Core Element is an immersive fantasy, music and costuming festival, hosted within the enchanting grounds of Elvaston castle show grounds and forest. Venture into the forest where two spectacular stages await your discovery, alive with incredible acts and talented DJ's.
As the sun goes down, the forest awakens, transforming into a mesmerising, technicolour display of light and decoration.
On our field, you'll be immersed in a realm of events, activities, acts, vendors and more!
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You are welcome to stay on site, in fact, we encourage camping!
Whether it be your own tent, a camper van or one of our luxury bell tents, you’ll finally have the opportunity to camp amongst friends and enjoy the summer to it's fullest.
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Something older resides within this forest. Something that does not ask, but summons. There is a story waiting beyond the treeline, where shadows breathe and the trees sway with ancient memory. It beckons to something that stirs within us all. Older than language.
Older than flame. Within the pulse of the bass, in the flicker of torchlight between the trees.
We invite you to wander through strange delights and whispered games.
Dance until the earth remembers your name.
Theming and adventure
Along side our acts, events and activities, Core Element has it's own interactive story to follow. We'll have more characters, interactive elements and puzzles for you to see this year. It will be much easier to traverse this time, the protectors are here to guide you, to enlighten you...
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The theming may appear darker and more mysterious this year. But fear not. Core Element is not a horror event. There may be dark visuals, along with darker elements to our story and event, but nothing within the event is designed to frighten. There will be no actors or characters, jumping out to scare you. All characters and story aspects are optional.
Your feedback and the road ahead!
The whole Core Element team would like to thank you for so much amazing and valuable feedback.
We read every form and have taken many points into consideration moving forwards. A lot of the feedback we had were suggestions for festival content. Many of these are being acted on but the specifics are still under wraps. So we hope you love our line up once we announce it!
We have summarised the main points people brought up in the feedback below. There are many more factors we are working on behind the scenes, so don't worry if you don't see your feedback subject below. Plus a couple of big points we think you should be aware of anyway!
Event run time.
We had a great deal of creatures both on site and in our feedback form expressing their eagerness for an extra day. Specifically, a day to get settled, relaxed and acclimated.
Having that extra time to yourself without worrying about missing your favourite events is something we definitely vibe with.
So, we have expanded Core Element to 3 days! Our opening day, Friday, is the day for relaxation... well, mostly! We will still have things happening on Friday, just a lot less and a bit later than Saturday and Sunday. Kick back, explore and make some friends! Saturday and Sunday will be jam packed with both new and returning events!
Food.
Last year, we booked one large supplier for the bulk of our food. 3 days before the event, they cancelled without warning... It is incredibly difficult to find a vendor to fill in last minute, but we managed to find one. Burgers saved the day! However, this drastically cut the options, and we're sorry for how that impacted you. However, for 2026, in addition to improved contracts,
We are working with a larger number of smaller businesses to cater us all.
This way, if one does cancel it won't have as much of an impact.
We also have access to larger bank of local suppliers!
Scheduling and layout.
Most of you probably noticed our map was strangely different to how the festival was laid out. Strange huh! Also, certain features had to be pushed back to Sunday. This is due to last minute changes and missing equipment surprising us upon our arrival.
We've learned from this! For 2026, we are only in direct communications with the venue owners, the council. This removes any ambiguity regarding the layout.
All this, along with plenty of new contingencies means we are able to mitigate any delays affecting the festival itself.
To our camper van friends, we apologise for your change in location. You will be next to the camp site this year. No faff, no moving!
Crew and entertainers.
As part of our commitment to support our amazing volunteers and acts, we are extending free tickets to events, DJs and acts for 2026. We have also revised our dealers ticket to a combined ticket. This has always been part of our goal, to grow this event to a level where we can pay all crew and acts.
Lighting.
Parts of the venue and forest were pretty dark last year! And we agree it wasn't ideal... This was due to the festoon being forgotten by a supplier! Oops... This year however, we are trusting the festoon hire to our awesome AV team.
Festoon will be placed above the toilets and closer to the camp site, so you will always have light. Don't worry though, festoon light is warm and non-intrusive.
You will still get a good nights rest.
