Wychwood Festival
The UK’s leading boutique, family festival, Wychwood Festival took over Cheltenham
Racecourse at the weekend for a spectacle of music, comedy and family entertainment. Enjoying the sizzling temperatures, record numbers of visitors were treated to performances from The Levellers on Friday night; Manchester’s finest, The Happy Mondays on Saturday night; a stellar set from Cornish folk sensation Seth Lakeman and a high-octane performance from Dreadzone to bring the festival to a raucous close on Sunday night.
Over the weekend, visitors enjoyed an eclectic line-up across three stages: The Independent
Stage, the Big Top and the Third Stage was for the first time programmed by BBC Introducing to become the BBC Introducing Stage. Welcoming the finest emerging talent from the surrounding six counties, and of course from Gloucestershire itself, the BBC Introducing Stage produced a fantastically varied showcase of fresh talent. Cardiff-bred ISLET were one of the many musical highlights and all the bands and artists appearing raised their game to enjoy the unique opportunity to play to an audience they may never have encountered otherwise.
The Independent Stage saw a veritable musical medley across the weekend, with former Del
Amitri singer Justin Currie offering crowd-pleasers a-plenty on Friday afternoon before The
Levellers took to the stage to bring the festival to a feel-good start. Across the weekend, over 100 acts took to the stages to offer a varied mix of music, including tipped-for-stardom Beth Jeans Houghton, internationally-acclaimed Toumani Diabaté and the ever-entertaining Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer.
Saturday saw indie-favourites The Lightning Seeds entertain the sun-baked crowd with their
pleasing-to-the-ear tunes including a stripped-back, acoustic version of the anthemic Three Lions – just in time for the start of the World Cup. The pride of Madchester, The Happy Mondays led the crowd through hits including ’24 Party People’ and ‘Step On’ ensuring the Saturday revellers were in fine voice before hitting the festival’s ever-popular Silent Disco, which ran nightly during the festival.
Sunday highlights included folk and pop-tinged 6 Day Riot, Adrian Edmondson & The Bad
Shephards playing folk re-imaginings of classic punk songs and The South (formerly The
Beautiful South), who took to the stage to play much-loved songs from their repertoire including sing-along favourite ‘Rotterdam’ and ‘Perfect Ten.’ Leading the Sunday evening crowd into a folk frenzy was Cornish sensation Seth Lakeman, singing and playing songs from his latest album ‘Hearts and Minds’ as well as old favourites like ‘Kitty Jay.’ Dreadzone were the final act to appear, rounding the proceedings off with an energetic performance including a boisterous performance of ‘Little Britain.’
Away from the music, revellers were treated to a hilarious array of comedic prowess from the likes of award-winning Robin Ince, Radio 4 stalwart Pete Johansson and the celebrated young stand-up Nathan Caton over the weekend of comedy provided by e-festivals.
Well-known as the UK’s friendliest festival for families with children, visitors with little ones were once again treated to a whole host of child-friendly entertainment. The Children’s Literature Festival made a welcome return to the festival, in partnership with The Book People. Children and parents were treated to talks from Angelina Ballerina creator Katherine Holabird and illustrator of the books, Helen Craig, alongside the likes of award-winning author Philip Ardagh and Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs author Ian Whybrow. The literary-inspired fun continued with the Roald Dahl Museum – who kept children rapt, telling stories and encouraging them to get involved in a range of themed activities. Plus, new festival headline sponsor Waitrose were on hand to show kids how to make a range of yummy fruit smoothies.
The perfect place to unwind, the Healing Gardens provided an ideal setting for revellers to rest and recuperate before heading out to enjoy the next slice of the Wychwood Festival.
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