London’s Waterworks Festival will no longer take place at Gunnersbury Park for its 2026 edition, with organisers relocating the event to The Cause for a one-off 36-hour event called Waterworks Extended.
The festival will now unfold across seven spaces at the Docklands venue, with continuous programming, extended DJ sets, extra production and outdoor daytime activity that will move indoors overnight.
In a statement shared on May 7, organisers said the move was prompted by delays in securing the planning permission needed for Gunnersbury Park.
They said proceeding without confirmed approval would have left the event uninsured and forced the team to commit to hundreds of thousands of pounds in infrastructure and staffing costs without certainty the festival could go ahead.
The organisers also said they were unwilling to risk failing to pay staff, artists, suppliers and freelancers, or to leave ticket holders waiting for refunds if the event could not proceed. “Waterworks 2026 is not cancelled,” the statement said. “After five years of our summer send-off, we couldn’t allow this news to stop our annual gathering.”
All existing tickets will remain valid for the revised format, and refunds will also be available for those who want them. Organisers said they hope to return to Gunnersbury Park in 2027.
