Sunday's Osfest appeals to indie fans with a sprinkling of talent show acts and new talent

After a great nights sleep in a lovely quiet family camping site, we played around on the grass, and played a few card games out in the baking sunshine. Before heading into Whittington a little village about a mile down the road to have some dinner and a little walk about, there was a stunning castle which we had a little look around, before heading back for the afternoon's musi. The first to really catch my ear on the Sunday were The Fallows, a lot of there material sounded a bit like a clash between The Coral with a pinch of Mumford and Sons about them, with a guest appearance on the bass by Simon Jones of ex The Verve fame. They really got the crowd grooving inside the tent, though the crowd seemed much more sparse then the day before, with less families around, and many people also choosing to stay outside the tent in the bright summer sun.

Another great booking were soon to follow King Charles, another quickly rising name on the indie-folk scene, I must admit the bookers couldn't of picked more summery music, I'm not sure how it would come across in the rain, but they have a very Vampire Weekend-esque sound which filled the tent with smiles and dancing feet.

Sunday's line-up was aimed at the indie fans, more predominantly rocky than the previous acts on the bill, but also with a sprinkling of ex talent show artists throughout the day to provide the famous names that kids are drawn in by, never more apparent than the rush into the tent when Lucy Spraggan arrived on stage. This was the third year she had been booked at Osfest to perform so had a strong fan base before she shot to fame on X-Factor. She drew in most of the people form outside the tent for a 30 minute set comprising of a few covers, but mainly her own material which she sung whilst on TV, she seemed to really enjoy "coming home to Osfest."

There seems to be a real support by the booking team here at Osfest for young talent, as next to take the stage is 20 year old Lewis Watson, very much from the Ed Sheeran school of singer song writing, fresh from a gig in Amsterdam the night before. He charms the crowd with his beautiful voice, his debut EP "It's Got Four Sad Songs On It BTW" topped the iTunes singer-songwriter chart on the first day of release, outselling the likes of Adele, Madonna and Ed Sheeran in the process. So this lad definitely has the potential to be headlining this festival in years to come, he will again be a name I will look to catch later in the summer again.

With James Arthur dropping out of playing the festival, Osfest drafted in The Loveable Rogues, another act from the TV talent show conveyor belt, this went down well with the youngsters in the crowd. With there summery cheeky chappy 3-part harmonies and a crafty ukulele solo here and there, they left the girls screaming for more.

It was now time for Osfest to really turn up the volume for the arrival of two of the bigger acts on the line up. The act taking to the stage in the penultimate slot was The Pigeon Detectives. With a 50-minute set full to the brim with fast paced sing along indie anthems, they had the tent rammed and eating out of their hands. Much to the disdain of the security guards, they demanded that every other person in the tent should get on there mates shoulders and dance like lunatics, (the band must have been watching the previous act as the security ordered people down off shoulders) leaving the guards pulling their hair out.

They also claimed the loudest sing along of the weekend with their signature tune 'Take Her Back'. The sun had gone down and they had pulled out all the stops with a belting performance to get everybody ready for the headline act.

The Enemy may not be getting the headlines that they were 5 years ago, but tonight they gave a performance they shows they are still worthy of a place at British lad rocks top table, with huge stage presence and a pocketful of hits to go with it, they smashed the tent with a huge wall of sound.

I really enjoyed my weekend at Osfest, if you want a small family friendly festival with a spattering of famous names the kids will know, then you really can't go wrong with adult weekend tickets priced at £69 and under 10's free. I will hopefully be back next year to see if they can match the success of 2013.

Latest Updates