Lincoln guide

Live music and events in Lincoln this term, with every date taken from the venue's own listing

Lincoln has two real gig venues and a cathedral that runs its own concert programme, and most listings for the city bury all three under an endless run of tribute acts. This page separates them out. The Drill and the Engine Shed both book genuine touring artists between the tributes, and Lincoln Cathedral runs a weekly organ recital series through September and October that no general Lincoln events guide we checked mentions at all.

Every date below was read from the venue’s own listing on 14 September 2026, running from now to the end of the autumn term. The tribute and covers nights are real too, and there are dozens of them; they are grouped rather than listed one by one, because that is what most other pages already give you in full.

Real touring artists, not tributes

These are the actual artists, not a band playing their songs. The Drill has by far the busier autumn programme of the two.

  • Ferocious Dog — Thu 8 October, The Drill, Live musicDoors 7pm. Billed as their UK farewell tour.
  • Reef — Thu 22 October, The Drill, Live musicDoors 7pm, with support from These Wicked Rivers. Autumn tour.
  • The Bluetones — Sun 8 November, The Drill, Live musicDoors 7pm. The Expecting To Fly 30th anniversary tour.
  • The Feeling — Wed 18 November, The Drill, Live musicDoors 7pm. Celebrating 20 years of Twelve Stops and Home.
  • Skerryvore — Sun 29 November, The Drill, Live musicDoors 7pm. The Scottish folk-rock band.
  • Skids + Theatre of Hate — Sun 13 December, The Drill, Live musicDoors 7pm. Two post-punk acts from the same era on one bill.
  • Don Broco — Mon 28 September, Engine Shed, Live musicTickets from £39.50.
  • Goldie Lookin Chain — Fri 9 October, Engine Shed, Live musicTickets from £24.
  • The Wonder Stuff & Inspiral Carpets — Thu 29 October, Engine Shed, Live musicTickets from £40. Two Madchester-era bands on one bill.
  • Shed Seven — Mon 7 December, Engine Shed, Live musicCheck the Engine Shed’s own listing for current ticket price.
  • Maximo Park — Wed 16 December, Engine Shed, Live musicTickets from £26.

Lincoln Cathedral: the organ festival nobody else lists

The Cathedral runs its own concert programme year-round, and the Grand Organ Festival is the part every general events guide for the city misses. Weekly Tuesday-evening recitals, £10 a ticket, from named organists including the Cathedral’s own Assistant Director of Music.

  • Grand Organ Festival 2026, Classical, weeklyTuesdays at 7pm, £10: Jeffrey Makinson (22 September), James Gough (29 September), Philip Rushforth (6 October), David Pipe (13 October), an Organ Extravaganza (20 October) and Daniel Cook (27 October). Buy through the Cathedral’s own events page.
  • Academy of St Martin in the Fields — Wed 23 September, Classical7pm. One of the best-known chamber orchestras in the country, playing the Cathedral.
  • Handel's Messiah — Sat 21 November, Choral7pm to 9.30pm.

Tribute and covers nights, grouped

Both The Drill and Lincoln Cathedral run a heavy autumn programme of tribute shows, and this is most of what a general search for Lincoln events will surface. Two representative examples below, not picked apart one by one; the venues’ own listings carry the rest.

  • The Drill's tribute programme, Covers, various datesStrong Enough (Cher, 19 September), Erasured (Erasure, 3 October), Letz Zep (Led Zeppelin, 23 October), Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen, Halloween) and Definitely Oasis (12 December) among others.
  • Lincoln Cathedral's candlelight series, Covers, various datesMotown (25 September), Pink Floyd (26 September), Céline Dion (23 October), ABBA (24 October) and A Night at the Opera (31 October), each performed by string ensembles rather than the original acts.

Smaller and further out

  • Joni Mitchell's Blue: An Evening in Laurel Canyon — Sat 19 September, Lincoln Arts Centre, Live music7.30pm. A tribute performance of the album, at the university’s own arts venue rather than a covers circuit tour.

Where to go next

For the weekly student nights rather than gigs, student and club nights this term covers QUACK!, Union Twosdays and The Superbull with the same venue-sourced dating. And if a late show finishes hungry, late-night food near campus lists the independents still serving, with closing times read from their own ordering pages.

How this was checked

Every date was read on 14 September 2026 directly from the venue it belongs to: The Drill’s own listings page, the Engine Shed’s Live Music carousel, Lincoln Cathedral’s events page, and Lincoln Arts Centre’s What’s On page. No date here comes from a ticket aggregator or a general what’s-on site. Doors times are given where the venue states one.

Lincoln Arts Centre’s autumn programme is mostly student drama and Lincoln Book Festival events rather than public gigs, so only its one clear music listing is included; the rest of that venue’s calendar is literary and theatrical, not music. The student club nights at The Engine Shed and Home are deliberately left off this page — they have their own guide, linked below — because this one is for gigs and concerts, not weekly nightlife.