Music Festivals in 2026: Where to Go in Ukraine and Abroad
Music festivals you'll be able to attend in 2026.
You can watch a film at home or in a theater, and that won't change the quality or how the audience experiences it. Live music, though, feels different — it triggers far stronger and more consistent emotional responses in the brain compared to listening to recorded music.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, for understandable reasons, the number of festivals in Ukraine has dropped sharply. Even so, organizers keep holding events, focusing on charity and supporting the country through a difficult time.
Ukrainian music festivals already planned for 2026, and the world's biggest events — read on in this DeTalks article.
Ukrainian Festivals
Atlas Festival (July 17–19)
Despite the war, Atlas Festival runs every year and draws a massive crowd. Last year, for instance, the event drew 110,000 people, and organizers managed to raise over 107 million hryvnias for 'Dronopad,' together with the Come Back Alive foundation.
Today's Atlas Festival actually began as Atlas Weekend — a summer open-air project created to develop festival culture in Ukraine and build an international-level venue in Kyiv. The event's founder was Dmytro Sydorenko, a representative of the concert agency PMK Event Agency, which also owns the Kyiv club Atlas.
The first Atlas Weekend took place in 2015 on the grounds of the art factory Platforma and drew around 20,000 attendees across two stages. The very next year, the festival moved to the grounds of Kyiv's VDNH exhibition center and began expanding rapidly: the number of stages, the event's length, and the number of artists and attendees all grew.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Atlas Weekend hosted artists like The Prodigy, Kasabian, The Chemical Brothers, Black Eyed Peas, Liam Gallagher, and other global celebrities, and in 2018–2019, the festival drew more than half a million people.
After a pause caused by the pandemic and the invasion, Atlas Weekend changed its name to Atlas Festival and adapted its concept to the new reality.
In 2026, the festival is planned for Kyiv, July 17–19, 2026, on the grounds of the BLOCKBUSTER MALL shopping center. Organizers have already announced their first headliner — MONATIK. Also confirmed for the lineup so far are artists like Kurhan & Agregat, Heitspich, The Unsleeping, SKYLERR, Faktychno Sami, and Shmiska. In total, Atlas Festival promises more than 100 artists across six stages.
Faine Misto (July 31–August 2)
The music scene isn't just thriving in the capital — every year, western Ukraine hosts Faine Misto.
The festival was founded in 2013, starting out as a small music event in Ternopil. Its first edition took place on Chaika Island in Taras Shevchenko Park. In the years that followed, the festival changed locations — moving to Ternopil airport in 2014, and then, from 2017 until the start of the pandemic, to the Ternopil Hippodrome.
Organizers built a 'small-town' atmosphere, where attendees could get symbolic festival-citizen documents and take part in creative spaces, installations, and celebrations.
Over time, the festival grew. Its stages featured both Ukrainian bands (The Hardkiss, Boombox, O.Torvald, Onuka, Antytila) and international performers (Powerwolf, Arch Enemy, The Rasmus, Guano Apes, Kadebostany, and others).
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the festival to pause its traditional format and find new ways to stay part of cultural life. One of those was the tour 'Kaifainemo,' which covered 14 Ukrainian cities and became the organizers' response to the restrictions.
With the start of the full-scale invasion, the festival changed its mission and format, focusing on humanitarian and charitable work. The Faine Misto team, in particular, actively supports the 12th Azov Brigade of the National Guard, and in 2022 partnered with the Polish festival Rockowa Noc to support Ukrainian troops.
In 2026, the festival will take place in Lviv, at Arena Lviv, July 31 to August 2, under the slogan 'The Road That Never Was.' Organizers have already announced part of the lineup: Artem Pyvovarov + metal band, Zwyntar, DK Enerhetyk, Brykulets, LELY45, and MegamasS.
The World's Biggest Festivals
Coachella (April 10–12 and 17–19)
Cowboy hats, tall boots, and abstract art — those are the words that describe Coachella. The festival runs every year in the American town of Indio, California. Across the grounds, there are art installations, experimental screenings, fashion and pop-up brand zones, and food areas.
The first Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival took place in 1999 at the Empire Polo Club, also in Indio. The idea came from producers Paul Tezomi and Rikard Pasarelli, who wanted to create an event blending major rock acts with an art space.
The first festival featured bands like Beck, Morrissey, and Rage Against the Machine, but due to problems with ticket sales, the festival paused temporarily in the years that followed.
Coachella returned in 2004 under a new team of organizers — Goldenvoice, who knew how to scale up music events. It's from that point that the festival began running every year.
This year, Coachella will feature Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G, David Byrne, The Strokes, Young Thug, The xx, FKA twigs, Ethel Cain, Addison Rae, PinkPantheress, and others.
Rolling Loud USA (May 8–10)
Unlike all the festivals mentioned above, Rolling Loud focuses on a single genre — hip-hop. But beyond the musical lineup, attendees also get food courts and bars, official merch stores, art installations, and rest areas that let them fully soak in the hip-hop atmosphere.
The festival was founded in 2015 by promoters Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif, who had spent years organizing concerts and parties in Miami under the brand Dope Entertainment. The founders noticed that many artists from the hip-hop scene shared overlapping audiences at live shows — fans of one performer often turned up at another's concerts too. That observation led to the idea of bringing different artists together on one stage — and Rolling Loud was born.
The first festival took place in the spring of 2015, in a warehouse space in Miami's Wynwood district. It featured Schoolboy Q, Curren$y, A$AP Ferg, Action Bronson, Juicy J, and Travis Scott, and drew roughly 5,000–7,500 attendees.
The festival then gradually expanded across the US, and later beyond it — to Australia, Canada, Europe, and Asia. This year's event, for instance, will feature over 75 artists, including Playboi Carti, Don Toliver, YoungBoy Never Broke Again (NBA YoungBoy), Chief Keef, Destroy Lonely, Pooh Shiesty, Sexyy Red, and others.