Going to Glastonbury and yearning for another festival sounds like one of the most ridiculous, ungrateful things a festivalgoer could do, right? It’s like cheating on Beyoncé: who or what could possibly be better? But that’s exactly how I felt this summer. Despite all the splendour of Glasto 2025, I was pining for another place. A place with smaller crowds, less queuing, a complete absence of mobile phones and a 24-hour music offering. I was pining for Houghton.
Houghton Festival has been running since 2017. It’s based in the remote, bucolic grounds of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, near King’s Lynn, where there is no phone signal, and festival organisers purposefully make no effort to provide any. It is the only UK music festival to offer a 24-hour lineup. At sunset, revellers descend into the forest to rave until sunrise, where they then retreat to tents, hammocks or the odd well-timed gong bath.
