Faceless paradise festival

A new independent festival founded by siblings from a small village in Wiltshire is set to launch this summer, offering something increasingly rare: a phoneless experience, placing artists, environment and community at its core.

Faceless Paradise Festival, taking place on July 23rd-26th in Dorking, is a three-day music and arts festival creating space for artists to be seen, heard, and supported on their own terms. The event is designed to encourage genuine connection to the music, the landscape, and to one another in a world increasingly mediated through screens.

Co-founded by Eben Lazarus and his sister Arwen Lazarus, who grew up in a small village in Wiltshire, the festival continued to grow from both a personal reconnection and a shared frustration with modern festival culture. 

At the heart of the event is its phoneless arena concept. Phones are not banned, but attendees are actively encouraged to put them away while inside the main festival space. Payment, access, and campsite use remain unaffected — the focus is not restriction, but intention. The result is an environment where artists are not performing to a wall of screens, but to fully present people.

The lineup will focus on emerging and independent artists, with a curatorial approach that prioritises originality, experimentation, and diversity over metrics or online following. 

Instead of screens, the festival offers analogue activities, immersive installations, and a visual and musical aesthetic inspired by 1970s counterculture, blended with the nostalgia of the 1990s and early 2000s — an era before constant digital capture. The organisers cite the growing return to film cameras, notebooks, reading, and ‘offline’ culture as evidence of a wider societal shift.

Adding to the sense of intimacy and exclusivity, professional photographers and videographers will capture the event, with attendees receiving access to curated imagery after the festival — ensuring the memories exist, without thousands of phones blocking the view.

Sustainability is a core driver of the project. The festival is intentionally small-scale, working with local suppliers, emerging artists, and ethical partners to minimise environmental impact and challenge the waste-heavy model of many modern festivals. Fair pay, inclusivity, and community-led values are central to its programming.

Capacity is limited, and tickets are expected to sell quickly.