The story
Shambala Festival in Northamptonshire
An independent, sustainability-focused music and arts festival held over four days each August, frequently staged at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire since its founding in 2000. Meat and fish free since 2016 and powered largely by renewable energy, it caps daily capacity at around fifteen thousand and actively promotes low-carbon travel over car use.
Shambala Festival grew out of a group of friends who met in the late 1990s bonded by a shared love of music and a habit of questioning conventional ways of doing things, experience they built running a record shop called Jibbering Records and organising events including Afrika Jam, a live African music night at Birmingham's student union.