PREVIEW: Hyper Inverter 2026 @ Fell Foot Woods, Cumbria

What’s this strange, misshapen beast coming towards us through the trees? Why, it’s only the fourth edition of Hyper Inverter!

Hyper Inverter sprang into being in 2023, the work of just one man, Jonas Halsall – Inverted Grim Mill promoter, label and printer. It takes place in the amazing setting of Fell Foot Woods, near Newby Bridge and right on the southern end of Lake Windermere. Run by the infamous Barry The Blackwood Baptist, the location for Hyper Inverter is as singular as the festival itself.

Halsall curates the line-up himself – a combination of friends, acts he’s worked with in the past and others that just appealed. Given the very small size of the festival, Hyper Inverter has really punched above its weight, bookings wise: past iterations have brought the like of Nat Sharp, Objections, The Unit Ama, Smote and Dawn Terry to the forest, and this year might be the best year.

Neo-jazz wrecking crew Sly & The Family Drone are always a good time and seeing them in this environment will be wild. There’s also reborn doom titans Bong II, the amazing Alison Cotton, beloved Newcastle don’t-call-him-a-folky Nev Clay, and from Halsall’s native Wakefield, Cathode Ray & The Test Tube Babies, who play classic TV themes, plus about a dozen more acts. All this plus pagan shenanigans with Barry The Blackwood Baptist and other late night goings-on in the woods.

There’s camping, a bar and vegan food stall and various facilities nearby (including a National Trust café). It runs from Friday 26th – Saturday 27th June (you need to be off-site by noon on the Sunday) and tickets are an absurdly low £60.01 plus booking fee.