July 2025

This was a year for making bold moves. Economic uncertainty? Trump tariffs? Hosepipe bans? We closed our ears to any negative thoughts and planned a festival even bigger and better than before.

 

We know what works – a mix of great live music, free family entertainment, delicious food and drink and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. But we’re greedy and we wanted more.

 

So we brought you a three-day festival with camping – a long weekend packed with all the things you’ve come to expect but introducing our Feeling Good, Feeling Green Sunday. A day dedicated to your health and that of the planet.

 

Our stripey big top, which had earlier hosted a Scottish folk band, a 10-year-old handpan prodigy and a jazz duo, was transformed to an oasis of calm with a day of sound bath healing, meditation, yoga and breathwork.

 

Therapists offered aromatherapy, reiki healing and head massage in our field spa. There were storytelling sessions for children, a film about rewilding, poetry, soundscapes woven by cello and clarinet, Ukrainian singers and even eco-dressmaking with a solar-powered sewing machine.

 

Our music was, as ever, exciting, eclectic and full of surprises. There were musicians finding their way in the business, like Lussa – a young folk band from Glasgow – and those, like Stone Foundation, who’ve seen it all, sharing the stage with Tom Jones and Paul Weller, and producing decades of wonderful Northern Soul.

 

Great music crosses divides and our favourite moment saw a neighbour in his late nineties tapping his foot to dubstep duo Omega Nebula, a blast of energy and power on the main stage on Friday. Nearby, equally caught up in the rhythm, a small child twirled.

 

And a weekend that began with such unity ended in similar fashion with a family ceilidh led by the Hambledon Hopstep Band. Whether you wanted to perfect your bass drop moves or country reeling – we genuinely had it all.