Love Trails 2026

Few things compare to the feeling of locking into a run. That feeling of mental weightlessness is so precious to me. Live music can provide that same clarity, especially the dancefloor: escapist, primal.

Love Trails brings those things together in the spectacular Gower Peninsula, just outside of Swansea. Now into its tenth edition, and hosting about 5000 (adults, children and lots of friendly dogs), Love Trails is a celebration of movement.

You forget how beautiful the British countryside is. The views from the site and the trails take you aback all weekend — sun bounces off the water, the dramatic hills play hide and seek with the clouds. You can practically hear the Salomons scream in excitement at being in their natural habitat, not a bar in Hackney.

I’m an inner city runner: flat terrain, polluted air, busy streets. The events I go to are road events, where everyone’s pushing for a PB. High performance culture seeps out of the City and into our escapism. It can make you fall out of love with it — recently I’ve not been making time for myself (okay, the World Cup and my accelerating pint consumption doesn’t help).

Love Trails feels like a much-needed reset. This event is all about community and positivity. Out on a run or a hike, people stop to chat, or cheer you on. Someone will suncream you at an aid station. People walk up hills without checking their watches relentlessly. But, still, people are pushing themselves, finding their limits, grateful for their bodies. And don’t get me wrong — there are some seriously fast athletes here, but that’s not the draw for most. (Side note: it’s truly eye-opening the number of ‘runfluencers’ that I recognise - a digital detox is seriously overdue.)

Scroll through the lineup on the website — DJ sets, trail races, talks and activities are all woven together. This plays out in front of our eyes as we boogie to Thursday headliner Mr Scruff whilst a group jogs out for a sunset run, headtorches on. It’s like getting the tube home after a night out and seeing people on their way to work. Scruff’s trademark hand-drawn cartoons bounce around the screen as he coolly drifts between a pair of turntables, a set of CDJs and an enormous mixer.

The reality, however, is that this is primarily a running festival. A phrase I heard repeated a few times over the weekend was that “the music is just a bonus”. That in itself is a really tough crowd to cater to, and reflecting on the weekend, I think the organisers pretty much nailed it. The two largest music-related crowds I saw were for Sarah Weiler’s piano sing-along — people spilling out of a large tent singing a medley of chart tunes (think ‘Unwritten’ and ‘No Scrubs’) — and Saturday headliner nimino. 

The TikTok era of music allows artists to blow up rapidly without ever crossing into your sphere. That being said, I’m still often surprised to hear about big new dance-adjacent artists. There’s no doubting nimino’s popularity: over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify — his biggest song racking up nearly a quarter of a billion plays — is very impressive. It’s probably also not a shock that his music has been all over the Love Trails promo. It’s categorically a success with the crowd: newly-energised runners sing his tunes back, and enjoy spins of Katy B, Deadmau5 and Peggy Gou. It doesn’t hit for me though - using a Spice Girls vocal as a launchpad into a sped-up ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ is particularly jarring. He brings a ‘VJ’ with him, who synchronises striking cartoon visuals with nimino’s own music, which helps tie everything together and keep the show engaging where the music doesn’t quite deliver.

The through line is broad appeal and accessibility, not just in the music but also in the offerings. Every attendee can opt into a trail race: 5, 10, 16, or 27km. These are signposted, aided, and supported, and people are encouraged to tackle them however they like — the only race is against themselves. Other offerings include talks: Josh Lynott is eloquent and relatable as he talks about his approach to the creative process, poetry, and running; Dr Mickey James’ passion and commitment to helping kids get moving is inspiring.

Films, too: outdoor brand Rab sponsor a mini film festival every night, handing out free popcorn — two hours of short films about activity and community, sometimes with Q&As, and some even premiering at Love Trails. The brands are definitely activating: freebie soft drinks all weekend, try-before-you-buy shoes and vests, t-shirt printing, and plenty of other giveaways.

Friday for me is a morning 16km race — timed and supported — big hills, meandering forest paths and wild horses keeping things interesting. A few-hundred strong sunset hike rounds out the early evening before Nubiyan Twist play. A conga line emerges during ‘Pray For Me’ (the crowds here cannot resist being in single file it seems); the band are very tight and having a load of fun —- one of life’s great pleasures is seeing two drummers in perfect synchronicity. 

Saturday is a guided run to and from the sea, which has been teasing us from the hillside festival site. There’s a 45-minute yoga and breathwork session in the middle (led by a man who looks exactly as you’d expect) before a mass pilgrimage to the water, which is receding at an alarming rate with the tide. We stand in a circle in the water, arm in arm, no inhibitions. You’re the weird one if you don’t join in. It’s liberating. 

In stark contrast, the annual beer mile relay follows. After the calm and considered morning, this is carnage. Teams of four — two men, two women — chug a beer, run a 400m leg (with hay bale obstacles for good measure) in a relay. Luckily, a couple we’d befriended had two spare spots: “now we have to make friends!” — and I’ll do anything for a free tinnie.

Falle Nioke takes to the main stage — repeating the mantras of connectivity and togetherness, working the crowd well, sporting a t-shirt with Elizabeth II’s face on, diamonds for eyes. I’m very grateful to finally hear some breaks and squelch as his DJ mixes up the backing track.

Sunday is a 10km self-guided orienteering course – walk it or run it – with Garmin showing off their new devices to the most captive of audiences. The afternoon has us bouncing around between some talks before one last 5k group run. People were stacking it left, right and centre on the trails – way more than on Friday. Three days on your feet is tiring physically, but also mentally. I start to piece it together a bit more: it makes sense to me that the music wasn’t overly difficult, and that’s curated: people were knackered. And crowd pleasing is hard.

Good Habits are my musical surprise of the weekend: a non-traditional cello, accordion and drum trio peel the crowd up off of their feet to dance along to Kate Bush and Stone Roses covers with a few of their own sprinkled in. A post-Glastonbury sushi-induced tribute to Fatboy Slim is the highlight: all three band members gathered around a microphone, playing the cello together… with chopsticks.

There were some fumbles, though: festival stalwarts The Joy Formidable likely played to the smallest crowd in years on Thursday — they lost out to a clash with a race bib collection queue. And the sound bleed to some of the talks was pretty bad. But the vast majority of the festival runs very smoothly — and really, the rough edges are part of the charm. You feel as though they’re a set of organisers who will really listen to feedback, and learn, and grow. I leave with new friends, a killer tan, and a reinvigorated appetite for running. 

My experience of Love Trails was so far removed from my usual festival experiences, it took me a while to recalibrate. It’s the first festival I’ve been to where yoga mats are on the packing list, and showering daily is the norm. It has the longest queue for pasta I’ve ever seen. There is no seedy underbelly. It’s relentlessly positive. You’ll get the most out of it when you let yourself go — and it’s nice to be reminded how to do that sometimes. Sing along to Cher with 300 early risers during your warm-up. Is the music going to change your life? Probably not. Will those breathtaking trails reignite your love of running? Oh yeah. That’s a banker.