Now then. OTT once again rocks Donington Park Farm House, in this lovely area of the Derbyshire / Leicestershire border, over the weekend 29th-31th August 2025. It’s the thirty something year of Off The Tracks, and FFA suspects even the event organisers have lost count of the actual number! Let’s just agree they’ve had years to hone the OTT experience down to a fine art, and the festival they deliver is wonderful.

Just take a looksee at FFA’s Off The Tracks 2024 Review for just a hint of what this crew manage to deliver.

Like most of the great festivals, the OTT experience is bigger than the bands that grace the stages – good as they undoubtably are. This year’s batch include Talisk, Transglobal Underground, The Celtic Social Club, System 7, and a host of others. Fine outfits all; but the difference between any old music ‘Event’ and a true ‘Festival’ is the vibe that the Festival generates, the sense of community, the buzz that hits you from the moment you enter the site. Whilst each year’s artists are transitory, the OTT Vibe remains, and indeed grows year on year. FFA coined the phrase, many years ago, that OTT remains ‘a largely undiscovered little gem of a festival’. That’s true to this day. It really is a very special bijou event, where those in the know consistently return year upon year… once discovered OTT gets into your very soul.

The unique venue helps of course – Donington Park Farm House is simply a wonderful location for a chilled festival like OTT – here’s the standard FFA blurb:

‘The farm is heavily diversified, and the festival is held in old farm buildings centred around the old farmyard. Those same farm buildings host a permanent, year-round pub and diner!  No. Really. Now, imagine that your favourite pub held a festival all weekend, packed out with good friends and fellow kindreds, excellently curated, with cracking bands, and splendid food and drink. Also imagine an on-site permanent year-round camp site, with excellent shower and toilet block facilities, where the atmosphere is as good as inside the festival.

The festival is held in various outbuildings and barns surrounding the farmyard itself (all under cover, including the farm yard!), with loads of sessions and happenings in the pub itself. Don’t forget that the pub also has a large dining area selling a variety of goodies all weekend, including venison (if that’s your bag) from the farm’s own estate. Expect a real ale festival, healing zone in the fields, enough stalls and the like, and plenty for the kids. It’s an old cliché of FFA’s – but OTT is really more of a House Party than a festival.’

For an end of festival season chill out, or for a radically different festival experience than you may be used to, get on down to OTT. Trust FFA – you’ll love it!

NB. FFA Top Tip: do try and catch Galdorcraeft if you can – they blew FFA away at OTT in 2024, and are back for another pop this year!

Article by Barrie Dimond