Public voting for the 16th European Festival Awards is now open, and fans have until 20 November to pick their favourites.
Votes are being taken in the main festival categories: Best Major Festival, Best Medium-Sized Festival and Best Small Festival. The public can also choose the Line-Up of the Year 2026. Voting is open via the European Festival Awards.
Last year’s ceremony drew festivals from more than 30 countries, with 300,000 public votes leading to 104 shortlisted nominees across 13 categories. Paléo Festival Nyon took Best Major Festival, Pohoda Festival won Best Medium-Sized Festival, and Dynamo Metalfest was named Best Small Festival. Lowlands won Line-Up of the Year.
EXIT Festival was named Promoter of the Year, an award presented by Pollstar. Other 2025 winners included Sziget Festival (Take a Stand Award), Rock for People (Event Safety Award), Štěrkovna Open Music (Green Operations Award), and Pinkpop with Libresse (Brand Activation Award). Addison Rae was Newcomer of the Year, Steve Zapp of ITB was Agent of the Year, and Stephan Thanscheidt of FKP Scorpio received the Award for Excellence & Passion. Kristína Mlynárová of Pohoda Festival won New Kid on the Block, while Ewald Tatar received the Lifetime Achievement Award. A full list of last year’s winners is available here.
Specialist categories decided by a jury are still open for registration until 1 November. Those awards are the Green Operations Award, the Event Safety Award, the Brand Activation Award, the Take A Stand Award and the New Kid On The Block Award. After registration closes, a jury will choose the final shortlist and the winner in each category. All nominees will be announced at the beginning of December 2026.
The awards ceremony itself is set for 13 January 2027 at De Oosterpoort in Groningen, the Netherlands. Tickets are already on sale.
Premium tickets cost €100. That includes access to “Meet the agencies” in the Foyer Groote Zaal at De Oosterpoort from 3.00pm to 6.00pm, a gala dinner with drinks from 7.15pm to 8.45pm, the ceremony from 9.15pm to 11.00pm, and the aftershow party from midnight to 2.00am. The aftershow location is still to be confirmed.
Tribune tickets cost €25 and cover a tribune seat at the ceremony, with dinner and drinks excluded. Tribune ticket holders can attend the awards from 9.15pm to 11.00pm and the aftershow party from midnight to 2.00am.
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