‘Shadowlands’ is a new boutique international music festival taking place across four days at the beginning of July 2027 in the historic city of Canterbury in south-east England. Spread across three performance spaces at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre situated in the city’s University campus, it features sets by some of the best known names in the alternative, electronic, avant-garde and experimental genres globally, plus a curated set of talks, Q&As and a film programme.
The festival launched on 2nd July with a list of 19 artists including Foetus (performed as a 20 piece chamber orchestra), Lustmord, Test Dept, Clock DVA, The Wolfgang Press, Portion Control, :Zoviet*France, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Regis (feat. Liam Andrews) and People Like Us.
A further 16 acts have now been announced, with These New Puritans, Matmos, Årabrot, Hula, Barry Adamson: Gone Undercover, Sunroof, JG Thirlwell (solo), Negativland, Globo, The Soft Pink Truth, Carl Stone, 2nd Gen, Mischievous Misappropriators, Monosum, M.C. Schmidt and Obel Feldi and Rangelova (DJ) now added to what is a breathtaking 35 act final line-up.
In a remarkable coup, the seminal Sheffield industrial funk band Hula are reforming to play their first live concert in almost four decades, Barry Adamson is premiering his new solo show ‘Gone Undercover’, while JG Thirlwell is to perform his solo soundtrack to the classic 1962 Harry Smith film ‘Heaven And Earth Magic’ in the UK for the very first time.
Shadowlands also sees Negativland perform in the UK for the first time in 8 years, 2nd Gen for the first time anywhere since 2009, while it also marks the first UK show since 2008 for one Matmos offshoot, The Soft Pink Truth, and the UK debut for another, M.C. Schmidt and Obie Feldi.
Sunroof is the duo of Mute Records founder Daniel Miller and producer Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Wire, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten). Between them, they have helped shape the international electronic and alternative music scenes for well over four decades and their appearance at Shadowlands is a rare live outing.
As originally announced, JG Thirlwell’s Foetus set is a European exclusive and will feature material from his 2026 album ‘HALT’ and classic earlier work. It is his first UK appearance as Foetus for over 25 years and only the second time this music has been presented in a large orchestral format. Similarly, Lustmord is performing in the UK for the first time in almost a decade, while Githead – Colin Newman of Wire, Malka Spiegel of Minimal Compact and Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner – are reuniting after a 13 year hiatus. Newman and Spiegel are also playing separately as Immersion, while Rimbaud, Vicki Bennet (People Like Us) and Carl Stone will give a rare public outing to their trio project Mischievous Misappropriators.
Shadowlands has been co-founded by David Sefton, the former Head of Artistic Development at the Royal Festival Hall/South Bank Centre in London, and is the first full UK festival that he has been involved in launching since originating the globally renowned annual Meltdown event in 1993.
Fellow co-founder Gerard Myers states that “our vision was to bring something new to the UK festival landscape that is genuinely original. We had an initial wish list of artists where the common theme wasn’t genre, vintage or how in vogue they were, just that they were all acts we loved and wanted to bring together. They responded so positively – some even agreeing to reform – that it started to quickly shift to an astonishing reality, and the contexts and ideas for their involvement grew.”
Classifying itself as being “The Outside Of Everything”, Shadowlands brings together some of the greatest artists ever that can be filed under the “adventurous listening” category to create what is an extraordinary debut event. “The response has been incredibly gratifying and seems to bear out our theory that there is a real enthusiasm for this idea from both artists and audiences,” adds Sefton. “Ultimately, it’s really about asking the question: “what is the most exciting line-up of the most adventurous music ever made?” and then booking it. We’re as excited as anyone about seeing all these amazing artists on the same line-up!”
With Canterbury’s close proximity to London, mainland Europe and major airports making it an attractive destination for UK-based and international travellers, the size of the event (450 tickets for sale, including the ability to split the cost into three monthly payments) adds to its unique appeal in the festival calendar.
Purchase your tickets HERE.
On-site accommodation is also available to book now – Details HERE.
