Wychwood have something for the weekend

eFestivals can exclusively reveal that Saturday’s main stage headliner for Wychwood Music Festival 2008 will be witty Neil Hannon and his innovative live indie folk/pop act The Divine Comedy. The other main stage headliners have already been announced crowd pleasers The Proclaimers for Friday and Folk super group The Imagined Village on Sunday.

It won’t just be Neil Hannon bringing the gift of the gab to Wychwood. The festival has also announced performance poet, songwriter and musician John Hegley. The poet laureate of comedy is booked for the a spoken word stage programmed by The New Internationalist magazine and Hammer & Tongue the stage will offer some of the best in performance poetry, satirical comedy and song.

Festival Director Graeme Merifield says, “We are getting very close to completing the line up now and it is all looking brilliant, and there is still more to come!”

Wychwood aims to be intimate and inclusive for audience and musician alike, blending world, roots, folk and contemporary music, and encouraging new collaborations, with an ethical bent to its theme, fundraising for Oxfam, Greenpeace, Amnesty International and Friends Of The Earth. And it’s the music here, which is a real winning combination where mainstream artists mix with new and local ones in a relaxed family friendly environment where boundaries between audience and performers blur.

Three hotly tipped headliners for The Doghouse at Wychwood have also been announced. They are Manchester’s answer to Arcade Fire, the Air Cav, East Lancashire’s blissed out psychedelic folksters The Loungs and rolling country folksters The Travelling Band.

Other new acts to be confirmed for the 3 day festival are Boston based upbeat rock band The Young Republic, Asian and London inspired singer songwriter Karen David, a little blues and soul with Marcus Bonfanti and the bad boys and Australian blues/jazz/folk fusionists Desperately not Yoko.

With eFestivals again as sponsor, there's expanded comedy in 2008 curated by Comedy Store Player Andy Smart, with performances from Phill Jupitus, Sean Lock, Dave Johns and Stephen Frost, Steve Steen, in a special 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' show on Saturday and Sunday and stand up from Perrier Award Nominee Jeff Green, Mundo Jazz and there's more comedy still to be announced.

The festival features over sixty bands, artists and DJs over many stages, and boasts a wide ranging and full programme of arts and crafts and workshops. There are over eighty workshops for all ages, which are given more room than any other festival in proportion to the size of the event. With music workshops, dancing, expressive arts, a solar-powered cinema, live comedy, healing fields, global food, lovely ales and lovely campsite on the racecourse itself with views of the Prestbury Hills.

Tickets are on sale, priced at £100 for an adult weekend ticket and £75 for a concession weekend ticket (there is also a new 2 for 1 Disabled ticket rate). Campervans are an extra £25. Children aged 11 and under and camping remain free, but need a ticket. To buy, click here or telephone the festival office on 01993 772580.

The festival will be reverting to the same camping set up as 2006, whereby you will be able to drive up to your camping pitch, and unload your camping gear right by where you are setting up. Then emptied cars must be driven off the campsite and to the car park. After the festival, you'll be able to drive back to your pitch to load up. Also returning in 2008 will be the silent disco, back by popular demand.

eFestivals is proud to sponsor the comedy at Wychwood Music Festival, as part of our commitment to support festivals - see here for more information.

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