07
Jul
The ABR Festival is the UK’s biggest motorcycle festival, held annually at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. It brings together thousands of adventure riders for three days of test rides, off-road trails, live music, expert speakers, and genuine camaraderie. In 2026 it runs from 26 to 28 June. If you ride an adventure bike and you have not yet been to the ABR Festival, you are missing the one weekend of the year that genuinely feels built for you. Not for a manufacturer. Not for a brand. For the rider. That is not marketing copy. It is what thousands of people who have attended keep saying, and the sell-out ticket sales year after year back it up.
Whether you are debating whether to go for the first time, wondering what actually happens there, or planning your trip for June 2026, this guide covers everything you need to know: the history, what to expect, who is going, and why Royal Bikers will be at Ragley Hall this year.
The story of the ABR Festival begins not with a grand plan but with a bunch of blokes arguing about camping stoves on an internet forum. In 2009, Alun Davies, a journalist, set up a website, adventurebikerider.com, as a message board for riders who loved travel, adventure, and what he describes as talking nonsense. A year later, the print magazine Adventure Bike Rider launched. It quickly became the most read adventure motorcycling publication in the UK, with a circulation of around 45,000 copies and an estimated readership of 112,500.
The community took on a life of its own. Forum members started meeting up. One of the earliest gatherings happened because riders on the forum got into a debate about whose camping stove could boil a litre of water the fastest. That led to the first ABR Rally in Cumbria. From there, a Midlands Rally followed in a farmer’s field outside Stratford-upon-Avon, camping together, riding all day, and talking round a campfire at night. It grew quickly. Riders showed up as strangers and left as friends. By 2018, it was clear something bigger was needed.
The first proper ABR Festival took place in 2018 at Seals Farm in Chacombe, near Banbury. The organisers measured the field themselves, hoping they could squeeze in 500 riders. They had a handful of portaloos, a mate pulling pints from a single keg, and a covers band on an uneven platform. It was rough around the edges, but the spirit was absolutely right. By 2019, the event moved to Ragley Hall, a 400-acre stately home estate in the heart of Warwickshire, the family seat of the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford, with grounds designed by the legendary landscape architect Capability Brown. A few thousand riders turned up that first year at Ragley. The scale has grown every year since.
People sometimes call it Glastonbury with motorcycles and decent toilets. That is not entirely wrong. The ABR Festival has won the PPA Consumer Event of the Year award for two consecutive years, 2024 and 2025. Those are not biking awards; those are cross-industry recognition that this is a genuinely well-run, high-quality event. At its core, the festival is built on three promises that have been there from the start: a premium venue, quality toilet and shower facilities, and good beer at a fair price. It sounds simple. It is also remarkably rare at any outdoor event.
But the substance of the weekend goes well beyond comfortable facilities. Here is what you actually get for your ticket:
In 2025, over 10,000 test rides were taken across the four days of the festival. Brands present included Honda, Triumph, Ducati, KTM, Royal Enfield, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Harley-Davidson, and newer names like Kove and Voge. Over 17000 attended the festival, which made it the biggest adventure bike festival in the UK.
A lot of motorcycle events happen in car parks, exhibition centres, or muddy paddocks. The ABR Festival happens on a 400-acre private estate. That matters more than it might sound.
Ragley Hall sits in the stunning Warwickshire countryside, about 12 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon. You ride your bike through the gates and park it next to your tent. You wake up in the morning looking out at parkland and a lake. The riding trails run through the estate itself, meaning you are not shuffling around a gravel car park; you are riding actual terrain.
The Adventure Trail spans over 20 km and in 2026 includes an expanded beginner’s loop, so it does not matter if you have never taken a big bike off-road before. There are also 50km of trails in total, including the TRF Trail designed for smaller trail bikes, the Bridgestone Trail for heavier adventure bikes, and the infamous REV’IT Bog of Doom challenge that only a handful manage to complete each year.
Every year the event grows, and 2026 is shaping up to be the biggest yet. The organisers have already confirmed a few things that will be new or expanded:
The 2026 ABR Festival introduces The Dome, a new speaker venue featuring some of the world’s top explorers, not just motorcyclists, but also mountaineers, adventurers, and expedition riders. The aim is to bring the spirit of adventure in its broadest sense to the festival floor.
Across five stages in total, there will be around 80 speakers across the weekend. Headline names confirmed include Richard Hammond and Charley Boorman. If you have watched Top Gear or Long Way Round at any point in the past twenty years, you already know why those two at the same event are worth the price of admission on their own.
For the first time in its history, the ABR Festival experience has expanded beyond Ragley Hall, with a stage at Motorcycle Live at the NEC in November. This winter version serves as a taster for the main June event and is opening the festival to a wider audience. MCL attracts close to 100,000 visitors. For those heading to Ragley in June, it is simply confirmation that the ABR brand is now a genuine institution in UK motorcycling.
One of the standout presences at the ABR Festival 2026 will be Royal Bikers, widely regarded as the premier Royal Enfield tour operator in India for British riders.
If you have ever sat around a campfire at Ragley and found yourself wondering what it would be like to take a Royal Enfield through the Himalayas, along the Spiti Valley, or through the backroads of Rajasthan, Royal Bikers is the answer to that question. The company runs guided motorcycle tours across India specifically designed for UK riders handling logistics, accommodation, route planning, and the kind of local knowledge that turns a good trip into an unforgettable one.
Royal Enfield has a deeply resonant history for British riders; the brand’s roots trace back to Redditch in Worcestershire, and riding one through its country of rebirth carries a particular kind of poetry that any serious adventure motorcyclist will appreciate. Royal Bikers understands that connection. Their tours are not package holidays with a bike thrown in. They are proper adventure rides, built for experienced riders who want the real thing.
