Visorfest 2026

Valencia is about to get its biggest dose of British musical nostalgia, swagger, and guitar-driven glory in years. Visor Fest 2026, landing at Marina Norte on September 25–26, reads like the fever dream of anyone who ever bought a CD with a Union Jack on it in the 90s. Shoegaze pioneers, Britpop icons, post-punk poets and power-pop cult heroes will all converge by the Mediterranean for two days of anthems, distortion and sing-along choruses. And at the top of the bill, Ocean Colour Scene arrive with something special up their sleeves: the 30th anniversary of Moseley Shoals — the Mercury-era gem that cemented them as stewards of soulful UK rock. To hear The Riverboat Song, The Day We Caught the Train or The Circle bellowed by thousands of Valencians against a September sunset is the kind of alignment the gods of nostalgia rarely grant.

While their Britpop peers battled tabloids, scandals, and cocaine economics, Ocean Colour Scene quietly perfected a distinctly British interpretation of soul-rock with Hammond organ warmth, Steve Cradock’s tasteful guitar lines and Simon Fowler’s unmistakable vocals. Moseley Shoals hit like a brick through a stained-glass window in 1996: raw, uplifting, defiantly melodic. Thirty years later its songs still pulse with clarity and heart — the kind of album that makes pub audiences harmonize and festival audiences lose their voices. Valencia will get the full anniversary treatment.

Then there’s Ride, the band who helped mint the very vocabulary of shoegaze. Before reverb became fashionable again, before dreampop playlists spawned on streaming platforms, Ride were forging cathedral-sized guitar walls in the early 90s. Their reunion in the late 2010s stunned critics by not only respecting legacy, but expanding it. Expect immersive soundscapes, hair-raising crescendos and the existential bliss that comes when you can’t quite tell where the guitars end and your bones begin.

If Ride bring the dream, New Model Army bring the conviction. Justin Sullivan’s celebrated post-punk troupe has been firing poetic salvos for more than 40 years — tackling politics, humanity, faith, violence, hope and doubt with a sincerity untouched by market forces. Their live shows have always felt like secular rituals: intense, communal and cathartic. In Valencia, expect the kind of performance that turns a festival crowd into a temporary tribe.

Rounding out the lineup are Swedish power-pop heroes The Wannadies, who rode into global consciousness with the indelible indie romance anthem You & Me Song. Their catalog is a treasure chest of bright melodies, fuzzy guitars and sugar-rush hooks — sunny enough for the Mediterranean, spiky enough for the record collectors.

Hosting it all is Marina Norte — an open-air coastal setting that has emerged as one of the most versatile cultural spaces in the city. September nights there smell like sea breeze and beer, and the acoustics bounce cleanly off the docks. It’s a setting tailor-made for guitar music with emotional range: from melancholy reflection to arms-around-your-friends celebration.

Visor Fest has always positioned itself as more than a festival — it’s a lovingly curated pilgrimage for listeners who prefer melody to bravado, songwriting to algorithms and vintage amplifiers to wireless Bluetooth solutions. With this lineup, 2026 looks like its most ambitious edition yet: a two-day manifesto that the old songs still matter, the old records still spin, and nostalgia isn’t a weakness — it’s a superpower. Valencia better warm up its vocal cords. There will be choirs forming in the beer lines, guitar solos echoing off the harbor, and more than a few people wondering how three decades passed so quickly.

For tickets and more information: Visorfest