Top 10 Dance Music Acts Not To Miss at Stowaway Festival 2026

Stowaway Festival returns to the grounds of Blackpit Farm in Buckinghamshire on 31st July to 2nd August 2026 for its fifth edition, and the lineup confirms what the festival has always promised: a genuine love of music that cuts across scenes and generations. From New Orleans brass to Heidelberg deep house, Paradise Garage lineage to Bristol underground heat, this year’s bill has something for every kind of raver. Here are ten Dance Music acts you need to catch!

1. Nightmares On Wax

George Evelyn has been doing this since before most festival crowds were born. As a teenager in Leeds he was shaped by rare groove, reggae sound systems, hip hop, and the raw energy of early rave. Nightmares On Wax formed in 1988, debuted on Warp Records in 1991, and the project has been in near-constant motion ever since. His second album ‘Smokers Delight’ (1995) became a landmark in downtempo and trip-hop, and his DJ sets have always drawn a crowd ready to feel something. His 2013 Boiler Room London set passed six million views for a reason. More recently, his 2025 release ‘Echo45 Sound System’ pushed into dub and sound system territory with real physical weight. On a summer evening, Nightmares On Wax is exactly the act a festival like Stowaway was built around.

2. François K

Few DJs alive can claim a career running from Studio 54 and the Paradise Garage to the dancefloors of the present day. François K arrived in New York from France in 1975, taught himself tape editing and became one of the most in-demand remixers of the disco era, reworking records for Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, The Smiths, U2 and Diana Ross, among many others. He co-founded the Body and Soul party in New York in 1996 alongside Joaquin Joe Claussell and Danny Krivit, and the spiritual, ecstatic groove of those Sunday afternoons still runs through everything he does behind the decks. This is living history. Don’t miss it.

3. Hot 8 Brass Band

There is no act on the Stowaway bill quite like this one. Formed in New Orleans in 1995 from the merger of two high school bands, the Hot 8 Brass Band carry the full weight of the city’s second line tradition alongside hip hop, funk and a visceral physical energy that is impossible to replicate. They survived Hurricane Katrina, the loss of several members to violence and illness, and came out the other side more committed than ever to the music. They have appeared at Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, WOMAD and Roskilde, toured with Lauryn Hill, opened shows for George Ezra, and won a Grammy as part of Jon Batiste’s ensemble in 2022. Their cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’ alone is worth the price of a weekend ticket. A Hot 8 Brass Band set at a festival is a communal event. Show up ready to move.

4. Skream

Skream has had one of the more remarkable careers in British dance music. He was one of the central architects of dubstep as a teenager in Croydon, working out of Big Apple Records and releasing his 2005 single ‘Midnight Request Line’ on Tempa to critical and underground acclaim. His debut album ‘Skream!’ followed in 2006. Around 2013, he stepped away from the genre entirely and pivoted to house, disco and techno without losing a single step. His Skreamizm parties and Open to Close sets since then have cemented his reputation as one of the finest selectors in the UK, regardless of genre. His IFEEL label and ongoing collaboration with Benga and SGT Pokes show someone still very much building rather than coasting. A Skream set at Stowaway will cover ground.

5. Move D

David Moufang has been making records since the early 1990s, first through his Source Records imprint in Heidelberg and then as Move D across an enormous catalogue of deep house, ambient techno and electronic jazz. His debut album ‘Kunststoff’ (1994) is still cited as one of the finest European techno records of the period. He has released on Warp, Running Back, Workshop, Smallville and dozens of other labels, and his 26-album relationship with the late Pete Namlook remains one of the more extraordinary collaborative runs in electronic music. His DJ sets are relaxed and deep and pull from an unusually wide range of reference points. He is a selector’s selector, and festival audiences who catch him often do not expect quite how absorbing a set can be.