At the ABR Festival 2026, Royal Bikers will be at Ragley Hall from 26 to 28 June. This is the best possible place to find them, a room full of the exact riders who dream about India tours over a pint. If you are one of them, visit the stand, speak to the team, and find out what a guided Royal Enfield tour of India actually looks like in practice. You can also explore their tours in advance at https://royalbikers.com/upcoming-tours. There is a prize draw running at the festival; scan the QR code at their stand for a chance to win a free tour. Please add that the Royal Bikers team will be at the Travellers’ Tales Stage at this year’s ABR Festival for a talk hosted by James Oxley. The session on ‘The Insider’s Guide to Touring India by Motorcycle’ is scheduled on Friday at 16.50, where Rajendra Prasad, our co-founder, will discuss & share the joy of exploring India on a motorcycle.
This is one of the most common questions asked by riders who have heard about the ABR Festival but have not yet committed to a ticket. The short answer is yes, and here is why. For the price of a standard weekend ticket around £199, you get two nights of camping on a private estate, access to every test ride, every speaker session, every off-road trail, every masterclass, and every live music set. Nothing else is charged on top. That is a level of value that is genuinely difficult to find at any comparable event.
For riders who are 45 and above, there is also something to be said for the atmosphere. The ABR Festival is not a young lad’s event. It is not about showing off or posturing. It is overwhelmingly populated by riders who have been doing this for decades, who have stories to tell, and who are genuinely friendly to anyone who walks up and starts talking bikes. First-timers consistently say it is the best festival they have attended, and that is across all festivals, not just motorcycle events. The organisation is solid, the facilities are well above average, and the sense of community is the real draw.
The 2026 ABR Festival runs from Friday 26 June to Sunday 28 June, with a Super Thursday early entry option also available. Glamping and pre-pitched camping options sold out early; the organisers note that 2026 is on track to sell out sooner than any previous year. At the time of writing, weekend and Saturday-only tickets are still available but selling fast.
Bikes enter free of charge and can be parked directly next to your tent. The ticket price covers all on-site activities; there’s no paying extra to ride the trails or attend speaker sessions.
Ragley Hall is near Alcester in Warwickshire, roughly equidistant from Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It is well-served by the M40 and A46. Most riders arriving by bike will find the estate straightforward to reach, and the experience of riding in through the gates is part of the appeal.
The layout of the estate means activities are spread across a large area. Give yourself the first couple of hours to walk around and get your bearings before committing to a schedule. The speaker stages run simultaneously, so it is worth checking the program in advance and deciding which sessions you want to prioritize. The test rides are first-come, first-served for most manufacturers. If there is a specific bike you want to try, get to that stand early on the first morning. The off-road trails are accessible throughout the day and are one of the highlights for most first-timers.
In 2025, the stunt riding displays from professionals, including Chris Birch, Antoine Meo, and Dean Harrison, drew big crowds. Expect something similar in 2026. These are riders operating at a level most of us will never reach, and watching them work is both humbling and genuinely entertaining. The evening events, bars, live bands, and conversations are where the ABR Festival earns its description as a genuine gathering of the tribe. Pacing yourself is sensible advice, particularly if you are planning to ride the trails properly on Saturday and Sunday.
The ABR Festival began as a camping stove argument on an internet forum and has grown into the largest adventure motorcycling festival in the world. It sells out every year. It has won the PPA Consumer Event of the Year for two consecutive years. And it is genuinely built around what riders actually want, not what sponsors want to sell them.
If you are in your 40s or 50s, you ride an adventure bike, and you have never been; this is the year. The 26th to 28th of June, Ragley Hall, Warwickshire. Bring your bike. Book your tent. And if India has ever crossed your mind as a destination, find the Royal Bikers stand and have a proper conversation about making it happen.
The ABR Festival 2026 takes place from Friday 26 June to Sunday 28 June at Ragley Hall Estate near Alcester, Warwickshire. A Super Thursday early-entry option is also available for those who want to arrive on the 25th. The estate is in the heart of the Midlands and is easily accessible by road.
A standard weekend ticket includes two nights of camping on the Ragley Hall estate, access to all test rides with every major motorcycle manufacturer, 50km of on-site trails to ride, all speaker sessions across five stages, off-road tuition and masterclasses, live music across four stages, and full access to exhibitors and trade stands. Your bike enters free of charge. Nothing additional is charged for on-site activities.
No. While the festival is centered on adventure motorcycling, any bike is welcome. The test rides and off-road trails are naturally geared towards adventure and trail bikes, but the speaker sessions, live music, food and drink, and exhibitors are open to any rider. Many people attend on touring bikes, nakeds, or classic machines. The ethos is one of inclusion; if you ride, you are welcome.
Royal Bikers are a premier Royal Enfield tour operator based in India, specialising in guided motorcycle tours for UK riders. They run routes through the Himalayas, Rajasthan, Spiti Valley, and other iconic Indian destinations, handling all logistics and local support. At the ABR Festival 2026, they will have a stand at Ragley Hall with a team available to discuss tour options and answer questions. There is also a prize draw for a free tour visit www.royalbikers.com for more information.
Yes, very much so. In 2026, the Adventure Trail includes an expanded beginner’s loop specifically designed for riders new to off-road riding. Qualified off-road tuition is also included in the ticket price, run by some of the UK’s best off-road schools. You do not need prior off-road experience to attend, and many first-timers say that trying the trails for the first time is the highlight of the entire weekend.
