Olly Murs to headline festival's 'biggest year'
Olly Murs to headline festival's 'biggest year'
Daisy Bodkin - BBC News,West of EnglandSat, October 3, 2026 at 10:31 AM UTC
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Olly Murs and other big names have been announced for next years event
Olly Murs is set to headline a music festival that started as a small community event but has grown year on year.
Good Times Live will return to the South Gloucestershire market town of Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, in May 2027.
Co-founder James Murden said he would have never expected the festival, which started off as a small-scale event featuring tribute acts, to get so big.
"If someone had told me five years ago that we'd be getting ready to welcome up to 50,000 people across a week... I would have thought they were joking," he said.
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The festival started in 2022 at Yate Town Football Club after Murden and his brother-in-law, Tom Campbell, came up with the idea following Covid, as a way to encourage social interaction and live events.
The festival moved to Chipping Sodbury in 2025 and has grown rapidly in recent years, with 32,000 people attending last year and headliners including Tom Odell, Madness, Jessie J and Emeli Sandé.
Murden said he expects 2027 to be the festival's "biggest year", with the Olly Murs announcement and having already sold more than half of the allocated tickets.
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He said the response from the public had been "overwhelmingly positive".
"It's been really humbling. It gives a massive sense of pride when we stand and watch thousands of people jumping up and down, singing along to their favourite artists.
"We're really passionate about it and we promise to grow it steadily while still retaining the heart of what the event is supposed to be," he said.
Co-founder James Murden never expected the festival to grow so big
Olly Murs, from Essex, rose to fame on The X Factor and went to have hits with tracks like Troublemaker, Dance With Me Tonight and Up.
He will headline next years festival, taking place on 26-31 May, along with Rick Astley, Kaiser Chiefs and Rob Beckett who will perform as part of The Good Times Live Comedy Gala.
More acts are expected to be announced soon.
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