We Out Here 2026 review: Expertly curated celebration of the pockets connecting jazz, soul and club music
Gilles Peterson's Dorset festival has become an essential part of the calendar for jazz heads and clubbers alike
A dry, dusky glow has settled over the parched fields of Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, and like the small yet ominous dust devil that formed by the main stage hours earlier, rumours are swirling around: Four Tet has landed. Swooping in for a surprise set to round off the weekend, the electronic music trailblazer joins a stacked bill of DJs that could rival any club-centric UK festival: garage titan Wookie, junglist master DBridge, global bass music champion Jamz Supernova and her 6 Music colleague and mentor Gilles Peterson, the architect of the entire weekend. Of course, given the latter’s glowing reputation as one of the UK’s greatest contemporary musical tastemakers, it’s no surprise that the scope of this festival goes way beyond just dance music.
What started in 2019 off the back of an influential UK jazz compilation record dropped on Peterson’s label Brownswood has become one of the most artfully curated and widely respected festivals around. This year’s edition sold out rapidly, and the number of consistent returnees shows how firmly We Out Here wraps punters into its embrace.
The core of the line-up is a clever blend of dance music and jazz that organically locates the pockets of connection between those worlds, while also luring in acclaimed global headliners like Thundercat, Digable Planets and Peven Everett. The crowd is refreshingly diverse for a British camping festival, while the programming places plenty of emphasis on staging discussions and platforming craft activities (among several wordplay-based pop-ups is a communal ‘Weave Out Here’ loom). All this helps build a fluid creative feeling in the air, and a sense of possibility that leads to moments like fast-rising Glasgow multi-instrumentalist corto.alto spontaneously pulling up under a tree with a huge JBL speaker to play his new album, passing round bottles of Buckfast to fans.
Typifying what We Out Here is all about, corto.alto’s Friday main stage slot reflects the exciting places UK artists are taking jazz music right now. One of the leading lights in that thriving movement — Ezra Collective bandleader Femi Koleoso — puts it perfectly at his sunny DJ set on Thursday evening: “This festival is the perfect mix of people you love and people you don’t know yet. Make sure you see as many of the people you don’t know as possible.”
On that front, the Tomorrow’s Warriors Big Top (named after Gary Crosby and Janine Iron’s revered organisation providing free jazz lessons to young people in London) is always a good bet. A hugely talented cast of young musicians perform there over the weekend, with one highlight being A Grime Supreme, an inspired exploration of the spaces where grime and jazz music can join forces.
There’s a similar mission on show in London jazz collective Steam Down’s powerful Saturday afternoon slot at the futuristically curved outdoor stage Lush Life. Back there as darkness descends, hip-hop storyteller Kofi Stone galvanises an adoring crowd with a polished, thought-provoking headline set elevated by a heartfelt message about male vulnerability. More broadly, the selection of thoughtful, soul-laced UK vocalists on show is a delight: Olive Jones, Bel Cobain and Joy Crookes all spring to mind, the latter’s sparky Friday night main stage performance proving a real highlight.
One notable change this year is the addition of Beat Hotel, a 50s beatnik bar-style stage run by the operators of the eponymous, much-loved former Glastonbury stage. As well as delivering high-energy bass and pricey mezcal drinks, there’s also a strong strategic function, with the stage located in the spillout zone of The Bowl — a steep, tree-lined pit that provides countless hours of sound system magic in the site’s most interesting location — useful considering how packed it can get.
In general, overcrowding isn’t a major issue, but it doesn’t feel a mile off. The festival’s cap remained at 25,000 for the second consecutive year, selling out both times, and it feels like any more would be a stretch. The queues for the so-called ‘secret stage’ in particular handed its name an ironic glint.
No one likes a gatekeeper, but it feels like We Out Here’s friendly, vibrant, drama-free annual celebration of the world’s most innovative and inspiring jazz, soul and club musicians, hosted in a picturesque spot bordering the New Forest, is something to protect. Gushing fans of the festival in its current iteration — and there are plenty — will hope there’s no wider cat-out-of-the-bag scenario on the horizon. One thing’s for sure: in the hands of Gilles Peterson and his trusted team, we’re safe.