The first act for Scarborough Open Air Theatre’s 2026 season is revealed.

Following his headline Legends set at Electric Picnic this weekend, David Gray today announces a brand-new summer run of UK & Ireland shows for 2026 – including a date at TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre.

Saturday July 4 is one of 18 UK and Ireland dates of David’s 2026 Past & Present World Tour when he will be joined by special guests The Divine Comedy.

Tickets go on general sale via scarboroughopenairtheatre.com and ticketmaster.co.uk at 10am Friday (Sep 5).

David’s 2025 tour has already seen him sell out 68 shows across the USA, Australia, UK and Ireland in 2025, including landmark nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo, Manchester’s O2 Apollo and Dublin’s 3Arena.

His Electric Picnic set – at Ireland’s biggest music festival – marked another milestone in support of his widely-praised new album Dear Life (out now via Laugh A Minute Records/Secretly Distribution).

David said: “We’ve had the most amazing tour this year, from the opening night in Boston to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and then on to the Royal Albert Hall in London and the 3Arena in Dublin.

“These have been some of the most memorable and magical shows of my entire career.

"We’ve pushed ourselves as a band but it’s been richly rewarding and so much fun.

"When everyone is in such fine form it would seem wrong to stop the ball from rolling - so with that in mind I’m delighted to announce a string of further dates for the summer of 2026.

"Exciting times!”

Today’s announcement – the first for TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre 2026 – comes after a brilliant summer series.

Hollywood star Will Smith brought the curtain down on 18 headline shows which attracted more than 100,000 music fans to the historic Yorkshire coast venue.

Julian Murray, Scarborough OAT venue programmer for promoters Cuffe and Taylor, said: “Hot on the heels of a sensational season here at Scarborough OAT we are delighted to announce David Gray as our first headliner for 2026, with very special guests The Divine Comedy.

“The success of David’s world tour to date tells is this is going to be an brilliant show and we are set to have a fantastic night here on what will be another incredible summer of live music on the Yorkshire coast.”

David Gray’s story is unlike any other. He spent almost a decade striving to make a breakthrough, and when it happened it did so in the biggest way imaginable as smash hit album White Ladder became one of the best-selling British LPs of recent decades and established him as an arena-filling artist.

As the years have passed, David’s songcraft has only deepened.

His natural ability to convey specific emotions, atmospheres, or, as heard on his acclaimed 2021 album Skellig, a sense of place, has positioned he firmly in the lineage of classic poetic singer-songwriters. While the likes of Ed Sheeran, Adele and Hozier have acknowledged his influence, David has continued to follow his own artistic path.