6. Madame Electrifie

A Data Transmission Radio resident and one of the most consistently entertaining live performers on the UK circuit, Madame Electrifie is the alias of Northampton DJ and producer Jo Burns-Russell. With twenty years behind the decks, she draws on funk, hip hop, disco, breaks, house and bass to build sets that refuse to stay still. She has supported Craig Charles, Annie Nightingale, Krafty Kuts and the Stanton Warriors, played Glastonbury, Bestival, Secret Garden Party and Shambala, and fronted her own stages at Boomtown and Beatherder. Beyond DJing, she is one half of Evil Twin with Mini Da Minx and a producer in the electronica trio Cassini Circles. Her remix for Bazza Ranks went straight to number one on the Juno Disco chart. As a club promoter, label champion and genuine all-rounder, she brings a rare breadth to the festival stage. Her afternoon set at Stowaway will set things up nicely.

7. Ewan McVicar

From Ayr, Scotland, by way of a teaching degree, a Sub Club residency and a Radio 1 Electronic Track of the Year. Ewan McVicar‘s 2021 single ‘Tell Me Something Good’ went gold and then platinum, but his real strength is behind the decks. He rebuilt his hometown’s club culture almost single-handedly before the international circuit caught on. A member of Patrick Topping’s Trick collective, he has played alongside Honey Dijon, Joy Orbison, Carl Cox and countless others, and his tech house productions carry enough warmth and personality to stand out in a crowded field. His DJ sets have energy and a clear sense of joy. At a family-friendly festival with a genuine love of good music, he belongs on this list.

8. Hilit Kolet

Tel Aviv-born, London-based, classically trained and a long-time face of Soho’s legendary Black Market Records. Hilit Kolet builds her sound from Chicago and New York house foundations, pressing them into something harder and more percussive that works at full volume. Her Defected debut ‘Techno Disco’ hit number one on the Music Week Upfront Club Chart and she has since released on Rekids and Faith, with support from Carl Cox, Radio Slave, Paul Woolford, Skream, Jamie Jones and Eliza Rose. She has played fabric, Printworks, Warehouse Project, Amnesia and Watergate, and her Mixmag Lab set filmed at IMS in Ibiza is worth seeking out. High-octane and technically sharp, Kolet is one of the acts on this bill most likely to cause genuine dancefloor carnage.

9. Hobbs and Ron Mexico

This pairing brings together Reptile Dysfunction’s Hobbs and Grahame Farmer, better known as Ron Mexico, for what the label Disco Infiltrators describes as a filtered French house and disco collaboration rooted in good times and warmth. Their single ‘Good Times’ is exactly what it promises. Grahame’s relationship with electronic music goes back to the mid-90s and early rave culture, deepened by a trip to Ibiza in 1997 that set the course for decades to come. On a sunny afternoon in the Buckinghamshire countryside, this combination will hit exactly right. Watch out for this one.

10. The Listen Here Stage

Some of the best festival moments happen not on the main stage but somewhere smaller, warmer and a little harder to find. The Listen Here stage at Stowaway 2026, featuring some friends of ours, Damian Gee, Pat Bedeau and former DT Resident DJ Lawrence Daffurn, is exactly that kind of discovery. Built around a shared philosophy of soulful, considered music with a genuine dancefloor focus, it is the kind of room where the selectors talk to each other through their records and the crowd feels it. Deep house, soul, funk, rare groove and everything in between, programmed with care and played with conviction. This is where you end up staying far longer than you planned. Find it early and bring your friends.

Honourable Mention: Thrilogy

Bristol-based DJ, producer and Fate and Fiction Recordings label boss, Thrilogy arrived in the city as a student in 1994 and never left. His roots stretch back through hardcore and early Drum & Bass to the raves he drove to in Peugeot 205s and Renault 5s before house and techno took hold. His releases on Wolf Music and Futureboogie alongside his own imprint have built a loyal underground following, and his sets draw from deep, organic grooves and the slower, more considered end of the house spectrum. Well worth catching if you are in the right corner of the site at the right time. Last year, he did an incredible tribute to The Chemical Brothers set, which our crew were fully in from start to finish and had the BEST time!!!

Stowaway Festival 2026 takes place 31st July to 2nd August at Blackpit Farm, Buckinghamshire. Tickets are on sale now at stowawayfestival.co.uk