nearest and dearest asking if they would like to join in starting up a non-for-profit independent music festival in his home of 6 years, The Eskdale Valley in The Lake District. The small team that came together wanted to create a quality platform for great emerging local talent and also to bring some of the UK's most exciting new acts to a part of the country where people often have to travel many hours to see bigger acts perform. 

The first year we were blessed with a beautiful crowd who braved the fairly unfriendly weather to witness and experience the birth of this now thriving festival! Our headliner's Jeramiah Ferrari played alongside a multitude of local artists including Paper Cranes, Hardwicke Circus, COLT 45 & Audioclub. We learned a lot and in 2017 the Sun Gods shone down on Eskdale for our second ever event. With the addition of comedy, film, the tipi village and more amazing acts such as headliners, Marsicans, local band LOWES, Chadelics, the Hey Down Treaders, Bad Transmission, Panda Cult and returns from some of our 1st year favourites, we really felt we'd upped our game as a festival! 

Heading into 2018 and our third year we wanted to offer a balance between keeping the festival intimate and friendly, and being able to offer more experiences and entertainment to more people! The result was two beautiful sunny days of incredible music, people, ideas, food, art and landscapes, celebrating all that is great about the british and local arts scene. Our fourth year we expanded to 4 stages and 3 days and we really felt this added to the whole experience with more variety in every aspect; from food to music, workshops to activities.

This festival has grown over four sell-out years to become a local household name event that puts on a large variety of entertainment, art, food, drinks, fun, camping and all of the things one might expect of a much larger festival. Like a concentrated juice, we squeeze all of the best bits of a large festival into a much more intimate setting, meaning less walking through miles of mud, and more enjoying what the festival has to offer! Check out our What's On page and Gallery to see what we have in store for you!