Music festivals can be great fun. Anyone who has been to the likes of Leeds, Reading or Glastonbury will know that getting to see a wealth of different live bands across a few days, alongside all of the other things that can be enjoyed at a festival, is an excellent way to spend some time. The problem can be that they aren’t necessarily brilliant for families because of the kinds of people that head along to festivals. When it comes to GuilFest at Stoke Park in Guilford, though, it has been named the Best Family Festival in the UK.
Two Days of Music
The joy of GuilFest is that it isn’t centred around just one day of music or even one band. Instead, it sees two days of music taking place plus other bits of ‘mayhem’ that you can get involved in over the Saturday and the Sunday. Although some of the bands might be cover artists, many of them are the real deal and are there to delight and amuse with songs that you will know. Some of them will be in the charts currently, others will be ones that you haven’t heard of for ages but that bring back good memories of excellent music.
Here is a look at some of the acts that were booked for the 2025 GuilFest over the two days to give you a sense of what you can expect:
Saturday 5th July 2025
- The Jacksons
- Soul II Soul
- Leo Sayer
- Stereo MCs
- Sleeper
- The Wedding Present
- Odyssey
- N-Trance
- Bay City Rollers
- Baby D
- Definitely Oasis
- Letz Zep
- The Marley Experience
- Funke and the Two Tone Baby
- The Spice Girls Experience
- Rock Choir
- Guildford Vox and Horsell Sings
Sunday 6th July 2025
- Razorlight
- KT Tunstall
- Elvana
- Altered Images
- Dub Pistols
- Dutty Moonshine Big Band
- The Amy Winehouse Band
- The Primitives
- Skids
- Beans on Toast
- Voodoo Radio
- Sex Pissed Dolls
- Fuzzbox
- Gavin Thomas
- Rock Choir
- Trojan Beats
- Blondied
- Royal Surrey Choir
What Else You Can Get Up To
With any music festival, the music is obviously the key part of it. As you can see from the likes of The Jacksons, Razorlight and KT Tunstall being on the bill, GuilFest takes itself seriously on that side of things. Yet away from the stages where you can watch music there are other things that you can do with your time. You can, for example, head along to the Comedy Tent to see some stand-up comedians give you a good laugh. There is a huge Beer Tent on-site for those of you that like to have a couple of drinks over the weekend.
Beer might not be your thing, which means the Cocktail Bar might be more likely to tick your box. If you consider yourself to be something of an intellectual then you might want to see what’s going on in the Literary Tent, or check out some Street Theatre. For those of you heading along with youngsters, the Legendary Kidszone will be a place worth checking out, as might the Art & Craft Village and the Games Tent. All of which is topped off by the presence delicious cuisine on offer from all around the world for your enjoyment.
Timings
One of the things that sets GuilFest apart from other festivals, other than the fact that it makes a conscious effort to be family-friendly to the point of searching bags to ensure that neither legal nor illegal highs are taken onto the Festival site, is the fact that there is no camping. As a result, you will need to head to the GuilFest site on the day or days that you’re attending and then head home at the end.
In terms of timings, the site opens at 11am on both days. The music gets underway not long after and carries on until 10pm, which is when it stops. The good news is that you can still head along to the bar for a drink for another hour or so, with the bar closing at 11pm before the Festival site shuts at midnight.