LIDO Festival, the newest highlight on London’s summer calendar, today unveils CMAT as their new headliner for 2026, performing on Friday 12th June, alongside artists FATHER JOHN MISTY, SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY, BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND AND ELIZABETH COPELAND, GETDOWN SERVICES, KATY J PEARSON, JUNIOR BROTHER, JACQUI MCSHEE’S PENTANGLE and ZAKIA (DJ).
International pop star CMAT brings her Very Sexy CMAT Band to headline LIDO Festival. This announcement caps a big year for the Dunboyne, Co Meath chanteuse, one which saw the release of her Mercury-nominated third album, EURO-COUNTRY, featuring singles ‘Running/Planning’, ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ and ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ aka The Woke Macarena – alongside a slew of high-profile live appearances, including the Pyramid Stage in Glastonbury, Green Man, Primavera and All Points East.
After a decade of being born, Josh Tillman is finally busy dying. Mahashmashana is the sixth album by FATHER JOHN MISTY. It was produced by Josh Tillman and Drew Erickson. It was engineered and additionally produced by Michael Harris. It was arranged by Drew Erickson. It was performed by Josh Tillman, Drew Erickson, Jonathan Wilson, Dan Bailey, Eli Thomson, David Vandervelde, Chris Dixie Darley, Jon Titterington, and Kyle Flynn. It was executive-produced by Jonathan Wilson. It was recorded and mixed at Five Star and East/West, United Studios, and Drew’s House.
From the off, SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY is sonically different from Van Etten’s previous work. Writing and recording in total collaboration with her band for the first time, Van Etten finds the freedom that comes from letting go. The result of that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound and songwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon – life and living, love and being loved – but the sounds are new, wholly realised and sharp as glass. Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap in that direction.
Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s scary, sometimes you feel stuck. It’s like every day feels a little different – just being at peace with whatever you’re feeling and whoever you are and how you relate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense of openness while knowing that my feelings change every day, that is all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can be while letting other people be who they are and not taking it personally and just being. I’m not there, but I’m trying to be there every day – SHARON VAN ETTEN
BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND is a legendary legendary singer, composer and transgender activist whose diverse work has been gathering momentum in recent years thanks to a reissue of the extraordinary folk-jazz explorations of his debut self-titled album (1970) and the widespread discovery of his acclaimed masterpiece Keyboard Fantasies (1986); an ahead-of-it’s-time synth exploration which somehow combines the essence of new-age minimalism, early Detroit techno and the warmth of traditional songwriting.
Throughout a fifty year recording career, Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music has defied categorisation and genre, its only consistency being the extraordinary fusion of vision, technology, spirituality and place.
GETDOWN SERVICES is Josh Law and Ben Sadler. They met at school in Minehead, Somerset and make music together at home in Bristol. Their highly lauded debut album Crisps was released in November 2023 via Breakfast Records presenting eclectic, danceable grooves and astute, hilarious put-downs of modern Britain.
They are steadily carving out a name for themselves and building momentum over the past 18 months, with balls-to-the-wall live performances and prestigious shows with Pip Blom, Fat Dog, The Bug Club, Donny Benet, and Antony Szmierek – among many others. The band completed their biggest ever sold out headline UK tour in autumn 2024 after their vastly praised new EP release “Your Medal’s In The Post”, out on November 14th 2024, followed closely by their first ever sold out EU tour in January 2025. Off the back of extensive BBC 6Music support from the likes of Craig Charles, Huw Stephens, and Cerys Matthews, and armed with an arsenal of red-hot hits, GETDOWN SERVICES look set to gobble the world up, one crumb at a time.
KATY J PEARSON’S music is the sound of the summer we should always be having, rather the one we’re usually gifted. Effortlessly evocative of long evenings cooled by a welcome breeze, of soft sand between the toes and the sweetest sounds on the FM dial, foot down and accelerating to the West Coast (of Great Britain), her songs are immediately transportive, possessing an uncanny ability to lift the listener out of the everyday and into a sunshine state.
JUNIOR BROTHER is an idiosyncratic, challenging, and richly lyrical singer/songwriter from Co. Kerry, carefully pushing the boundaries of what modern Irish folk can look and sound like. His much-anticipated third album, The End is out now, via Strap Originals.
The End is a deeply instinctive yet carefully considered response to the chaos of modern life, with JUNIOR BROTHER weaving the recent years of upheaval into the eerie folklore of Fairy Forts. These ring-shaped earth mounds, scattered across the Irish countryside, are known to possess an energy that can bewilder, curse, or even lead the unwary astray. Stepping into one is to risk losing yourself—both physically and spiritually. To Junior Brother, this ancient folklore mirrors the disorienting reality of today’s world.
JACQUI MCSHEE’S PENTANGLE is the definitive modern folk band. Rooted in the ethos of the original Pentangle, the modern incarnation features the best musicians playing the best music. Known for their brilliantly successful combination of traditional and non-traditional, Pentangle forged a whole new era in folk. Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle continues thus and over the decades has further refined the music and performance, constantly amazing and delighting audiences at gigs and festivals.
Pentangle founder member Jacqui McShee is the central link right back to the first days of the original band. Subsequent line-ups have always featured her unmistakable voice and approach with the best contemporary players interpreting the songs and music in ever more diverse ways.
ZAKIA is a broadcaster, writer and DJ from London with a passion for music, arts, mental health and history. She regularly produces and presents radio documentaries and podcasts for platforms including BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Tate, and Boiler Room and has explored a wide range of topics, from Caribbean ancestral drumming to schizophrenia and intergenerational trauma to improvisation in the arts.
Adding another accolade to her growing list, Zakia is currently working hard on her first full-length book, ‘Finding Albion’, set to be published on the esteemed Hodder Press in Spring 2026. ‘Finding Albion’ follows on from the themes explored in her widely acclaimed BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘My Albion’, seeing Zakia continue her explorations into mythology, music, folk culture and national identity.
Launched in summer 2025, LIDO puts artists first and hands them control, for a festival entirely programmed by the headliners. They bring their favourite artists, collaborators, newly tipped artists and their own style to each day. From the acts to the artwork and stage design – every aspect is personal to them. Named after Victoria Park’s Lido Field, the 10-day event offers hand-picked music line-ups with a strong focus on sustainability, as well as community events during the week. The festival’s second iteration includes headliners Maribou State, who are headlining Victoria Park on Saturday 20 June 2026.
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