Love Saves The Day returned to Ashton Court on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 May for its 2026 edition, drawing around 50,000 people across the bank holiday weekend to one of Bristol’s most established cultural fixtures.
Founded in 2012, the festival has grown into a two-day celebration of electronic music and sound system culture, featuring house, techno, drum and bass, jungle, garage and hip-hop across multiple stages. From its early days in Castle Park through to Eastville Park, the festival eventually found a permanent home at the Ashton Court Estate where it hosts 860 acres on the edge of the city that has been visited by many, from Portishead to Robert Plant over the decades. This year’s headliners included Sammy Virji, Confidence Man DJS, Chase and Status and more.
With Glastonbury taking a fallow year, Love Saves The Day has stepped up as the UK’s festival season opener, and the 2026 lineup reflected this. Temperatures hit 27°C across the weekend, and for the first time the main stage was powered entirely by solar energy. Saturday was headlined by Sub Focus, whose new audiovisual show drew in excited fans and festival goers. Sunday, last night, was handed to Sammy Virji to close up until next year.
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The Birmingham DJ and producer has spent the last two years converting underground credibility into a bigger discography and performance scale. His reputation was originally built in clubs where selection and timing matter, as well as dancers and dark rooms but the qualities he had in those spaces translate well to a main stage for his recent appearances at festivals over the years. He moves between drum and bass, jungle, and garage with beats that always keep the crowd moving. The DJ also came out with an album last year, ‘Same Day Cleaning’.
At Ashton Court on Sunday evening, Sammy Virji’s set rounded off the hot, summery weekend with some of his most famous bangers. His top charted songs include ‘Find My Way Home’, ‘Shella Verse’ and ‘Cops and Robbers’, where he merges his house music sound with garage and drum and bass genres. The closing act was the finish Love Saves The Day needed to complete the bank holiday weekend for Bristol.
Love Saves The Day has always paired big headliners with upcoming UK talent and local collectives, reflecting Bristol’s dance and techno heritage. Virji closing the weekend confirmed his place among the most compelling live draws in UK dance music right now and the continuation of dance anthems in the UK.
