Kernowfornia Festival A Leading UK Festival in Cornwall
Kernowfornia Festival began with nothing more than a moment on the beach. One warm summer day in Looe, Jon Stafford — musician, frontman of Haunt the Woods, and lifelong lover of Cornwall’s creative spirit — looked out across the ocean and thought:
“Why don’t I put a festival on right here? Cornwall needs events like this — non-commercial, full of music, community and colour.”
That spark became Kernowfornia: a celebration of everything we love about Cornwall, built around the belief that music and community bring all the colour to life — it’d be a pretty grey world without it...
🌊 Looe Music Festival Inspired by the Festivals Of Our Youth
Before Kernowfornia ever existed, many of us grew up performing and attending the old Looe Music Festival. When Haunt the Woods were around 19 or 20, we played some of our earliest festival gigs on that very beach. Those memories, and the way the town lit up with sound and creativity, never left us.
At the same time, we were shaped by the magical atmosphere of the old Port Eliot Festival in St Germans — a beautifully non-commercial, imaginative, arts-led gathering that felt alive with creativity. When both of those festivals eventually disappeared, Cornwall lost something important.
Kernowfornia was our answer to that loss — a way of carrying forward the spirit of the South West’s most loved festivals, while creating something fresh for a new generation of festival-goers, families, holiday-makers and Cornwall lovers.
🎶 A Cornwall Festival Built by a Team of Friends, Musicians & Creatives
Kernowfornia isn’t run by a corporation. It’s run by a young team of friends — a group of twenty- and thirty-somethings, many of whom have worked together for over a decade.
Alongside Jon are the members of Haunt the Woods, the long-time crew who have toured, built shows and created art together for years, and the wider family of friends who’ve shared studios, stages and creative projects since they were teenagers. We’re all fiercely proud of our Cornish roots and fiercely committed to building the kind of Cornwall festival we always wished existed.
Acclaimed Opera Singer (and Jon's Partner!) Charlotte Badham has also become a core part of the team. She serves as Kernowfornia’s Community Engagement & Activities Manager, helping shape everything from the decor and wellbeing sessions to creative workshops and community engagement activites, that make Kernowfornia feel so welcoming and alive.
Every decision — from the line-up to the traders to the storytelling and activities — is shaped by people who live here, love it here, and want to give something meaningful back.
🌴 A Festival That Belongs to Cornwall
Kernowfornia takes place on the beautiful sands of East Looe Beach, one of the most iconic coastal locations in the UK festival scene. It’s a place where music meets shoreline, where boats glide past the harbour, where families wander down from town, and where holiday-makers stumble across something unforgettable.
We wanted Kernowfornia to feel like:
a South West festival rooted in real community
a place discovered while on a UK holiday in Cornwall
a local celebration built on joy, generosity and openness
a creative seaside escape
a non-commercial gathering made by the people who live here
The goal was never to build a huge corporate event — it was to build a festival that felt human, magical and unmistakably Cornish.
🎨 Music, Community & Colour
Kernowfornia is built on one simple belief: Music and community bring all the colour to life — it would be a pretty grey world without them. That philosophy shapes everything. It’s why we book artists we genuinely love. It’s why we keep the festival independent. It’s why locals, families and visitors mix as one. It’s why people leave feeling like they’ve been part of something real.
We want Kernowfornia to be the highlight of the Cornwall summer — not because of hype, but because it touches people in a way that bigger festivals often forget.
🌅 Where We’re Headed
Kernowfornia is still young, but its foundation is strong: friendship, authenticity, creativity and a love for our home. As more people discover Looe, Cornwall and the wider South West as a place for creative UK getaways, the festival will continue to grow and become a leading UK festival — but always with its heart in the right place.
After the success of our first year, we’re not aiming to get bigger — we’re aiming to get better. Festival-goers’ feedback is shaping the future of Kernowfornia in real time, and every suggestion, every moment of joy, every story shared on the beach helps guide what year two will become. This festival belongs to the community around it, and its evolution will always reflect that.
And because of that incredible response, we’ve also been able to start something even more ambitious: Morvala Festival at Mount Edgcumbe Country Park — a second, larger camping and arts festival in Cornwall, built with the same team, the same heart and the same belief in creating non-commercial, creative, meaningful experiences.
Whether you’re a local, a long-time festival-goer, or someone planning a holiday to Cornwall and looking for something unforgettable to add to the trip, we hope Kernowfornia becomes part of your summer for years to come.
This is our story so far.
And there’s so much more to come.
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