Olly Murs will close Lazydays Festival 2027 in Priory Park on Sunday 25 July, completing a headline bill of Dizzee Rascal on the Friday and Kaiser Chiefs on the Saturday, with Madness playing a separate opening concert on Thursday 22 July.
Updated 15 November: the Madness concert’s nine support acts, led by Peter Hook & The Light and The Selecter, are now named, and 95% of its tickets have sold.
The festival, now heading into its fourth year, says it has already sold more than 10,000 tickets for 2027, nine months before the gates open. It sent us both of its latest announcements in answer to our questions, along with the photographs on this page.
It will be the Witham-born singer’s first show in Southend since 2011, when he played the Cliffs Pavilion, according to the festival.
The dates and who is playing
| Day | Date | Headliner | Gates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday | 22 July 2027 | Madness (separate ticket) | 2pm to 10.30pm |
| Friday | 23 July 2027 | Dizzee Rascal | noon to 11pm |
| Saturday | 24 July 2027 | Kaiser Chiefs | 11am to 11pm |
| Sunday | 25 July 2027 | Olly Murs | 11am to 10pm |
The Thursday times come from the Madness concert page, which gives a 10.30pm curfew and last entry at 7pm; the Friday to Sunday gate times are from the Lazydays tickets page, which says last entry times will be published nearer the event.
Those four are the only weekend acts on the 2027 line-up page so far. The festival says the rest of the weekend’s line-up will be revealed “in the coming weeks”, and its tickets page promises more than 75 acts in all. The Madness concert’s full support bill is now out, below.
“A festival created by three mates from Southend”
Lazydays was founded in 2024 by Andy Williamson, Elliott Waters and Mike Forster-Bromfield, three friends from the city. Mike Forster-Bromfield, its co-founder, said of the Murs booking:
“There’s something really special about bringing Olly back to Essex. He’s someone who grew up just down the road, went on to become one of the country’s biggest entertainers, and now he’s coming back to headline a festival created by three mates from Southend. That’s a pretty incredible feeling.
“We started with a big idea and a lot of determination. To have sold over 10,000 tickets in less than three months, and to be announcing artists this big, is something we’re immensely proud of.
“What’s most exciting is that we’re still only getting started - we’ve still got a fair few surprises up our sleeves.”
The festival lists Murs’s record as five UK number-one albums, four UK number-one singles, six Brit Award nominations and more than five million albums sold worldwide, with hits including Dance With Me Tonight, Troublemaker, Heart Skips a Beat, Dear Darlin’ and Wrapped Up.
How many tickets have sold
The two announcements chart how quickly 2027 has filled. When Madness were announced on 8 October, Elliott Waters, the festival’s creative director, said “more than 5,000 people” were already set to come. By the Murs announcement on 27 October, the figure was more than 10,000 tickets sold in under three months.
For scale, the festival says more than 12,000 people came to the 2026 edition, when the bill included Tinie Tempah, Feeder, Sister Sledge, The Feeling and Natalie Imbruglia.
Madness open the weekend on the Thursday
For the first time, Lazydays is adding a Thursday concert, ticketed separately from the main festival. Madness headline it, with a supporting line-up “curated around” the band across two stages, plus pyrotechnics, street food and bars from independent drinks producers, the organisers say.
The festival says it is the band’s first Southend show since they played the Cliffs Pavilion more than 18 years ago. Suggs said:
“It is magnificent to be coming back. A mate of mine came to a recent show and said, ‘Suggs, it’s just unbridled joy.’ And he’s right. Southend is the perfect canvas for a proper old knees-up by the water. Leave your troubles at the gate and let’s just lose ourselves for a bit. See you down the front!”
Elliott Waters said: “We never could have imagined when we started, just a few years later, we’d be attracting artists of the scale of Madness to Southend. We started this because we wanted to create something special for Southend and Essex - our home - with personality, imagination and personal touches.”
The full support bill for the Thursday is on the concert’s own line-up poster (madnesspriorypark.com):
- Peter Hook & The Light
- The Selecter
- The Undertones
- Hak Baker
- David Rodigan
- Dub Pistols
- Ed Rome
- Gentleman’s Dub Club
- The Skints
Madness tickets went on general sale on 16 October through madnesspriorypark.com. On 15 November the concert page said 95% of tickets had sold, and that pre-sale, VIP and loyalty tickets had sold out. Under-18s must be with an adult, with no more than two children per adult.
What the council says
Cllr Daniel Cowan, Leader of Southend-on-Sea City Council, said when Madness were announced:
“Lazydays has become a fantastic addition to Southend’s events calendar, bringing thousands of people together and creating a real boost for our local economy.
“To see the festival continuing to grow as it heads into its fourth year is great news for the city, and securing a band as iconic as Madness for the opening concert shows just how far the event has come.
“Events like this add to the vibrancy of Southend, bring people into our city and give residents another reason to feel proud of what’s happening here. I’m really looking forward to seeing Lazydays return next summer.”
More than the music
Beyond the main stage, the festival describes five stages and venues of entertainment: comedy, family shows, silent discos, street theatre and fringe performances, with independent street food traders, selected drinks producers and pyrotechnic displays. Its website adds a festival pub and a children’s area, Little Lazydayers, with shows and crafts.
4 photos, swipe or scroll. Photos: supplied by Lazydays Festival
What it means for you
- Tickets: Friday, Saturday and weekend tickets are on sale at lazydaysfestival.com. Prices go up in tiers as each sells out, and the earlybird tier has already gone. The festival says a weekend ticket saves up to £47 a person against buying days separately, and payment can be spread over three months with PayPal.
- Children: under-6s go free. There are reduced tickets for 6 to 11-year-olds and young adult tickets for 12 to 17-year-olds; under-18s must come with an adult, at most two children per adult.
- Getting there: there is no parking on site. Prittlewell station is a five to ten-minute walk, there is a free shuttle bus from Southend Central, and a paid park and ride runs from London Southend Airport.
- Camping: new for 2027, an off-site campsite five to ten minutes away by shuttle, with the bus included in the camping ticket.
- Refunds: all sales are final, and the festival runs rain or shine.
Those details are from the festival’s tickets page and FAQs, checked on 7 November 2026. For everything else on in the city before then, see what’s on in Southend this month.
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