Cruz Beckham and Niall Horan tipped for Radio 1's Big Weekend in Sunderland
Cruz Beckham and Niall Horan tipped for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland as lineup reveal approaches.
wheretowatch.tv exclusive: Cruz Beckham and Niall Horan tipped for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland as lineup reveal approaches.
Cruz Beckham and the Breakers and Niall Horan are expected to be among the artists set to perform at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend when the festival arrives in Sunderland this May.
The annual event, organised by BBC Radio 1, will take place from 22–24 May 2026, bringing tens of thousands of music fans to the North East for three days of live performances. The full lineup will be officially revealed next week by Greg James on The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, but industry sources say Beckham and Horan are both set to feature.
The appearance would mark a major high-profile festival booking for Cruz Beckham, the youngest son of David Beckham and Victoria Beckham, as he continues to build momentum in his music career. Meanwhile, Horan — who rose to global fame as a member of One Direction — remains one of Radio 1’s most reliable crowd-pleasers, with a string of successful solo releases and festival performances.
Other artists rumoured to be on the lineup include BRIT Award winning artist Olivia Dean, Myles Smith and Sienna Spiro.
Lineup reveal
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Ticket sales details
Tickets for the highly anticipated event will be sold exclusively through Ticketmaster, the festival’s only official ticketing partner.
Links to purchase Friday tickets will go live at 9am on 6 March, while tickets for Saturday and Sunday will be released at 5pm on 11 March. Fans must have a Ticketmaster account to enter the online queue once sales begin.
Organisers confirmed that 31,000 general admission tickets and 2,960 VIP tickets will be available each day.
Friday (18+ only) – £34.50 for general admission, £86 for VIP
Saturday & Sunday – £44.50 for general admission, £106 for VIP
The opening day of the festival will be strictly for over-18s, while the weekend shows will allow younger fans to attend with appropriate supervision. Those aged 15 or under must be accompanied by an adult, while children under two do not require a ticket.
Local ticket priority
To ensure local fans have the first opportunity to attend, tickets will be distributed using a three-tier system. Thirty per cent will initially be reserved for Sunderland residents, with a further 60% allocated to people living across the wider North East Combined Authority region, including Newcastle, Northumberland and County Durham.
The remaining 10% of tickets will be available nationally.
Fans will need to enter their home postcode during the purchase process to access the locally reserved allocations.
Strict limits in place
Festival organisers have introduced a two-ticket limit per person, per day, and attendees can only attend Friday and one weekend day to ensure as many people as possible have the chance to secure tickets.
Tickets cannot be resold, traded or transferred, and suspicious purchases — including bots or duplicate accounts — will be cancelled.
Radio 1 will also provide live updates on ticket availability through its official Instagram and TikTok channels as sales take place.
With the official lineup announcement still days away, anticipation is building among fans eager to see which major acts will join Beckham and Horan when the UK’s biggest free-to-enter music festival touches down in Sunderland this spring.
Fans who don’t get tickets can watch the event on BBC iPlayer.
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