The Bournemouth 7s Festival is a strange and brilliant hybrid: a serious sport tournament bolted onto a full-blown music festival, all packed into one late-May bank holiday. Thousands come to play rugby and netball by day and watch bands by night, and the mix of the two is exactly why it works.
At a glance
- It runs over the late-May bank holiday weekend, with dates that change each year.
- The format blends rugby and netball sevens tournaments with live music stages.
- It suits sporty groups and festival-goers alike, and many come just for the atmosphere.
- Camping is part of the experience for a lot of attendees.
- Sort tickets and team entries through the event listing.
What to expect
Picture a large festival site with pitches at its heart. Through the day, teams work through their rounds of sevens, the shortened, fast version of rugby and netball where matches come thick and fast. Around the sport sit the things you would find at any festival: multiple stages, bars, food stalls and a crowd in fancy dress. As the light fades, the focus tilts from the pitches to the music, and the whole place shifts gear into a party.
That combination is the point. You can be competitive on the grass at midday and dancing to a headline set by the evening, sometimes with the same group of friends. It is one of the bigger events on the town’s summer calendar and one of the most social.
Fancy dress is half the fun. Teams tend to turn up in matching costumes, and the sight of a squad in full outfits scrapping over a rugby ball is very much in the spirit of the thing. Around the pitches you will find food traders, bars and the general hum of a festival crowd, so there is plenty to do between matches even if your team is not on for a while.
Who it suits
The festival is built around team entries, so it comes into its own if you turn up with a group. Sports clubs, university teams, work sides and groups of mates all make the trip, and part of the fun is the shared weekend rather than any single match.
Coming for the music instead
You do not have to lace up boots to enjoy it. Plenty of people buy spectator or festival tickets purely for the stages, the atmosphere and the camping, treating the sport as a backdrop. If competitive rugby is not your thing, that is a perfectly normal way to do the weekend.
Camping and the site
For many, camping is half the experience. Staying on or near the site keeps you in the thick of it and saves the late-night journey home, which matters when the music runs on. Camping options and their locations vary year to year, so read what the official festival offers before you commit, and pack for a British bank holiday, which is to say for sunshine and rain in equal measure.
Getting there and planning your weekend
The festival draws a big crowd into the area, so treat travel like you would for any major event: check the recommended routes, consider public transport where you can, and allow extra time on the roads over the bank holiday. Dates, timetables and the exact site details are all confirmed through the official channels rather than fixed from one year to the next.
If you would rather have a bed than a tent for the weekend, our accommodation section lists options across the town.
Around your visit
Bournemouth over a bank holiday has plenty going on beyond the festival gates, from the seafront to the town centre. Check the confirmed dates and ticket options on the event listing, then see what else lines up with your trip in our what’s on section.