Review: Wychwood Festival, at Cheltenham Racecourse

The Wychwood Festival returned for its seventh year and underlined why it has become an annual fixture in the best family festival category.

This time there were more than 100 acts spread across three stages, including The Waterboys, The Charlatans, The Bluetones, Cornershop, Neville Staple, Delta Maid, The Christians The Wurzels and 3 Daft Monkeys, ensuring there was something for just about everybody whether their taste runs to indie, folk or world.

The stars of the show were undoubtedly The Christians, belting out 80s favourites like Ideal World and Harvest For The World to a soggy but amazingly enthusiastic Sunday afternoon crowd.

I’m not sure that they struck a chord with my five-year-old daughter Ava, but she was fully catered for with workshops including graffiti art, hats, bracelets, mosaics, paper dragons, hula skirts, masks and monster making.

A new attraction this time round was The Green, which included demonstrations, walkabout artists, jam sessions, poetry, and even a cinema.

You could polish up your skills in yoga, trapeze, belly dancing and circus workshop.

No festival is complete without a selection of hip and trendy stalls to peruse and although I felt Wychwood lacked variety this year it did feature the increasingly popular fish pedicure.

In many ways, of course, the festival experience stands or falls on the quality of the camping and there were few complaints on that score.

The toilets were reasonable and there were decent showering facilities for the lightweights.

We were even treated to some impromptu entertainment when local house band Thrill Collins  – a ska/skiffle/lounge/jazz specialising in 80s and 90s songs – took over an abandoned gazebo on the camping field for a brilliant performance.

Definitely one to watch out for – and there were plenty of other new treats on view with Wychwood once again teaming up with the BBC Introducing scheme to showcase 27 acts short-listed by a panel of leading music experts.